Affective Learning Outcomes in the Field: A Review of the 2021 Undergraduate Field Experiences Research Network Meeting

An understanding of both cognitive and affective domains of learning is critical to promoting undergraduate student success in biology. Field courses—which support student learning, observation, and experimentation in the outdoors—have been shown to be effective in supporting cognitive student outcomes. However, less is known about students' affective responses during field instruction. To better understand the affective domain in this course type, we asked students enrolled in a campus‐based introductory field biology course to engage in weekly reflective journaling over the course of a semester. We employed inductive and deductive coding of over 700 field journal reflections using the Model of the Affective Domain for the Geosciences as a conceptual basis. Informed by our results, we present a theoretically‐driven, five‐part Framework of Student Affect in Field Biology and in‐depth and novel insights into what students feel, believe, and value as they participate in an undergraduate field course. Our framework and coding results can be used by field course instructors to understand how to better design experiences that leave students feeling confident in their abilities, interested to learn more about nature, and empowered to persist in the discipline.

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How do introductory field biology students feel? Journal reflections provide insight into student affect

Treibergs

Esparza

Yamazaki

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Perspectives on Archaeological Education from a Graduate Student’s Journal

Cortijo-Robles

2024

Arch

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The Impact of Field Courses on Undergraduate Knowledge, Affect, Behavior, and Skills: A Scoping Review

et al. 2022

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Field courses provide transformative learning experiences that support success and improve persistence for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors. But field courses have not increased proportionally with the number of students in the natural sciences. We conducted a scoping review to investigate the factors influencing undergraduate participation in and the outcomes from field courses in the United States. Our search yielded 61 articles, from which we classified the knowledge, affect, behavior, and skill-based outcomes resulting from field course participation. We found consistent reporting on course design but little reporting on demographics, which limits our understanding of who takes field courses. Cost was the most commonly reported barrier to student participation, and knowledge gains were the most commonly reported outcome. This scoping review underscores the need for more rigorous and evidence-based investigations of student outcomes in field courses. Understanding how field courses support or hinder student engagement is necessary to make them more accessible to all students.

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Affective Learning Outcomes in the Field: A Review of the 2021 Undergraduate Field Experiences Research Network Meeting

Cited by 5 publications

References 54 publications

How do introductory field biology students feel? Journal reflections provide insight into student affect

How do introductory field biology students feel? Journal reflections provide insight into student affect

Perspectives on Archaeological Education from a Graduate Student’s Journal

The Impact of Field Courses on Undergraduate Knowledge, Affect, Behavior, and Skills: A Scoping Review

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