Assessing Effectiveness of a Field-Trip Based Course in Professional Education

Abstract

Field trips are important opportunities for students to learn and exercise integrative, interdisciplinary problem-solving skills for real-world situations. This paper examines the extent to which a field trip-based course in natural resource management contributes to the preparation of practitioners to solve complex environmental problems. It describes a field trip-based course at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the individuals involved in the course, and a field trip to the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, Costa Rica to carry out a rapid assessment of AMISCONDE, an integrated conservation and development project in southern Costa Rica. This paper also evaluates the success of the course in terms of how well it prepares students to deal with real-life natural resource management problems and in terms of the opportunity it provides to students to assess a natural resource management issue. The paper concludes that the course is to a large extent successful in the former and less so in the latter. It recommends the following for the planning and implementation of field trip based courses. During the period prior to the field trip, (1) instructors need to clarify course goals and how students are expected to meet those goals; (2) the majority of class time should be spent discussing the management problem that is the focus of the field trip; (3) instructors and students need to discuss and operationalize the policy sciences framework; and (4) the course should provide sessions on rapid assessment techniques and team building exercises. During the field trip, (1) time spent on the project should be maximized; (2) instructors should ensure that hosts understand that students will want to meet with stakeholders independently; and (3) group meetings among students and instructors should focus more on discussing events of the day instead of individual research projects.