Abstract

Developing an Arctic Geology course: exploring the role of fieldwork in a challenging learning space

Highlights

  • In this article, we analyse an Arctic Geology course with the aim of exploring how the course design influences the students’ participation in the course and how this can inform the development of the course

  • The researched course aims to address this challenge by teaching the students to collect data in an ‘open’ way, which allows multiple hypotheses and research questions to be addressed. We have identified this learning experience as a learning threshold according to the Threshold Concept Framework (Meyer & Land, 2003, 2005); in all disciplines there are certain concepts and learning experiences which could be likened to passing through a portal where the learner encounters new conceptual territory on the other side

  • We argue that the course design offers a unique learning experience, but the intentions need to be communicated more clearly to the students as they engage in a challenging learning environment

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Summary

Introduction

We analyse an Arctic Geology course with the aim of exploring how the course design influences the students’ participation in the course and how this can inform the development of the course. The focus is placed on understanding the spaces and barriers created for students’ possibilities for participating in the course created by the course design. Together the detailed account of the intentions behind the course design and the students’ experiences provides a valuable knowledge base for developing the course. The researched course takes place at The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), which offers specialised courses in natural science and engineering with focus on the Arctic region (Misund et al, 2017; UNIS, 2014). The course includes a field research experience with emphasis on active student participation and demands independent decision-making in the field. The course comprises three main components: 1) pre-field introduction to theory and preparation for data collection, 2) the fieldwork with data collection, and 3) the post-field data processing leading up to a presentation of a small research project based on the field data

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