Field-based Course Research Articles

Centering reciprocity: lessons learned from a university–school partnership

PurposeSchool–university partnerships are important in teacher education to ensure PK-12 preservice teachers gain teaching experience prior to becoming teachers of record. Drawing on Ball and Cohen’s (1999) concept of “practice-based teacher education,” this three-year qualitative study examines the results of an intentionally reciprocal school–university partnership centered on a practice-based learning, field-based course. The following question guided this research: Having designed and facilitated a school–university partnership centered on reciprocity, what factors contributed to and/or took away from this commitment?Design/methodology/approachThe current study examined three data sources, namely: (1) seven semi-structured focus group interviews with a teacher educator, sixth-grade teachers (n = 4) and a principal; (2) eight question/answer sessions between preservice teachers and partnering secondary teachers and (3)one focus group between the two authors. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.FindingsThis study’s findings highlight the reciprocal nature of the school–university partnership, showcasing the positive outcomes and challenges faced by stakeholders. Clear communication and ongoing dialogue were identified as key elements to establishing and maintaining a reciprocal relationship. Additionally, emphasis on shared learning experiences between partners were found valuable and important to maintaining benefit to all partners. Relationship development also remained an important and positive outcome of this partnership. Additionally, there were challenges related to time, and schedule constraints were evident in the partnership. Moreover, ongoing reflection and a willingness to adjust and change based on experiences and lessons learned ensured participants recognized the importance of ongoing iteration and calibration to address challenges and enhance the partnership.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability.Originality/valueThe paper includes implications for the development of other school–university partnerships that prioritize reciprocity, highlighting an often assumed, but not always examined, component necessary to the success of school–university partnerships.

Becoming a physical education teacher: Preservice teachers’ meaning-making process in the transition between a subject didactics course and the practicum

Research has shown that a critical teaching perspective is at risk if preservice teachers perceive a gap between university- and field-based courses. This study explores how preservice physical education (PE) teachers make meaning out of their participation in a subject didactics course and the practicum. Interviews conducted across 1 year revealed that preservice teachers experienced PE teaching as practical skills and the advocacy of movement and health during the university-based course but not during the practicum. In both contexts, teaching as didactic and embodied knowledge was perceived as being meaningful. The study suggests that emotional learning occasions, role models, and clear purposes are supportive for a critical teaching perspective.

Look to the Side: Peer Partnerships in Preservice Literacy Teacher Education

Most often teacher education has attended to the expertise of university instructors and cooperating teachers in preservice teachers’ (PTs) learning in and from practice; rarely has the field addressed leveraging horizontal expertise within this learning-to-teach process. In this multiple case study, we examined what happens when teacher educators incorporate peer partnerships (Assaf & Lopez, 2015; Hoffman et al., 2018), where PTs coach and mentor each other around literacy teaching practices, within literacy field-based courses. Through our cross-case analysis, we found that peer partnerships scaffolded PTs’ learning by expanding their views of teaching practices, provided space to utilize their literacy content knowledge and literacy pedagogical content knowledge, and facilitated PTs’ development of equity-focused teaching stances. By establishing collaborative approaches to literacy instruction through peer partnerships, PTs served as sources of expertise and knowledge, thus disrupting the expert–novice divide in teacher education courses.

Equipment Repositories for Accessibility: A Model for Improving Access in Field Science.

People with disabilities have been historically underrepresented in scientific fields as a result of systemic barriers and a "leaky pipeline" through academia. This has been especially true in field science, where a lack of resources and limited access to adaptive equipment have made accommodating disabilities in field settings seem daunting. This paper introduces the Equipment Repositories for Accessibility (ERA) model as a blueprint for universities to implement and improve the accessibility of field research and field-based courses. It first provides an overview of the history of disability in science and how systemic barriers contribute to underrepresentation and reduced access to field science. It then outlines the steps for the establishment and long-term management of the ERA model as a means of overcoming these barriers and provides a brief overview of the types of adaptive equipment available for a diverse range of accessibility needs. The scientific community benefits from the inclusion of diverse individuals and addressing barriers to accessibility is a necessary step in creating a truly intersectional academic community, which acknowledges the deeply interconnected nature of disability with other identities including race, gender, and sexuality.

Distance Exploration of Alpine Ecosystems in Elementary calssrooms using 360 videos

The project explored teachers’ perceptions of using 360 video to teach science in the elementary classroom. This technology allows teaching methodologies which in the past have been limited to field-based courses to be used in the traditional classroom. Based on survey results, the researchers traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park to record videos and create lessons which will be made available to teachers.

