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NSC Home Page > EUAS Contents > Out of class activities
EDUCATION
Out of class activities
"I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand"
Chinese proverb.If a picture tells a thousand words, then hands-on practical experience is worth a thousand pictures. Experience through field activity cannot only greatly enrich and extend classroom learning, but can pull together many otherwise apparently (to the student) unrelated strands of information into an holistic entity. This can apply from reception class in school, to post graduate study and continuing professional development. Although the potential value of fieldwork may be self evident to many, there are very real practical challenges to moving groups out of the classroom or off the college campus. These considerations are examined further in the Logistics Section of this report. This part of the report therefore looks at the broader picture of policies and attitudes towards fieldwork in education.
In the context of learning from the aggregates industry, well-organised field visits to operating or restored sites offer by far the most effective learning medium, especially where supported by quality materials for briefing or follow-up.
The NSC recently investigated for English Nature (3), the extent and type of fieldwork carried out by schools and colleges, in the context of geology. Whereas there is some degree of overlap with the present study, the aggregates offers some different opportunities and generally perhaps much broader scope for schools and colleges.
Fieldwork by Schools
Various attempts have been made to assess the extent to which schools and colleges engage in fieldwork. Estimates in the late 1980s suggested that 0.5 million pupil days (mostly 14-19 year olds) were spent on 'field visits' (18). This was then approximately equivalent to only one day's fieldwork for a single year group per school (in other words, now equivalent to a single day per student for the whole of his/her secondary school education).Whereas it is highly likely that, once the implementation of the NC had settled down (notwithstanding a number of radical revisions), by the mid 1990s, many teachers were sufficiently accustomed to it's working, to be able to accommodate fieldwork. Further curriculum changes, additional teaching and monitoring requirements and important logistical considerations from the late 1990s onwards appear highly likely to have reduced levels of participation particularly severely in secondary schools.
However contrary to this line of reasoning, in the late 1990s Hawley (19), suggested that the NC science and geography and 'increasing expectations of a fieldwork entitlement at higher education level' were likely to have increased levels significantly compared with the 1980s. Hawley (20) also separately commented that 'the benefits of learning through fieldwork are generally accepted as improving motivation, interest, knowledge, skills and understanding in pupils, and fieldwork can engender positive attitudes towards conservation and the environment'. Far from increasing, most of the anecdotal (e.g. in the form of closures of independent and LEA field study centres) and some survey evidence does imply that participation has fallen.
Although in schools, science offers by far the greatest number of significant topics where the aggregates industry could assist, science is not a subject which in recent years has used field experience as a conventional teaching medium. However, despite this, 'fieldwork' is in fact listed specifically in the National Curriculum (NC) (KS3 & 4) as one of the means of gathering data for scientific investigation. A possible exception is biology where some field measurements are usually taken as part of practical work. Chemistry and physics tend to be wholly laboratory-based.
A recent study by King (21) of 162 secondary science teachers in 1998 reinforces this low uptake. This indicated that at Key Stages (KS) 3-4, 80% of pupils studying science did no fieldwork at all and less than 5% did a day or half a day a year. It is probable that almost all of this very limited out-of-class experience was devoted to biology. There are of course exceptional teachers and schools which exploit fieldwork to the full across the science curriculum.
In geography, levels of fieldwork are likely to be greater but it is probable that much that will be geared to urban rather than rural or resource studies.
Very little fieldwork allied to the industry is undertaken as part of GNVQs; (despite the implications in its title for example, land based industries GNVQ is concerned mainly with agriculture and not all land based industries).
There are some most welcome signs that in schools, the tide might be about to turn. Recently a number of key organisations have expressed very significant reservations about the erosion of even the present minimal levels of fieldwork.
