The Value of Fieldwork in Life and Environmental Sciences in the Context of Higher Education: A Case Study in Learning About Biodiversity

Students' Perception of Biology Fieldwork: The example of students undertaking a preliminary year at a UK university

“…Thus Scott et al (2012) compared the response of students to a task that included fieldwork and required them to collect invertebrates from the field and interpret and draw them with an equivalent task which omitted fieldwork and instead used a collection of invertebrates provided by tutors. The tasks were not perceived by the students as being equivalent to one another.…”

“…Although the majority of students in the Boyle et al (2007) study, who were questioned following participation in a residential field course, had positive feelings about the field course there remained a minority with negative views, for example, 'did not enjoy [the field course]', 'found it hard' and 'wish [the field course] was not compulsory'. Similarly, one out of eight participants in the Scott et al (2012) study preferred the task which did not involve fieldwork, commenting 'the day [was] quite long, this made the whole process quite tiring'.…”

“…Adams (2009) has reviewed current developments in bioscience laboratory-class teaching and stresses the importance of, for example, the excitement of experiments, interacting with peers and learning by discovery. Given that a minority of students have a negative perception of fieldwork (Boyle et al, 2007;Scott et al, 2012), it is possible that these students enjoy laboratory work more.…”

Insights into student gains from undergraduate research using pre/post assessments

“…These experiences also are thought to provide a wide range of 36 transferable skills, with underrepresented groups showing the greatest increase in learning gains 37 (Lopatto 2004(Lopatto , 2007. In the biological sciences, a wide range of UREs are available as 38 classroom-based fieldwork (Maw et al 2011, Scott et al 2012), research apprenticeships (Sadler 39 et al 2010), and structured summer research programs (Lopatto 2004(Lopatto , 2007. 40…”

La Biodiversidad en el contexto Educativo. Múltiples miradas en el escenario mundial

“…La preocupación de diversos autores por los resultados de las investigaciones en este campo, específicamente los relacionados con el bajo conocimiento de la biodiversidad, el poco interés por los temas ambientales y la escasa interacción con la naturaleza, les ha llevado a plantear en el corpus de sus propuestas de investigación, conclusiones y recomendaciones, la necesidad de desarrollar una reconexión entre los seres humanos y la naturaleza, esto gracias al manejo que se ha dado de los estilos de vida, el espacio urbano, el incremento del uso de medios virtuales y el modelo de desarrollo occidental, poderosas razones de tal desconexión (De la Fuente, et al, 2004;Lindemann y Bose, 2008;Miller, 2005;Schwarz, et al, 2007;Scott, et al, 2011;Schwarz, et al, 2012;Tanner, 2010).…”