WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF FIELDWORK? CHANGES IN UNDERGRADUATE CONCEPTIONS OVER A THREE-YEAR DEGREE PROGRAM

A longitudinal study undertaken at a single UK university aimed to identify geoscience students’ conceptions of the purpose of fieldwork, and to investigate whether these conceptions changed as students gained field experience and progressed from novice to expert geoscientist. Data were collected using a qualitative survey in which students on four geoscience-related degree programs provided a written response to the question “what is the purpose of fieldwork”. Qualitative analysis of the students’ responses revealed six distinct conceptions of fieldwork, five of which persisted from the beginning to the end of the degree programs. This range of conceptions could be further classified into two distinct groups: ‘fragmented’ conceptions focused on specific aspects of fieldwork or on learning aims, while ‘cohesive’ conceptions were more integrated and considered fieldwork in its wider context. Academic geoscience faculty were also surveyed and found to express a similar range of conceptions to the students. On quantifying the data, however, we identified some interesting variations a) as students progressed through their degree programs, and b) in relation to academic faculty. Both students and faculty most commonly conceptualized the purpose of fieldwork in terms of a way or place of learning, the learning and applying of methods and skills, and a way of understanding or making sense of the world. As students progressed, they were increasingly likely to express cohesive conceptions, and less likely to express fragmented conceptions, while the majority of faculty were found to hold ‘mixed’ conceptions. Although there is some evidence that students’ conceptions change with increasing expertise, an apparent ‘mismatch’ between student and faculty conceptions relating to the learning and application of skills, may have important implications for the design and delivery of undergraduate fieldwork.