Experiences are central to learning. In geography this means that outdoor experiences may influence students’ learning process and its underlying domains: cognitive (knowledge and skills), affective (emotional values) and conative (motivational) (Scott, Humphries & Henri 2019). Especially for first year students, motivational aspects can be crucial to their study behavior and subsequent study progress. Outdoor learning activities can be applied in both a deductive and an inductive approach – respectively theory preceding experience or evidence, or the other way around (Shemwell, Chase & Schwartz 2014). In this contribution we study whether the sequence of an experiential learning activity and plenary lecture(s) on geographical disciplines matters to the type and depth of first year geography student reflections on this learning activity. In a randomized-control trial setting with interventions in the form of assignments in different phases of the course, we investigate the reflections of students who in small groups discuss their interpretations of short audio recordings at five fixed spots on a walking tour at Utrecht Science Park. These audio recordings describe geographical and spatial planning issues from four different disciplinary angles: an urban geography, a spatial planning, an economic geography, and a cultural geography standpoint. In walking groups of four students, every student listens to one particular ‘voice’, and is asked to discuss and evaluate this within their group. Afterwards, student groups and individual students write a short reflection on this learning activity. This contribution reviews the literature, explains the course outline, setting and audio-recordings, and discusses the first findings and results of the student reflection analyses.

Martijn Smit and Veronique Schutjens
Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University

 
ID Abstract: 797