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Learning through the class survey: pre-fieldwork locale familiarisation exercises

Contact details

Dr. John H. McKendrick
Centre for Research on Families and Relationships
23 Buccleuch Place
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
EH8 9LN
Tel: 0775-998-5508 / 0131-651-1940
Fax: 0131-651-1833 / 01292-220045
Email: : jmckndrk@aol.com / j.mckendrick@ed.ac.uk

Also involved are:
Dr. Elizabeth Mooney
Dr. Chris McWilliams
School of Law and Social Sciences
Glasgow Caledonian University

Classification Category

• Developing student appreciation of research in the discipline.
• Using teaching and learning processes which simulate research processes (e.g. project-based modules, dissertation modules, problem based learning etc).
  

Context

• Course/unit/module title: Practising Geography: The Isle of Bute Module
• Course title: Geography subject pathway within the BA Social Sciences degree
• Level 2 in Scotland (4 years Honours Degree)

What does the teacher do?

Fieldwork and residential field courses are an integral part of geographical education. However, concerns have been expressed that fieldwork, and in particular residential fieldwork, is detached from class-based learning. By requiring students to complete two introductory surveys at the outset of the module - a 'place perception' survey and a visitor attraction/place awareness/experience survey - the detachment of fieldwork from university-based teaching can be addressed. Most importantly, this has the added benefits of 'personalising' the field course for each student, preparing them for fieldwork and raising their enthusiasm for, and awareness of, the field location in advance of the field visit.

The exercise comprises five elements:

1. On arrival at the first class meeting to prepare students for the field visit, each student is immediately asked to complete a short place perception survey. The first page of the survey consists of two open-ended word association questions in which students 'brainstorm' to write a list of words they associate with 'Rothesay' (the main town on the island the students visit) and 'island life'. The second page of the survey is a list of 25 word pairings (e.g. urban and rural); each student must select which of each pair s/he identifies most closely with 'the Isle of Bute'.
2. Immediately after the place perception survey has been completed, each student is asked to complete and a visitor attraction/place awareness/experience survey. This collects profile information for each student and asks student to indicate whether for (i) each visitor attraction on the island and (ii) every locality on the island, they have (a) visited/partaken of it (b) heard of it (c) never heard of it.
3. The lecturer converts the two surveys into a quantitative dataset and a qualitative dataset, analyses data and produces coursework exemplars using these data.
4. The surveys are returned to students. Each student's survey is annotated with comment from the lecturers which encourages them to reflect on some of their responses, e.g. where there are inconsistencies in the word association exercise.
5. The coursework exemplars are distributed to students as 'models of good practice'. This resource assists students in the preparation of their own coursework. The whole process is a mini-research project, which has 'involved' the students.

The lecturer performs 6 tasks. Starred items indicate resources that may be provided on request:

1. *Designs a 'place perception survey' and a 'visitor attraction/place awareness/experience survey, which focus on the field 'locality'
2. Administers the survey with students, preferably in class
3. Processes the survey data
4. Analyses the survey database
5. *Produces outputs using data from the student surveys in the coursework form which will be required of students later in the module (for StuP the surveys were used to produce a teachers' resource pack and a briefing paper)
6. Arranges for the distribution of 'sample coursework' exemplars to students in advance of the field course.

This case study was developed as a part of the StuP project (STUdent Publishing of fieldwork geography). StuP is a self-contained project that supports undergraduate geography students to publish briefing papers and teachers' resource packs on the environment/geography of the Isle of Bute. It is funded by LTSN-GEES.

Hot tips and things to look out for

• Write to us and ask us to send you the StuP resources! The production of these resources has been time-consuming and, under the terms of the GEES project grant, they are being now being made available for adaption/adoption in other institutions.
• Common pitfalls in [student] production of briefing papers and teachers' resource packs have been identified. Although written for students and non-academic referees of students' work, they may be of assistance in the preparation of these coursework. These are detailed on the 'Guidance Notes for Referees'.
• Strike a balance between swift return of surveys to students and the time that is required to produce the outputs. As these are resources which inform the fieldwork preparatory process, lecturers should aim to disseminate the outputs to students in advance of the field visit.
  
