What Contribution Can Residential Field Courses Make to the Education of 11-14 Year-olds?

Methodology

Thirteen courses with 428 students from 10 London schools (two from each of
the five boroughs) were studied. The students were asked to complete a two-
sided A4 questionnaire, with both open and closed questions, before and after
the course. The questionnaire (available from us) examined attitudes to
relevant subjects in school (science, geography, PE) as well as expectations
for and feelings about the course. The questionnaires were distributed and
collected by the lead teacher in each school. The intention was to give
students time to reflect upon going on and returning from the course.

The lead teachers were interviewed before and after the course. The first
interview was conducted over the telephone and its purpose was to establish
the teacher’s understanding of the programme of activities as well as their
expectations for impacts on the pupils. The second interview was conducted
at school, one to four weeks after the end of the course, and concentrated on
the impacts with reference to Rickinson et al. (2004), as well as the
expectations set out by the teachers in the first interview.

In five of the schools a small focus group of students was interviewed one to
two weeks after the course. The questions concentrated on impacts with
reference to those proposed by Rickinson et al. (2004). The students were in
small groups of females and males (between three to six students in each
group). The questions used were closed and similar to many of those asked of
the teachers. All interviews and focus groups were audio-taped and
transcribed.

For each of three schools a visit of between one and two days was made to
the centre during the course and field notes and photographs were taken.

<<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   >>

More intriguing information