Field-based local stream research in undergraduate classes: an inquiry-based approach

ABSTRACT Experiential learning is recognized as a high-impact educational practice. Fieldwork is an important component of the geographic tradition. When implemented using an inquiry-based approach, fieldwork can be a highly effective form of experiential education. However, many geography instructors are dissuaded from implementing inquiry-based fieldwork because of logistical challenges. Here, a modular, semester-long fieldwork design is presented, involving inquiry-based research on local streams. This framework has been successfully implemented twice in undergraduate classes. A total of 37 undergraduate students did physical habitat assessments and water-quality monitoring on urban streams in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. Quantitative and qualitative anonymous student evaluations and student work products provide preliminary support for the approach’s effectiveness in enhancing student learning. The practical advantages of the presented fieldwork design are that it is less costly in time and money than fully field-based courses, it breaks up a large class into more manageable group sizes, and it alleviates some of the common concerns about accessibility, equity, and risk management. While still needing to be systematically assessed, the pedagogical benefits potentially include development of critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, and affective skills.

Learning Through Disruptions: Equipping Students to Cope With Challenging Contexts Through a Field-Based Course in Africa

Students wishing to pursue careers in international business, notably in the developing world, must be prepared for complex, unpredictable, uncomfortable, and messy realities, and to collaborate with others very different from themselves. Mainstream business school learning environments are generally highly structured, cognitively oriented, predictable and hence not particularly conducive to orchestrating the disruptive experiences that can develop such abilities. In this article, we show how a field-based course in an East African country can support such learning. Based on data gathered from students over several iterations of the field course, we draw on experiential learning theory (ELT) in showing how the top-down orchestration of the course constituted a learning space that produced three main types of disruption to students’ taken-for-granted habits and assumptions, namely: intense sensory impressions and sensations, loss of predictability and control, and learning interdependency on others. Students had to “bottom-up” manage these disruptions while conducting a group assignment with local students, to a tight deadline, producing “dissonances”—feelings of discomfort—that triggered the ELT cycle. Our findings show that such disruptions can foster learning of the abovementioned abilities; and we suggest ways in which such learning spaces might be created closer to home than East Africa.

Capacity building for wildlife health professionals: the Wildlife Health Bridge

The Wildlife Health Bridge was established in 2009 with the aim of improving the expertise and knowledge base of wildlife health professionals in biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. The Wildlife Health Bridge centres around partnerships among educational institutions: the Zoological Society of London, the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, the Wildlife Institute of India, and the University of Melbourne Veterinary School. The Wildlife Health Bridge provides quality education in wildlife health, ecosystem health, and wildlife biology, facilitates the interchange of students between collaborating countries for research studies and provides a global graduate network of wildlife health professionals. In addition to established Masters’ level wildlife health training programmes run by the partner organisations, the Wildlife Health Bridge has developed a collaborative field-based course, Interventions in Wild Animal Health, provided annually in India since 2016, which has trained 138 veterinarians to date, enhancing local and international capacity in managing emerging wildlife health issues and building global professional linkages. The Wildlife Health Bridge’s Wild Animal Alumni network facilitates networking and exchange between Wildlife Health Bridge institutions and graduates, with over 701 members from 67 countries, half of which are biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. Collaboration between educational institutions has enabled new ideas and ongoing developments in the delivery of materials and learning outcomes. The Wildlife Health Bridge is building global capacity in trained wildlife health professionals, through educational programmes and a synergised network, with the aim of impacting conservation practice to benefit human, domestic animal and wildlife health.

Cultivating deep learning in field-based tourism courses: finding purpose in “trouble”

ABSTRACT Despite well-established links between travel, learning and education in tourism studies, there is scant discussion around the ways in which “trouble” emerges and unfolds in experience-based and field course-learning scenarios. This exploratory research aims to understand this neglected aspect of tourism education, drawing attention to its pedagogical value and to debate the purpose of trouble within the field. Specifically, we examine written and drawn memories of trouble encountered by tourism educators who lead and organise field courses. Analysis of findings reveal that unintended instances can become purposeful for both students and educators. We also highlight some of the strategies used by educators to capitalise on trouble, supporting reflection, adopting different personas, and in some cases intentionally creating “trouble”. This paper encourages educators to stay with, or more specifically to sway towards trouble, imparting insights around how to create purpose from trouble thereby inspiring educators to facilitate more critically oriented tourism field courses.

