What if…we ask the geographers why? (videos)
Written February 2026
What if… we asked the geographer why they are showing the video clip?
For non-specialist observers and line managers, it can be easy to assume that the geography department uses too many videos. It can be easy to assume that teacher exposition would be a more effective use of lesson time and that the clip has been selected with little thought beyond ‘I’m teaching waterfalls, I’ll show a video.’
From posts on social media and my own time in schools, I sense that these assumptions are, in many places, becoming more common. Recently I’ve seen posts online where geographers are being told not to use videos and, in extreme cases, being told they cannot use any videos in their lessons.
So, I wanted to take a step back and think about why we use videos in geography and ponder how the situation would be different if, rather than assume the geographer shouldn’t be using the video, the non-specialist asked the geographer why they’re showing the video.
One of our biggest challenges when teaching geography is to make abstract concepts and processes more concrete for students. Let’s use the example of teaching how a waterfall forms. We need students to have a concrete mental image of what a waterfall looks like before we can ask them to explain its formation, explain how it might continue to change over time and then use this knowledge to draw a labelled 2D diagram of these processes.
Yes, in a few contexts, you might be able to assume that all of your class have seen a waterfall in real life but, in the vast majority of schools, this assumption cannot be made. Hence, we need the visuals. We need to show students what a waterfall looks like; we need to show the water flowing over the overhang and its erosive power as it reaches the plunge pool. We need students to see how this continually erodes the rock away and, over time, creates a gorge. We need to make these abstract concepts concrete. Photos can achieve some of this but, in my experience, a clip is undoubtedly a more effective and efficient use of lesson time- it’s a struggle to show the continual movement of the water in a still image. If you’re interested, this is my go-to video for teaching waterfalls.
Now, of course, that is not to say that all video clips shown in geography lessons are high quality. In many cases, it would be better for the teacher to do a high-quality explanation with a diagram and images. You probably don’t need a video clip to explain the concept of development (I’m sorry to say that most of the videos available for this are probably a waste of time when used in class). You probably don’t need a video to teach the Demographic Transition Model or to explain the concept of urbanisation. Where these are being used, it is more than possible that the teacher is simply using them because they were ‘on the system’ or ‘in the slides’ and it’s more than possible that the teacher hasn’t considered the critical question: is this resource actually enhancing my teaching?
However, as I said at the beginning, as an outsider looking in (likely from the corridor) it is too easy to make an over-simplistic assumption that the geography departments use ‘too many’ videos. Let’s avoid this and instead encourage our geographers to look critically at how and why they use video clips and other resources. Is this a resource that enhances the teaching of this content? What is the intended purpose of this resource? Is this resource actually achieving this purpose?
This is something I’ve been working in with teachers across Future Academies and below is the guidance shared in our curriculum documentation:
We know that showing video clips that lack purpose can be a common pitfall in many geography classrooms. We must therefore always think carefully about the purpose of a video clip shown in our lessons. Our starting point at Future Academies is that teacher exposition is, more often than not, a better and a more effective use of lesson time.
However, there are of course points in our geography curriculum where a video clip is purposeful and worthwhile. The most frequent justification for showing a clip is when it helps us to overcome one of our biggest challenges when teaching geography: to make abstract concepts and processes more concrete for students.
Let’s consider the example of teaching how a waterfall forms. We need students to have a concrete mental image of what a waterfall looks like before we can ask them to explain its formation, explain how it might continue to change over time and then use this knowledge to draw a labelled 2D diagram of these processes. In most of our classrooms, we can’t assume that all of the class have seen a waterfall in real life and so a high-quality clip helps us show students what a waterfall looks like, how the water flows over the overhang and how its erosive power creates a plunge pool. Whilst photos can achieve some of this, a high-quality video clip is likely the most effective and efficient use of lesson time (it’s a struggle to show the continual movement of water in a still image). In this example, the use of the video-clip is purposeful: it is making the abstract more concrete.
When using a video in our Future Academies geography curriculum, we therefore adhere to the following principles:
We carefully consider the purpose of showing the video clip by asking: what is the intended purpose of using this clip? How does it enhance the teaching of this content and go beyond what can be achieved through teacher exposition?
Checks for listening and checks for understanding at pre-planned intervals throughout the clip are used to ensure key concepts and knowledge from the video is understood.
The teacher remains standing at the front of the room where they can continually scan the room and reenforce the expectations of 100% engagement.
The video is used to inform, or applied to, a written task after the clip is watched.