Learning in the Field—A Conceptual Approach to Field-Based Learning in Geography

Abstract

Fieldwork has been considered a hallmark of geographical education by teachers and researchers alike. In the literature review by Kent et al. (1997) on the issue of the effectiveness and importance of fieldwork in geographical education, field studies were found to provide the integration of the theoretical with practical concepts taught in the classrooms. Also, Kent et al. (1997) proposed that fieldwork is commonly accepted as a process that encourages holistic geographical understanding of issues. However, some school teachers commonly conduct fieldwork as field trips where they are in reality just tours or excursions (Chang and Ooi 2008). Students remain largely passive and assume the roles of tourists. Inevitably, these field trips can be less academic, as students are not deeply engaged in the fieldwork process (Brown 1969). On the other hand, properly organized and academically well-articulated field trips can provide students with learning experiences, comparative knowledge, critical understanding as well as skills that are important to an understanding of the world around them (Kent et al. 1997). In practice, many of the fieldwork activities conducted by teachers fall somewhere in the middle on both dimensions. This chapter provides a conceptualization of how an effective field learning experience can be conducted. With a literature review of the range of practices across contexts, the chapter will then uncover steps to identify the issue in the field under study and develop a question, to gather and collect data, to process and reorganize the data, and to reflect and make sense of the information collected. While this simple approach is common to most inquiry-based learning, it provides a clear framework for teachers to conduct meaningful learning of geography in the field.