Enquiry Learning & Fieldwork in the

NSS Geography Curriculum

Curriculum Development Officer

Fieldwork in the secondary schools of Hong Kong

?

• Places far away from the schools?• Countryside?• Ping Chau (Mirs Bay), Lamma Island, Bride’s

Pool… • Guided tours?• Worksheets?• Fieldwork reports?• Designers: geography teachers?• Students: passive learners?

Types of fieldwork

1. Field excursion

2. Field research based on hypothesis testing

3. Geographical enquiry

4. Discovery learning

5. Sensory fieldwork

Teachers

Students

Fieldwork and Enquiry Learning (1)

• Level 1

• Fieldwork with enquiry-based worksheets

• e.g. School visits to the Castle Peak Power Station

Enquiry-based

worksheets

•Pre-trip activities•What?

•Hot news

What are the conditions for the licence renewal of the Castle Peak Power Station?

Where?

Where are the Castle Peak Power Station and the Black Point Power

Station?

Activities at the Power

Stations:•What?•Why?

What types of power resources have been used in different power stations of CLP

Power?

What are the environmental problems created by electricity generation at the

Castle Peak Power Station?

How does CLP Power cope with the environmental problems?

Activities after the visit

Hot news: LNG receiving terminal

Extended Activities: Industrial Location

Fieldwork & Enquiry Learning (2)

Level 2

Fieldwork investigation based on

• a problem-solving task /

• a decision-making task /

• a hypothesis-testing task /

• …

What are the examples?

U.K.• Length of fieldwork investigation report• AQA (Specification A)-4000 words• AQA (Specification B)-3500-4000 words• OCR (Specification A/B)-1000/2500 words• Edexcel (Specification A/B)-1500/2500 words• CCEA -less than 2500 words• IB

Guidance Booklet for fieldwork

investigation

Work of some

Year 10 Geography students

Australia

• Senior Geography project (Board of Studies-New South Wales: Geography (Stage 6 Syllabus) 1999)

Work of an

Australian Geography Student

Aims

Questions for enquiry

Equipment

Final report

Choice of topic for enquiry

• to be developed by the students with the help of their teachers

• some possible situations: • 1. One general and broad topic for

enquiry is given by the teacher and students are required to develop their own smaller scale / narrower scope enquiries with the guidance of the teacher.

• 2. The teacher brings students to a ‘rich’ fieldwork site in which students develop their own enquiry topics under the guidance of the teacher.

• 3. Individual students work out their enquiry topics all on their own and then further develop them under the guidance of their teachers.

Procedures of enquiry-based fieldwork investigation

4-5 stages:

• Planning and preparation

• Data collection

• Data processing, presentation and analysis

• Interpretation and conclusion

• Evaluation

Report

Stage 1

• Identify a geographical issue, problem, phenomenon and/or form hypothesis

• Clarify the objectives of the enquiry• Identify the type of information/data that is

required• Decide on the methods and instruments to be

used• Prepare for the enquiry• Develop the enquiry sequence

Stage 2

• Use different techniques & instruments to collect data in the field

• Record & organize field data systematically

• Gather supplementary information from secondary data and sources of literature

Stage 3

• a brief introduction (objectives, methodology etc.)

• Process and present the collected data in appropriate forms

• Test & analyze the collected data and information

Stage 4

• Verify and interpret the findings

• Draw conclusions, propose solutions and/or make decision based on evidence, with justifiable reasons and /or support of theories

Stage 5

• Evaluate the whole enquiry

• Discuss limitations & suggest alternatives approaches

Role of teachers

• Facilitators• Give guidance to students (not ‘coaching’)• Give suggestions to students on data processing

and presentation techniques• Give responses to students’ questions giving

directions rather than offering direct answers)• Mark the reports according to assessment

criteria

Suggested content of the fieldwork report

• Cover/title page

• Contents page

• Introduction

• Presentation of the collected data

• Analysis of the investigation results

• Interpretation of the findings

• Conclusions

Stage 3-

Stage 5

• Appendices (with evidence of students’ work)

• Bibliography

Assessment criteria

• Examples

• AQA (Specification A), IB, CCEA