TOPIC

morphology)

Changing Urban Environments (urban

YOUR NAME

Kelly Butler (Geography Teacher)

INSTITUTION

Stafford Grammar School

DESCRIPTION
This is a topic on the GCSE Geography examination (for 16 year olds
in England). The examination specification calls the topic Changing
Urban Environments. It is a popular topic with both pupils and
teachers. I think this is because it increases awareness and builds on
existing knowledge of the immediate environment.

Figure 1 Extract
from the AQA GCSE
Specification

To allow pupils to gain an appreciation of the different functional

parts of the urban environment a day trip was planned. This took in a
visit each of the functional areas.
In preparing for the visit students investigated two models of urban
land use: Burgess Model (which foregrounds social processes) and
Hoyt Model (which foregrounds economic processes). The aim of the
day trip was to investigate how land use varied in different areas of
the town and to compare this to the models.
On the trip it became clear to the students that the town didnt fit
the concentric rings of the Burgess model. Pupils explored how lines
of transport had altered Stafford significantly, along with the
floodplains of the River Sow.

After trip results were

collated. Various forms of
primary data had been
gathered including:
environmental quality
surveys, pedestrian counts,
traffic counts, field sketches
and photographs.
This was complimented by
secondary data of house
prices and land use maps.
The students assessed to
Figure Stafford Central Business District
what extent Stafford fits the
land use models. The best
students were able to show they had understood, applied and
assessed theoretical models whilst engaging with the real physical
and human geography of their own local area.
DISCUSSION
Learning about Stafford is not powerful disciplinary knowledge (PDK).
Memorizing the Burgess Model (as if it were a fact) is not PDK.
What makes this powerful disciplinary knowledge is the process of
understanding and systematically examining an urban environment.
In this case, the models or generalizations encourage abstract
thought. Furthermore the students are forced to merge this abstract,
theoretical knowledge with a real (unique) place: this is very
sophisticated geographical thinking. These young geographers will
move on to examining cities, mega-cities on an international scale.
A model conceptualizes how the development of urban areas can
occur according to social, economic and political process. The
geographer accepts that such generalized processes are limited, and
are usually shaped and constrained by local unique factors - e.g.
topography, natural resources.