  

Does it work?

The case study is not formally evaluated.

Anecdotal and indirect evidence point strongly to the utility of the exercise. First, the exercise is designed to encourage students - at the outset - to reflect on their pre-conceptions and awareness/experience of the field location. The act of completing the surveys ensures that this takes place, and is further encouraged by the return of the surveys with points to consider added by lecturers. Thus, at the very least, students are made to actively engage with the field locality from the outset. Second, the exercise provides lecturers with useful information on the students' understanding and experience, which informs how the module is delivered. For example, there is (i) widespread conflation of Rothesay (the main town) with the island of Bute. This has emphasised the need for lecturers to raise awareness of wider (beyond Rothesay) island issues (ii) an age divide in experience with older students (of which there are a high proportion at Glasgow Caledonian) having more experience and greater awareness; thus, older students can be paired with younger students in groupwork to encourage a 'meeting of minds' (iii) on the whole, levels of awareness of even the most prominent island attractions is very low. This has emphasised the need for lecturers not to assume as common knowledge much information that might otherwise have been taken-for-granted. Finally, the surveys are used to produce sample outputs of the type of coursework that students must complete for the module, i.e. a briefing paper and a teachers' resource pack. As this is the first time that these students have been asked to complete this type of coursework, these are useful resources which demonstrate how these outputs can be produced from small-scale research. More generally, the guidance notes for this coursework (of which the sample copies are part) are well-received: from a post-module survey of 40 students (71% response rate) 76% of students perceive these to be either 'very useful' or 'useful', with a further 19% considering these to be 'useful in parts'.

What problems/issues have arisen?

The production of the outputs from the two familiarisation surveys is very time-consuming. Furthermore, although much less demanding after the first year, there is still a workload of 1-2 days for processing data, analysing data, updating outputs and arranging for printing/dissemination.

The scale of the field locality (a small island with a population of ca. 8,000) may render a comprehensive attraction/place survey a realistic proposition. A different approach may be necessary for larger field localities.

Details of support material/course work/assessment methods

StuP has been conceived as a demonstration project for LTSN-GEES in the UK. A key objective of this project was to make the project resources available for lecturers to adopt/adapt in other departments of geography, earth and environmental sciences.

Given the need to tailor the surveys to the field locality, it is as likely that GEES colleagues would want to design their own questionnaire surveys. However, the Project Team are prepared to forward copies of the surveys used for the Isle of Bute to GEES colleagues on request. Contact Dr. McKendrick for more details.

More generally, resources to assist in the production of formatted briefing papers and teachers' resource packs can be downloaded as Microsoft Word files from the 'Resources to Download' sub-section of the StuP section of the module website.

• Briefing Paper Template (Mail Merge Master and Data File) and User Notes. These files can be used by students for manual (cut and paste) or automatic (mail merge function) formatting of text into briefing paper style.
• Exemplar. An example of a briefing paper. Authored by Dr. John McKendrick and utilising data from a questionnaire survey of students' perceptions of the Isle of Bute and island/rural living, which was undertaken in advance of a field visit to the island. This is Briefing Paper 1.
• Teachers' Resource Pack Template (Mail Merge Master and Data File) and User Notes. These files can be used by students for manual (cut and paste) or automatic (mail merge function) formatting of text into briefing paper style.
• Exemplar. An example of a teachers' resource pack. Authored by Dr. John McKendrick and utilising data from a questionnaire survey of students' awareness and experience of the Isle of Bute and places/attractions therein, which was undertaken in advance of a field visit to the island. This is Teachers' Resource Pack Number 1.
  

Relevant references

More information on the StuP project can be found within the StuP pages of the module website at Glasgow Caledonian University.