What is Field-Based Learning?
In field-based learning, teaching is extended to a site outside of the classroom or laboratory, exposing students to a real-world setting. Students learn though direct interaction with an environment that reflects taught concepts rather than learning through indirect presentations of the setting such as textbooks or lectures.
Queens’ Bader International Study Centre (ISC) at Herstmonceux Castle in Essex, U.K., uses field based learning as an essential part of the curriculum.
Why use Field-Based Learning?
Field-based learning may serve a diverse range of teaching aims and goals as students are provided with a perspective of materials, objects or phenomena that are not accessible in, or fully appreciated through, other settings.
Field-based learning is generally chosen because the experience:
provides an opportunity to present materials, objects or phenomena that are not accessible otherwise to students in a way that enables direct contact and interaction
provides students with an opportunity to practice skills or techniques that cannot be carried out elsewhere
stimulates higher understanding and reinforcement of previously learned classroom material
stimulates an appreciation for, concern or valuing of the visited environment
(Lonergan, N. & Andresen, L.W (1988) field-based education: some theoretical considerations. Higher Education Research & Development, 7 (1) 63-77.)
Field-Based Learning Teaching Strategies
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When teaching one-day field studies: |
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Prepare Students Establish the basic narrative/description elements of the material to be studied on the field study before the trip takes place (via lecture, handout, etc.). Point students toward any useful resources to gain important foundational knowledge. This strategy allows for more time to be spent on deeper and more analytical and evaluative thinking when on-site. |
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Foster Awareness Teach and Foster a self-conscious awareness on the site. Many students may be unaware of the history, significance or background of a site that is necessary for critical consideration of the environment that their learning is taking place in. |
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Engage Encourage students to ask questions of guides, to interact with the site and its environment, and to chat with other visitors. What, for instance, do local visitors say about the site? Do they react notably differently to your group? Why? |
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Provoke Meta-Learning Have students think about how what they experienced at the site complicates or contradicts what they have read or discussed in class. How might they account for any such differences? How does the medium of learning affect their conclusions? |
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Build Upon Learning Leave time for discussion on site while the issues are fresh; always follow up field studies with a discussion in class once students have has time to reflect on their experiences. |
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Illustrate Concepts Try, where it is useful, to find new or slightly oblique ways to teach concepts. For example, a Literature and Philosophy class on the theorizations of subjectivity visits a gallery specializing in contemporary British conceptual art to address the core issues of the course visually rather the textually. |
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Assess Inform students of upcoming assignments/assessments on what they learn during their field studies. This will help students to check in on their learning throughout their trip and to ensure they are learning what they need to. |
Resources for Field-Based Learning
Articles and Books
Atchinson, C. L., & Feig, A. D. (2011). Theoretical perspectives on constructing experience through alternative field-based learning environments for students with mobility impairments. In, A. D. Feig & A. Stokes (Eds), Qualitative Inquiry in Geoscience Education Research (Special Paper 474). Boulder, CO: The Geological Society of America Inc.
Bogo, Marion (2010). Achieving competence in social work through field education. University of Toronto Press.