Organizing fieldwork activities : a teacher's manual

Abstract

A manual has been prepared for teachers that teach in the primary (Year 3 upwards) and secondary levels on the organization of fieldwork activities. The manual is intended mainly for teachers who have never organized fieldwork experiences before, and aims at providing teachers who wish to organize such experiences with the basic knowledge and resources necessary to do so. The manual proposes that fieldwork activities should be developed along the guidelines of recent developments in Environmental Education (EE). These state that there should be both an increase in knowledge of the environment, and more important and attitudinal (and possibly a behavioural) change in favour of the environment. It is with this in mind that the manual proposes that Personal and Social Education activities should be organized during residential fieldwork experiences. The manual was evaluated by 8 teachers from 6 different schools in April 1992. The results from the responses of these teachers were discussed, and a series of recommendations were suggested.