Ways of Being in Community: Centering Preservice Teachers’ Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies in Field-Based Literacy Teacher Education

A common model for connecting theory to practice within literacy teacher preparation programs involves preservice teachers (PTs) working in field-based courses to contextualize their learning. Field-based courses create hybrid spaces for personalizing curricula and following students’ lead outside of the pressures of normal classrooms. Researchers note that although PTs have found field-based courses in diverse, minority school settings helpful, many PTs feel unprepared to work with diverse populations. There is a need for literacy teacher preparation programs to enhance field experiences and incorporate culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) within coursework. Few studies, however, have explicitly examined the role of CSP in literacy courses or field-based coursework. Moreover, even coursework intended to prepare teachers to work in diverse settings often centers the experiences of White PTs and reinforces pedagogical practices associated with White cultural and academic norms. In this qualitative case study, we explore the potential of experiences in field-based teacher education courses to disrupt White values, traditions, and curricular norms when CSP is centered and when PTs have the opportunity to work with, and learn from, young students. Findings highlight innovative ways three PTs worked in community with young students and built innovative curricula around their students’ funds of knowledge: by restorying deficit narratives about students’ literacies, following students’ lead into multimodal literacies, and bridging linguistic differences through translanguaging.

Early childhood preservice teachers’ self-efficacy related to inclusion and professional roles via a co-taught field-based course

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the self-efficacy of preservice teachers enrolled in a co-taught early childhood education course on special education. The course was developed to increase awareness and access to special education through a field-based co-taught practicum course. Instructors from general education and special education shared planning and teaching roles to model collaborative practices for future early childhood educators. Data from focus groups, interviews, and a post-then-pre instrument were used to explore preservice teachers’ self-efficacy related to comfort with inclusion, perspective-taking, and professional roles as well as their experiences participating in the co-taught course. Recommendations for research related to supporting self-efficacy and teacher education are shared.

Teaching an experiential field course via online participatory science projects: A COVID-19 case study of a UC California Naturalist course.

Experience and training in field work are critical components of undergraduate education in ecology, and many university courses incorporate field‐based or experiential components into the curriculum in order to provide students hands‐on experience. Due to the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the sudden shift to remote instruction in the spring of 2020, many instructors of such courses found themselves struggling to identify strategies for developing rigorous field activities that could be completed online, solo, and from a student's backyard. This case study illustrates the process by which one field‐based course, a UC California Naturalist certification course offered at the University of California, Davis, transitioned to fully remote instruction. The transition relied on established, publicly available, online participatory science platforms (e.g., iNaturalist) to which the students contributed data and field observations remotely. Student feedback on the course and voluntary‐continued engagement with the participatory science platforms indicates that the student perspective of the experience was on par with previous traditional offerings of the course. This case study also includes topics and participatory science resources for consideration by faculty facing a similar transition from group field activities to remote, individual field‐based experiences.

Field-Based Experiential Education in Geography: Discovering and Rethinking Urban Environmental Challenges and Possibilities

Drawing on our experience teaching a 2-week field-based geography course on urban environmental issues, we reinforce the value of field-based experiential education (EE) especially as it faces growing threats. We show how such experience can enable students to understand the diversity of urban environmental challenges in situ; grasp cities as sites of environmental sustainability; understand the innovative ways local organizations and actors – many of them Black, Indigenous, and People of Color – are addressing these challenges; and feel empowered to take part in environmental stewardship. Focusing on course design and delivery, we additionally offer a blueprint for course replicability.

Intensive Laboratory experiences to safely retain experiential learning in the transition to online learning.

Field‐based course work has been foundational to Ecology and Evolutionary Biology curricula. However, opportunities for these experiences gradually have decreased over the past few decades and are being replaced with technology in the college learning environment. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic facilitated a rapid transition of all field‐based courses to online only delivery, which we argue has forced us to reconsider how to deliver course content to retain field experiences in a manner that is safe during the pandemic but robust to ever changing constraints in the college classroom. Here, we propose pairing an intensive laboratory experience with an otherwise online delivery. We discuss several advantages of intensive laboratory experiences that occur in the field over a short but intensive time period over that of the traditional low‐intensity weekly laboratory structure. In particular, intensive laboratory experiences are safer during the pandemic because they allow the group to be tested and isolated, allow more flexibility for students with competing interests for their time, and also enhance student interpersonal skills while still providing strong reinforcement of the skills typically honed through experiential learning. We present case studies for how we intend to apply our proposed model to two courses that heavily rely on field‐based experiential learning to facilitate adoption.