The National Association of Field Study Officers (NAFSO) have made known their concerns in a recent annual report. In addition, at the Field Studies Council conference in Dec 2003, the Real World Education Campaign was launched; Graham Wynn (CEO of RSPB, one of the six partners) challenged the government to commit to and support the place of out-of-classroom learning and called for a clear official statement on the subject. Schools minister Stephen Twigg, responding at the same event said 'Education should never be restricted to the classroom and I'm very keen for pupils to get outdoors because there are so many excellent learning opportunities for children of all ages'. He agreed to pursue dialogue with those bodies concerned and to look at the issue of teacher training in this respect.
In the same vein, the DfES has launched 'Growing Schools', describes as 'a major government programme to harness the full potential of the outdoor classroom as a teaching and learning resource'. Funded by the DfES, the London Science Learning Centre is also investigating professional development for teachers in relation to fieldwork. In this connection, the DfES-sponsored website teachernet states:
'We want all pupils to experience the outdoor classroom as a regular and integrated part of their learning throughout their life at school. Practical hands on learning in the outdoors provides a valuable dimension to personalised learning, giving relevance and the opportunity for pupils' 'naturalistic ' intelligences to be engaged'.
A dedicated 'Growing Schools' website is to be launched shortly. There is clearly considerable scope for the industry to become a partner in this new network of initiatives.
In addition, there are a number of other themes which may indirectly encourage greater levels of work outside the classroom (for more details see Changes and Trends in Education):
There is growing concern about the health and in particular obesity in children and the consequent need for more exercise. Whereas this can be delivered through sport, outdoor activity in general may be seen as another means of achieving this end.
Secondly, as part of 'citizenship' activity in the community, such as volunteering and Duke of Edinburgh Awards, is encouraged.
Thirdly, the government are considering promoting summer camps (as in the USA) offering 'outward bound type activities to all students at some stage in their school lives. Similarly, after-school, holiday or lunchtime interest groups and clubs are being encouraged, although some of these initiatives are intended to address the concerns about high levels of truancy and may actually result in more pupils being confined to school premises and external work being restricted.
Through PSHE and other subjects, all pupils are encouraged to undertake out of school work experience. DfES have issued several publications containing guidance for employers and schools about work experience, copies of which can be obtained via tel 0845 6022260 fax 0845 6033360 or e-mail dfes@prologistics.co.uk. (quote SPD/WES/01/1199 (rev)).
Finally, if the Tomlinson Report is taken up, the move towards the preparation of projects/dissertations could underpin the need for more fieldwork in general.
Field work in Higher Education
In the higher education sector, the trend towards more 'cost effective' courses has placed such considerable pressure upon budgets (of both course providers and students) that even a number of geoscience courses involve very little or no fieldwork. Indeed some colleges are understood to use software in as a substitute for field experience. In contrast, fieldwork can be usefully augmented by interactive software; a number of institutions have worked together in this regard to produce such material as part of the UK Earth Science Courseware Consortium. In particular, some electronic packages are designed to test a student's awareness of health and safety issues and how to respond to them, before they are allowed to participate in fieldwork.With the co-operation of CHUGD members, a short survey was carried out into the use of quarries by University geoscience departments (as a proxy for higher education in general). In addition, comments on the same range of questions were received from a number of individual lecturers.
About a quarter of departments responded. Groups or individuals from each establishment visited quarries on average 3-12 times annually. In some cases the greatest frequency of visits was by staff; in others undergraduate groups were the main users. The majority responded by indicating that visits to quarries in genreal for study were 'important' to 'vital'. Similarly, most felt that access to working quarries was essential; however a minority did not share this view and considered that former quarries adequately served their purpose ( there was a hint here that staff saw this as a means of avoiding complicated discussions over liability and insurance). Most had very good working relationships with quarry companies and very few access problems - there were occasional and notable exceptions. A number pointed to the logistical safety issues surrounding undergraduate students carrying out their independent field projects - most did not allow such of their students to visit working quarries alone, unless accompanied by a member of the company staff (companies as a general rule would not in any case permit access which was not directly supervised).
Specific course/module areas covered in quarry visits were very wide ranging from including applied geology, construction raw materials, mineral property valuation, resource estimation, environmental geology, Earth science conservation, physical resources, sedimentology.