Students' Perceptions of Geography: Decision making at age 14

Geography is a popular optional subject choice in England and Wales at age 14 but between 1996 and 2006 numbers entering for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examination declined by 29.4%. The literature on possible factors influencing this fall in numbers is reviewed in this article and the reasons for change discussed. The decline in numbers appears to be due to a complex interaction between individual students' perceptions of geography, the quality of teaching and learning in geography departments, and whole-school option choice systems. A framework that maps these interactions is proposed.The article also reviews the literature on students' perception of geography, and discusses the influence of three main factors on subject choice, namely interest, usefulness and success. The developing literature on interest provides a conceptual framework for analysing the findings from different authors who have used different methodologies and focused on different aspects of students' perceptions of geography.