The “wicked problem” of technology and teacher education: Examining teacher educator technology competencies in a field-based literacy methods course

This paper paints a complex portrait of the “wicked problem” of teaching technology integration in a field-based content literacy course in order to analyze how a teacher educator demonstrated a presence (and absence) of Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs). The study indicates that developing technology competencies in teacher educators shares challenges with broader issues of practice based teacher education. It suggests the TETCs would benefit from a clear grounding in theory and should consider the influence of teacher educator TPACK on teacher educators’ abilities to build and demonstrate competency. Overall, framing teacher educator professional growth and development through the lens of the TETCs facilitated reflection and spotlighted areas of strength, as well as areas for improvement, within practice.

Sociocultural approaches to mobile learning in bilingual teacher preparation: The benefits of SAML as both a strategy and belief

ABSTRACT This article presents a cooperative inquiry into how teacher educators prepare bilingual teacher candidates to adopt sociocultural approaches to mobile learning in their field-based courses as a platform for engaging their culturally and linguistically diverse learner populations. A sociocultural approach to mobile learning (SAML) uses mobile devices to bridge students’ home and school lives in meaningful and relevant learning experiences. This study provides insight into how and why teacher educators should prepare bilingual preservice teachers to use mobile learning to address the cultural and linguistic needs of diverse learner populations. The authors posit that adopting sociocultural approaches to mobile learning is not just a strategy but a belief that teaching is about empowering students, being responsive to their cultural and linguistic needs, valuing their diversity, creating equitable access to technology, and making learning relevant and authentic – all of which can be facilitated through mobile learning. These beliefs that are facilitated by SAML are extended to the bilingual teacher candidates and ultimately onto their future students.

Qualitative self-coding as reflection: empowering teacher candidates with the tools of the researcher

ABSTRACTReflective journaling is common practice in teacher preparation and often utilized as a tool to cultivate teacher candidates’ dispositional development. This paper details a study that implemented a methodology of teaching self-coding to 45 preservice teacher candidates as a pedagogical tool to support reflective practices within a field-based course. Analysis of teacher candidates’ codes and written reflections on the process suggest that the authors’ self-coding method helped teacher candidates develop concrete understandings of the relationship between professional teaching dispositions and pedagogical decision-making. Further, findings suggest that two cycles of self-coding facilitated a continuum of reflection wherein teacher candidates initially gained tangible awareness about professional teaching dispositions, and over time translated their new understandings to deeper analysis of their reflections, which elicited asset-based views of diverse learners. Findings suggest that by sharing the tools of a researcher, teacher educators can enhance candidates’ reflective capacities, which in turn can support dispositional growth, deeper reflection and reflexivity.

A Place for Serendipitous Mistakes? Selling Mixed Methods Fieldwork to Students in a Digital Age

abstractI draw on over a decade of experience teaching two required mixed methods geography field courses at my university. I reflect on teaching field-based courses in a digital age when a large proportion of our students have no intention of either using mixed methods or even doing fieldwork. Yet, my department passionately defends the fieldwork tradition in geography, and continues to require these classes much to the dismay of our students. This paper explores why we continue to require such field classes, especially when students increasingly do not want them. Furthermore, I discuss why we should promote mixed methods when deeply entrenched qualitative vs. quantitative research camps persist and remain in our field. I also explore “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” of teaching mixed methods and taking students to the field, all while arguing that doing fieldwork is a place to find one’s “Zen.”

“My Hair has a Lot of Stories!”: Unpacking Culturally Sustaining Writing Pedagogies in an Elementary Mediated Field Experience for Teacher Candidates

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study examined what teacher candidates learned in a field-based mediated Language Arts methods course, intentionally designed to support teacher candidates in learning what is possible rather than typical, in an urban school setting where curriculum is often prescriptive rather than generative. Culturally sustaining pedagogies provided a powerful and important framework for curriculum and inquiry; these pedagogies guided this preservice teacher education course. Findings from this study indicate that this mediated experience served as an initial foray into recognizing and unpacking teacher candidates’ deficit perspectives related to race and class-based assumptions about children and their families, and about the community in which they lived. In addition, teacher candidates began to understand the nuanced and intentional moves teachers must make to affect student learning.

Using action research to improve science teaching self-efficacy

ABSTRACTElementary teachers’ science teaching self-efficacy has concerned researchers for many years. This case study explores the perceptions and experiences of an elementary preservice teacher as she engaged in action research to improve her science teaching self-efficacy. Findings suggest that action research provides the support and structure a preservice teacher needs when targeting sources of low self-efficacy and that time and space for preservice teachers to engage in action research should be considered as a method of instruction when planning field-based science methods courses.