As an important approach to cultivating core competencies in geography,problem-based teaching has been widely practiced in frontline classrooms. By examining typical teaching cases from four dimensions—teaching objectives, procedures, organizational forms, and methods—it is found that current problem-based teaching in geography has generally devolved into “geographical problem chain teaching”: the context is clear, but the core problem remains vague. While the form aligns with curriculum standards, the underlying logic still follows the knowledge transmission paradigm.In practice, issues such as the structuring of knowledge oriented toward competency goals, the superfi cial use of context creation, problem inquiry, and collaborative organization are prominent, and student autonomy is limited. To truly realize the value of problembased teaching in geography for cultivating core competencies, there is an urgent need to promote a dual shift in teachers’ cognition and practice, bridging the logical gap between abstract competency cultivation and concrete teaching operations.