Or how to do fieldwork on the cheap…… Changing place; changing places: ideas for the A level personal investigation Or how to do fieldwork on the cheap…… Rob Morris, Educational Consultant

What are the challenges facing your school or department with regard to fieldwork? Take a few minutes to discuss this

Challenges Persuading SLT….... Rarely Cover Budget problems SLT wants to drop A level Geography due to cost implications Fieldwork in school holiday or weekends Plagarism Virtual Fieldwork Referencing Risk assessments Completion dates When and how much guidance can be given? Fieldwork model – individual days or residential?

Fieldwork can be expensive; money is in short supply Fieldwork can be expensive; money is in short supply. If money can be saved by cutting down fieldwork programmes, that cutting down will be considered. Fieldwork makes demands on school timetables which can be inconvenient; and school timetables become more intricate and intractable year by year… Editorial, Teaching Geography Vol. 2, No. 2, November 1976

Local Issues

Early 1980s – Schools Council 16-19 Geography Project First A Level Geography Course to require an individual investigation – 25% of the marks

Early 1980s – Austerity, lack of money in schools, large class sizes at A level

Solution – Local issues fieldwork Known at the time as ‘Framework Fieldwork’ Framed around a people-environment question, issue or problem that asked questions about matters of social and environmental concern. Data collection was largely quantitative but with some early attempts at qualitative fieldwork like environmental quality surveys.

Great Homer Street, Liverpool

Kirkby, Liverpool

West Drayton, Greater London

House prices have risen by an average 340% since 2000 Example: My 3 bedroomed mid-terraced house purchased in 1989 for £85,000 Sold in 2000 for £122,000 Sold in January 2017 for £415,000

A new approach to Fieldwork? GIS and NEW TECHNOLOGIES Qualitative Quantitative Primary Secondary RESEARCH Source: Edexcel

Reflecting on learning Making sense Creating a need to know Asking questions to: Identify issues / problems Be creative Hypothesise Make links with existing geographical knowledge Using data Using primary & secondary data to: Locate / contextualise the enquiry Collect evidence Select evidence Represent the evidence Reflecting on learning To be critical in relation to: Data sources Techniques used / sampling strategies Stakeholder views How the enquiry could be improved The value of what was learnt Making sense Query the evidence to: Analyse Recognise relationships Reach conclusions Make decisions / solve problems Relate findings to existing knowledge The enquiry process is iterative and cyclical. Students learn to be reflective and increasingly independent the more times they are involved in it which is a strong argument for planning progressively more complex fieldwork enquiry opportunities during key stage 3, GCSE and A level. It is certainly a strong argument for providing more than one fieldwork opportunity during the student’s GCSE course. The enquiry process helps learners to think like a geographer because it actively engages students in making decisions about: What they are investigating and how this relates to their wider understanding of geographical principles and concepts; Valid ways to conduct their investigation; Appropriate ways to present their findings; How to analyse their findings and evaluate their own actions. Students may be involved in the enquiry process at a number of points and across a range of scales. At a simple level, they may be involved in choosing questions for a questionnaire or selecting a sampling size. However, they may also be involved at a deeper level, identifying wider concepts and processes that may form the basis of the enquiry, posing enquiry questions or planning a sampling strategy. The enquiry process builds student independence. Students need to be involved in the enquiry process from start to finish if they are going to become reflective learners who are able to apply the enquiry process to new situations e.g. at A level or undergraduate level. Where teachers instead of students make initial decisions about a fieldwork task (decisions about what to investigate, why they are investigating it and how to structure the enquiry) students will not necessarily learn how to apply these new skills themselves at a later date. Controlled assessments are time controlled but other fieldwork opportunities do not need to be. We need to take the pressure of time out of the equation and involve learners in planning the enquiry long before they enter the field. Once at the field site, observation of a field site could allow students to begin to consider the evidence. A pilot survey can be used to enquire about some data. From these initial surveys questions can be raised (the green arrow). ‘We need to allow time for students to explore new information and to relate it to what they already know: making sense is not an instant process.’ Margaret Roberts Nick Lapthorn will suggest some strategies for engaging learners more actively in the early phases of the enquiry process. Source: Margaret Roberts

