This term’s Geography PGDE assignment is the Methodology Study. The task is to get us students to research a methodology relevant to teaching Geography. The purpose is to get us to undertake a predominantly literature based research project, augmented with some personal observations. The end-product is a 1500 word essay. The assignment is also seen as pre-cursor towards the larger Professional Project; a major part of the summitive assessment of the PGDE.
To help me get started I’ve set out my chosen task in terms of a research question, snappily titled: ‘How can Landfullness be used to deliver Geography field-work that is productive, relevant and fun?‘ With this I want to try and explore how putting more emphasis on place and understanding place in the land-scape (as encapsulated in the term Landfullness) can be applied to Geography field-work.
For me field-trips are that made Geography, but I was much less enthusiastic of the field-work exercises that were done on some trips. Does measuring rivers with flow meters, soil with PH kits, counting cars or classifying land-use make the best use of the limited 
time that you have pupils ‘in the field’? Maybe it does and maybe my experiences and current (somewhat negative) pre-conceptions about this are wrong? This assignment will give me the time to investigate this. Hopefully at the end I’ll come out with better ideas for my own practice of field-work as it is now , or how it could be improved so much the better.
Given the fact that Landfullness seems to provide many applications for teaching Geographic enquiry skills this seems an interesting topic. And through being conscious of applying a more Landfull approach hopefully I’ll deliver better outdoor-learning generally, and also deliver better understanding of Geographical concepts/processes – and have a whole heap of other cross-curricular/citizen-ship/ACfE benefits.
If you have a view on this and would like to provide me with pointers towards interesting sources, example of best practice … or anything else, then please email me via the details on my the About me page.
Alternatively leave a comment below – I moderate all comments via email before they are posted.
Posted by Andrew Duff 
