The Journal of The Korean Association of Geographic and Environmental Education ISSN:1226-511X(Print) 2586-5641(Online) 한국지리환경교육학회지

This study examined the knowledge covered in “exchange” lessons and the didactic transposition of the knowledge performed by pre-service elementary teachers. The achievement standards for “exchanges” were presented in the curriculum originated from different academic knowledge backgrounds. The content on exchange is presented in two separate units of the textbook, which are repeated twice within the same semester. In-service teachers may reorganize the curriculum to integrate the overlapping content and learning activities. On the other hand, pre-service teachers have no room to critically interpret and reorganize the curriculum in a given lesson. In addition, most of the exchanges presented in the textbooks are not in line with the principles of environmental expansion in elementary social studies because they have a scale that is beyond the students’ residence. The pre-service teachers were able to keep students active and engaged in their classes, taking into account their interests and readiness. However, they lacked content knowledge, such as creating learning materials that were limited to the “concept” of the place of origin or that were aligned with the principles of academic knowledge, and tended to focus on organizing students’ learning activities rather than the geographical facts presented in the textbook. Therefore, it is necessary to improve teaching professional development programs for pre-service teachers to acquire content knowledge and translate it into pedagogical practices, and to expand communication opportunities between pre-service teachers and experts of the subjects. In addition, efforts should be made by the entire geography education community to closely examine the curriculum and textbooks that are the basis for teaching and to improve the suitability in the didactic transposition of the curriculum content.