Closed task Framed enquiry Independent Investigation Questions A task is presented. Questions are not explicit. Enquiry questions are selected by teacher but are explicit. Students decide enquiry questions, framed by teacher input. Data Decisions about fieldwork procedure are made by teachers. Data is presented as authoritative evidence. Decisions about fieldwork procedure are made largely by teachers. Data is presented as information to be interpreted. Students are involved in key decisions about fieldwork procedure and data sources. Making sense Activities devised by teacher to achieve pre-determined objectives. Students follow instructions. Methods of representation are open to discussion and choice. Analysis is independent. Students independently analyse evidence and make decisions / reach conclusions. Reflection Predictable outcomes. Students discuss what they have learnt; different outcomes. Students consider the validity of evidence / reliability of data and methods. This diagram, based on one presented by Margaret Roberts, indicates the degree of independence (columns) of the student at each stage of the enquiry process (rows). The diagram represents a continuum between tasks that have been set by the teacher on the left and an enquiry process that is driven by the learner on the right. Learners will demonstrate progression if their fieldwork enquiries are characterised by increasing independence as they move across the diagram from left to right. Students working in the left hand column may demonstrate competence in a number of geographical skills including data collection, recording and representation. But, since they have not been involved in making wider decisions about what to investigate, why they are investigating it and how to structure the enquiry they will struggle to draw wider conclusions about how the field site relates to wider geographical concepts or processes. Furthermore, this limited involvement in the enquiry process means that the student has limited ability to evaluate the process of learning and will therefore make limited progress next time they conduct a fieldwork enquiry. There is evidence that some teachers over structure fieldwork experiences for their students in this way at both GCSE and A level. The current model of controlled assessment tends to result in outcomes in the middle column. However, there is evidence that some teachers create over-elaborate structures (the closed task column). If this is the case, one might ask how much of the assessment is of the individual candidate. Fieldwork that is structured as a closed task will tend to discriminate by centre rather than by student. Teachers who promote independent fieldwork enquiry (the right hand column) will create assessment opportunities that differentiate by student rather than by centre. The enquiry approach offers opportunities for meta-cognition. One of the values of the enquiry process has to be the evaluation of what was learned and how it was learned since this informs the next geographical enquiry. An iterative approach to enquiry, evaluation and further enquiry is what is currently lacking at GCE and this helps explain why transition to independent learning at undergraduate level is difficult. Acknowledgement: Margaret Roberts

Qualitative Research Qualitative research is the collection of information about human behaviour and perception.

Things to consider Positionality: Who you are, where you are, and how you ask your questions will influence the responses you elicit from participants in your study. Reflexivity: This is a process of considering your own positionality and the effects that your positionality will have on your research. It entails thoroughly considering the benefits and drawbacks of your positionality, and how this in turn can benefit or hinder your research.

Surveys

Survey apps Survey Monkey Typeform Google Forms Client Heartbeat Zoho Survey Survey Gizmo Survey Planet

Social Media

Interviews

Types of Interview Interviews Focus groups Participant observations Surveys Oral histories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3uPhEee-F8

Qualitative Coding

What is Qualitative Coding? Content analysis: This method collects content in multimedia formats from the media, policy documents and other outlets and then codes the material for common themes and ideas. Qualitative data analysis: Qualitative data is collected via the methods described above and then is often transcribed and thematically coded. This means a researcher will read the transcript to identify common themes. There are multiple strategies to code qualitative data, either by formulating codes prior to collection it and reading transcripts, or by the researcher identifying common themes that emerge from the data.

Further resources Iain Hay (2000) Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography http://geographyfieldwork.com/CodingAnalysis.htm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL7Ww5kpnIM Southampton University Education Department videos on You Tube Changing Places (Emma Rawlings Smith, Simon Oakes, Alastair Owens Top Spec Geography - Geographical Association, July 2016) Royal Geographical Society A-level resources http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/8D8D8306-0825-4FED-B183- 40D384DC6DE8/0/SCO_ChangingPlace_ChangingPlaces.pdf

Thank you for listening! Enjoy the conference rhmconsultancy8@gmail.com