Ilkka Ratinen

International Perspectives on the Effectiveness of Geography Fieldwork for Learning

This paper seeks to address assumptions on the effectiveness of fieldwork as a mode of learning in geography. This is approached from an international perspective, both in review of available evidence, which demonstrates a need for rigorous research into the issue, and in providing preliminary findings of research into the value of fieldwork from universities across three continents. Common themes to emerge concern the effectiveness of fieldwork in terms of learning and understanding of the subject: providing first-hand experience of the real world, whichever part of the world the students are in; skills development (transferable and technical); and social benefits. The extent to which fieldwork develops transferable skills depends on the context in which the fieldwork is undertaken. The paper points to avenues of future research to be investigated to deepen our understanding of the role fieldwork plays in student learning and to address the question, ‘how effective is fieldwork in improving learning?’

Student-teachers’ use of Google Earth in problem-based geology learning

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are adequate for analyzing complex scientific and spatial phenomena in geography education. Google Earth is a geographic information tool for GIS-based learning. It allows students to engage in the lesson, explore the Earth, explain what they identify and evaluate the implications of what they are learning. This paper introduces one example of using Google Earth for problem-based learning processes in teacher education. Student-teachers’ geographical thinking was analyzed during the study process. We have found that although student-teachers have inadequate skills to use information and communication technology, the use of Google Earth improved student-teachers’ geographical thinking skills, even though they still have difficulties in interpreting maps and analyzing geological data.

Inquiry-Based Approaches in Primary Science Teacher Education

This chapter introduces an interactional graphic tool together with a model for inquiry-based science teaching (abbreviated as IBST). The combination of the graphic tool and model offers an approach to support the planning, implementation, reflection and analysis of dialogic IBST. The potential use is illustrated here using a case study in which student teachers used IBST to develop their teaching. The interactional graphic and the model are fundamentally related to three established approaches to science teaching: inquiry-based science teaching, dialogic teaching and the communicative approach. Together, these approaches draw attention to learner participation in inquiry-based science teaching, the joint construction of understanding as a dialogic teaching process and the alternative types of talk teachers can use to guide learning in science through communicative approaches. Combining these three approaches provides a broader ‘three-pronged’ approach to teaching and learning in science. On this basis, we designed our primary teacher science course to include ideas from both inquiry teaching and classroom interaction. During the course, in addition to analysing the content structure of climate change, examining textbooks, pupil thinking and their preconceptions, the student teachers also explored the fundamental ideas of dialogic IBST in primary schools. The analysis of the executed teaching sequences was supported by the use of the interactional graphic tool which helps in mapping teachers’ communicative pattern and the extent to which the IBST approach is taking place. The potential use of the interactional graphic tool and IBST approach for the professional development of teachers is discussed in the end.

The effects of socio-scientific issue based inquiry learning on pupils’ representations of landscape

Abstract Research has demonstrated that socio-scientific issues based inquiry learning has significant advantages for learning outcomes and students’ motivation. Further, a successful understanding of landscapes in environmental and geographical education can be achieved by combining informal learning environments with school education. Therefore this case study focuses on how socio-scientific issues based inquiry learning carried out in school and in a Nature Park, influences primary school pupils’ (n = 36) representations of landscapes. The pupils were asked to draw and write about landscape both before and after intervention. The data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to investigate the impact of the intervention on the representations that pupils used in their descriptions of landscape. It was found that socio-scientific issues based inquiry learning in varied learning environments, noticeably enriched the pupil’s representations and lead to a multifaceted holistic understanding of landscape. Many of the representations produced were considered to be fairly sophisticated.