Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Environmental perceptionPalmberg and Pupu (2000) consider how outdoor activities may support the developmentof environmental responsibility in young people. For the first time in 2004teachers included an activity where children had time to quietly sit on the beach tolook, listen and think. They had prepared for this in literacy lessons and back in schoolused the experiences of this quiet time to write a poem. Comparing the 2003 and 2004data, there is a clear trend to more accurate descriptions, wider use of geographicalvocabulary and a greater sense of involvement in the fieldwork (Greig, 2000). This isanother aspect of the research that could be followed up in more depth. Observationof the fieldwork did not provide evidence of teachers forcing environmental issueson pupils, but one pupil wrote, when describing his drawings of creatures found onthe beach “this is a sea creature that have a habbitat on the beach thats why we haveto pick up rubbish and look after this butiful place” (boy.10). It may be difficult tomeasure, but perhaps fieldwork can raise pupils’ awareness of the environment andtheir own feelings about places.Implications for teacher trainingAnalysis of the 2004 data suggests that primary school pupils are aware of someof the varied experiences they have when taking part in geographical fieldwork.A parallel research project (Halocha, 2005) into geography student teachers’ understandingof fieldwork supports these findings in that they report greater awarenessof both what and how pupils learn in education outside the classroom. However, fewstudents currently on initial teacher training courses in England have the opportunityto experience, let alone analyse, the teaching and learning that can occur. If timeconstraints continue on such courses, it may be appropriate for tutors in subjectssuch as geography, history and science where fieldwork is used, to provide someexperience of some generic activities and discussion of research to ensure that futuregenerations of primary school teachers are aware of how fieldwork can help pupilsdevelop both intellectually and socially.ConclusionThe 120 pieces of pupils’ ideas offer a fascinating insight into both what they mayhave learned from the visit and how they choose to express this. Although they weregiven an open-ended task, the research assistant did note that some pupils may havepreferred to talk about their understanding of the visit. There is no sense in whichthis paper suggests that the research method described is a complete and accuratemeans of evaluating pupils’ understanding of fieldwork activities. Rather, it raisesquestions about how we can begin to understand how pupils living in the twentyfirst century who constantly experience versions of the world presented to them viaelectronic, virtual images, whether they be TV, video, computer games, cameraphones or websites, actually perceive and interpret real world fieldwork opportunitiesprovided for them (Matthews, 1992).Observations in the field and analysis of pupils’ work suggests that pupils maydevelop more complex map reading and making skills if these can be planned into36