Expectation, motivation, engagement and ownership: using student reflections in the conative and affective domains to enhance residential field courses

Scott, Graham W.; Humphries, Stuart; Henri, Dominic C.

Abstract

Residential field courses are important and should be designed and delivered to maximize their value to students, staff and institutions. In this context, we use a novel approach involving analysis of the daily affective and conative reflections of students immersed in the field course experience to better understand student engagement with fieldwork. We show that students base their field course choice on a range of factors (costs and benefits) and that these choices subsequently influence student expectations and motivation to engage with fieldwork. We also show that the motivation of students to engage with fieldwork-based learning varies from person to person and from day to day. Our findings suggest that having a more nuanced understanding of the decisions students make when deciding which field course to enrol upon would enhance our ability to design attractive, accessible and useful field courses; that having an awareness of the expectations of students around field courses would enable us to better prepare them to undertake them; and that students are more motivated when they are afforded an opportunity to work independently and perceive themselves to have ownership of their learning.

Citation

Scott, G. W., Humphries, S., & Henri, D. C. (2019). Expectation, motivation, engagement and ownership: using student reflections in the conative and affective domains to enhance residential field courses. Journal of geography in higher education, 43(3), 280-298. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2019.1608516

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 13, 2019
• Online Publication Date: May 7, 2019
• Publication Date: May 7, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 11, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 8, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Geography in Higher Education
• Print ISSN: 0309-8265
• Electronic ISSN: 1466-1845
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 280-298
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2019.1608516
• Keywords: Geography, Planning and Development; Education
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1768287
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03098265.2019.1608516
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=cjgh20; Received: 2018-05-25; Accepted: 2019-04-13; Published: 2019-05-07