How do you teach fieldwork methods when your students are suddenly prevented from entering the field? This was a pressing question faced by faculty at Guttman Community College who were teaching "Ethnographies of Work," a required first-year course centered on the observation and analysis of real-world workplace dynamics. During the…

The Texas A&M University System recently developed six quality standards for educator preparation programs, the Texas A&M Quality Standards for Educator Preparation, that are to be implemented and met by all system schools. These standards are: quality of selection of teacher candidates; quality of content knowledge and teaching methods;…

In education, the Rounds model provides opportunities for engaging educators as communities of learners who examine instructional issues for purposes of understanding and improving them. Over the past 10 years, Rounds have been implemented in school-based experiences in teacher preparation programs across the nation. Yet despite recent interest,…

Extension personnel, agricultural companies, and contract researchers invest a great deal of resources through time, money, and manpower to educate crop consultants, producers, students, and new employees. Creating an in-field, real world, and hands-on learning environment affords an opportunity to engage individuals to learn in ways that cannot…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is one of a suite of strategies based on the premise that placing students at the centre of the learning process ultimately improves skills, knowledge and understanding. To date, however, there remain relatively few reports on the application of PBL within geography curricula. This paper traces the evolution of a PBL…

This article proposes the use of a structured process recording format for policy practice students, field instructors, and social work faculty as a learning, teaching, and assessment tool. Traditionally, casework and group work have used process recording to facilitate students learning in the field practicum to assess both the process and…

Through the examination of the experiences of a pre-service teacher participating in a field-based science methods course, we make evident the ways in which a combination of collaborative teaching experiences and reflexive dialogues allowed for the evolution and transformation of her identity. This teacher is Johaira Lara, the second author of…

Human geography fieldwork is important. Research has shown that when students "see it for themselves" their enjoyment and understanding is enhanced. In addition it helps develop subject-specific and transferable skills, promotes 'active learning' and links theory to "real world" examples in a "spiral of learning".…

In this article, the authors propose a comprehensive integration model (CIM) based on learning transfer principles that promote integration by systematically and multidimensionally linking coursework with field education. This model improves the integration of classroom and field instruction by specifying how content in each course and in the…

An educational environmental youth camp was held comprising of fifty one 16-year old secondary students and facilitated by volunteers from the university and Friends of the Earth, a non profit organization in Penang. A weekend camp on youth action task program was held at an isolated beach packed with activities that were structured towards…

There has been a rising acceptance of autoethnography in the past 15 years. Instead of studying social phenomena, in an appropriately reflexive way, some scholars have taken to researching themselves. Drawing on concrete examples from an ongoing ethnographic project, the paper contrasts the beneficial, even essential, practices of autobiographical…

Introduction to Education is the first course students take in the teacher preparation program at Purdue University. It provides an opportunity for students to experience teaching early in their teacher education program. The course consists of a field-based and a campus-based component. The field-based component consists of 10 observations of a…

Describes how a psychology fieldwork course promoted synergistic relationships between academic and experiential learning components. For one academic year, 15 psychology majors participated in supervised field experiences. Students did individualized reading, prepared weekly progress reports, and received constructive feedback from instructors…

Social workers in urban areas attempt to carry out the profession's commitment to social change and social justice amid growing inequality, racial polarization, and a physical environment that reflects fears and antipathy toward poor people who reside there. The authors argue that changing urban conditions have prompted a need for innovative…

Describes a comparative psychology course in which advanced college students learn by observing animals in their natural habitats in Kenya. The author tells how the objectives of master of observation, taxa adaptive behavior, echo systems, conservation, and field methods are satisfied. (RM)