Learning for yourself in the company of others

1
Learning for yourself in the company of others

• How do students develop their knowledge and
  understanding of Environmental Studies in the
  PGDE(P) Programme?
• How can this be facilitated effectively?

2
Problem

• How to navigate the 5-14 Guidelines for
  Environmental Studies 7 attainment outcomes, 26
  strands, skills and values and dispositions
• How engender positive dispositions towards
  learning outside the classroom?

3
Role of Fieldwork

• Situated Learning
• Meaningful and active participation
• Opportunity for collaborative learning
• Encourages discussion
• Independent learning
• Task was deliberately open - ended

4
JEROME BRUNER

• Ways of mentally representing the world
• Enactive understanding by doing
• Iconic understanding by using maps, diagrams
  and pictures
• Symbolic understanding through spoken and written
  language and other forms of notation e.g.
  mathematical, musical or dance.
• (Active minds, Possible Worlds, (1986) Cambridge,
  MA, Harvard Univ Press)

5
Design and purpose of Fieldwork

• task based on theories derived from a broad scope
  of environmental education literature (Palmer
  (1998), Roberts (2003), Catling (2005) and Falk
  (2005))
• designed to encourage students to become
  confident in using outdoor contexts for learning
  and teaching in their future practice
• learning knowledge and skills through practice
• Based on premise that distance students will be
  able to work within a Pedagogy that focus on the
  development of autonomy, self direction core and
  transferrable skills. (Edwards, 2003 55)
• Supported by Aberdeen Environmental Education
  Centres Exploring Buildings pack.

6
Collaboration and Discussion

• Problems of translating campus fieldwork task
  into distance fieldwork task.
• Full time students worked in groups and met in
  tutorials
• Part time students worked individually and met
  on-line.

7

• Discussion Board
• Informal discussion with peers
• Queries asked and answered
• Support for one another
• Exchange of ideas/presentations
• Presentation of Findings
• Reflections of process of fieldwork
• Formal evaluations and reflections of experience
  of task written for tutor

8
Queries

• Practical queries relating to where to find
  information on WebCt
• Understanding tutor expectations
• Where to find resources

9
Support exchange of ideas

• Giving positive comments
• Extending ideas
• Helps to review own work in relation to others

10
Student experience of problem based learning

• Beginnings
• Avis and Fisher (2006 144) the model of
  educational encounters that underpins communities
  of practice is one marked by dialogue,
  uncertainty and contradiction..
• Uncertainty of task, reflected in Part time
  discussion thread, and in formal submission of
  reflection of process of fieldwork and in full
  time evaluation of experience of fieldwork task.

11
Role of discussion board and reflective tasks

• Discussion board approximates to synchronicity,
  you are aware of learning unfolding in shared
  environment
• Reflective task asynchronous, students have time
  to reflect on whole experience and evaluate their
  own learning

12

• Dialogic space through the WebCT discussion board
  afforded an effective place for students to talk
  to each other, but was one in which I was
  uncomfortable to enter.
• My contact with students was at a remove through
  WebCt curriculum pages for Environmental Studies
  and through occasional email correspondence.
• My non-contact is partly a barrier, but has also
  served to allow students to converse freely on
  the discussion board and solve their own
  problems, calling on me when needed.

13
What has fieldwork achieved?

• Based on 13/25 presentation of findings posted on
  the PT PGDE(P) discussion board
• Has helped students to navigate the Environmental
  Studies Guidelines, 3 explicitly regarded it as
  excellent and 6 referred to it being enjoyable. 8
  explicitly expressed that they now have an
  appreciation of the width of its coverage
• 9 students explicitly referred to their greater
  understanding of cross curricular links
  particularly with language, maths and ICT

14

• 5 students explicitly referred to their greater
  understanding of the degree of planning and
  organisation which is need for effective
  fieldwork
• 3 students expressed their initial uncertainty
  regarding the nature of the task

15
Ways of Learning and organising and sharing
knowledge

• Recognising the importance of taking a closer
  interest in surroundings
• Feeling more connected to the atmosphere of the
  street while sitting doing a leaf rubbing than
  fro taking photographs
• .. that school children would be presenting such
  a survey through a physical display with models
  of buildings, items found in the street,
  drawings, rubbings etc..

16

• As I walked round Bridge Street using my camera
  to take notes,I found the more I looked the
  more I found. I became aware of
• - the beautiful old buildings and works of art
• - the thriving economy
• - the multicultural environment
• - the modern pace of life
• the needs of the modern world
• the technological developments
• the current issues,environmental and others
• the responsibilities we have to each other
• This task provides opportunities for work not
  only in environmental studies but also expressive
  arts and RME.It is a good activity that covers
  several of the attainment outcomes and provides
  practice in the skills of preparing ,carrying
  out and presenting tasks.
• This task covered the outcomes for social
  subjects and technology.
• I have learned a little about my own towns
  history and I think a street transect would make
  a good project for Middle Stages especially if
  done in the local environment, and could be
  extended into other curricular areas.I could use
  my street survey to research the use of the
  street in the past , assess its continuity over
  time and the effect historical changes has had
  on the people and the street.