LIVING GEOGRAPHY:
8 WAYS FIELDWORK
Steve Rawlinson
Principal Lecturer
Northumbria University
Cath White
Senior Lecturer
Northumbria University
Ian Barnes
NQT
Aims
• Report on a GA living geographies project based in
the Ouseburn Regeneration area Newcastle
• Consider a pedagogical approach – 8 Way Thinking –
and how it may be applied in a specific location
• Consider how materials may be developed for
children to use and its value
• Consider how the area/approach can be used with a
variety of students and its impact upon them
8 Way Thinking
• Devised by Ian Gilbert
• Derived from Around Deeply Project
• Multi-dimensional snapshot of the people,
places, history, sights, sounds and nature of
locations on a voyage round Britain.
• Thinking skills project encouraging participant
to:
• Think
• Reflect
• Look more closely
Derived from
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory
(MI)
Philosophy for Children (P4C)
MI
• Linguistic intelligence – words and language
• Logical-mathematical intelligence - logic and
numbers
• Spatial intelligence - images and space
• Bodily-Kinaesthetic intelligence – body
movement control
• Musical intelligence – music, sound, rhythm
• Interpersonal intelligence – other people's
feelings
• Intrapersonal intelligence - self awareness
• Naturalist intelligence – natural environment
P4C
• Encourages children to ask questions
• Develops natural curiosity
• Gives ownership to their learning
• Relates closely to Geography’s Enquiry
Approach
8 Way Thinking
Gilbert’s 8 Way Thinking challenges and
supports learning by engaging the
learner with the 8 intelligences, which
we all possess, but in which we have
different preferences and strengths.
Terminology simplified
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People
Numbers
Words
Nature
Sounds
Feelings
Sights
Actions
8 way.jpg
Example – Grimsby dock
People – sorts of jobs/daily life – history/geography
Numbers – how many workers – maths
Words – accents and dialogues - language
Nature – species – science, geography, maths
Sounds – now and hundred years ago – history/DT – different
jobs create different sounds/it – recording current sounds/music
– songs associated with the past
• Feelings – what does it feel like to see this place now knowing
what it was like? Language/ geography –empathy/ art – draw
how you feel
• Sights – what did it look like/ what makes it beautiful today.
Language/ art – paintings/photos
• Actions – physical process of trawling – DT –fishing
boats/geography – way of life
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It is a model for
• Asking questions across subjects
• Arousing and harnessing curiosity
• Seeing with new eyes
What we did
• Collaboration between Newcastle and
Northumbria university
• Newcastle Secondary geography PGCE
students spent 2 days devising lessons
• In groups each took 1 way and developed
lesson plans and materials from fieldwork
• Utilised the education officer and the
resources of the education centre
Why? Advantages/value
• End of their course – they needed a summative
activity
• Provided a clear focus for final activity
• Drew together all their skills –summative,
collaborative event
• Offered an opportunity to explore a potential
teaching area they might use
• Developed materials that would be useful to them
• Enabled them to try out a new pedagogical approach
• Offered a relaxed final activity
What they produced
• Approaches/Lesson plans and materials
• Aimed at year 7
• Activities that could possibly be used
from a distance – basis of a web based
resource
• A bank of resources for future
development
The Ouseburn Valley:
Background Information
Location
The Ouseburn Valley
is just a stone's
throw
away
from
Newcastle's bustling
quayside. Steeped in
a rich industrial past
the Ouseburn has a
unique
character
enriched by a diverse
collection of old and
new.
History
For over 200 years the Valley hosted iron
foundries, glass bottle works, potteries,
paintworks, flax and flour mills and
warehouses.
A tour of the Ouseburn
• hyperlinks.ppt
8 ways at Ouseburn – initial
thoughts
People
• Nature of employment. How are these
changing?
• How do people use the area for leisure?
Numbers
• Numbers using the area for different
purposes e.g. work, living and socialising.
• Land use survey
8 ways at Ouseburn…
Nature
• Changes in the environment. Caused
by?
• Species found? What affects this?
Sounds
• Sounds in the Valley today. Comparison
of sounds with the past.
• Soundscapes
8 ways at Ouseburn…
Feelings
• Use pictures, information and video clips to
create a sense of place.
• How does the Valley make you feel and why?
Sights
• How have sights in the Valley changed and
why?
• How might the valley look in the future?
8 ways at Ouseburn…
Actions
• What actions have created change? Who took them?
• What future actions could take place to improve the
area?
• Who should decided which actions are the most
suitable for the area?
Words
• Create a bank of key or buzz words which will enable
you to describe the sights/sounds etc that the other
groups devise
• Have these words changed over time?
Examples of lesson plans
Having got a focus they then devised
lesson plans/activities ensuring:
• Active/collaborative learning
• An enquiry approach
• Cross curricular approach
• Thematic planning
• Resources were provided
Turning Theory Into
Reality
Aims…
1.
To develop a scheme of work based around the theme of 8
way thinking that is informative about the Ouseburn Valley.
2.
To give a strong base in terms of lesson planning, resources,
and teacher instructions that is editable and easy to develop
to suit the needs of different teaching environments
3.
To make the activities realistic to ‘real life’ teaching, in terms
of time scale and flexibility within the scheme of work.
E.g. The material has to be valuable as individual lessons as well
as it making sense as a terms worth of work.
Full Scheme of Work
Lesson Plan Template
Actions Lesson Plan
Actions Resources
Action Teacher Notes
Sounds
• An exciting idea in terms of lesson content
• Plot a map around different areas of the
Ouseburn Valley using soundscape approach
to find your way.
• Resources are finished but needs to be
developed from an IT perspective so it can be
online /on DVD and interactive.
• Work in progress...
Where are we?
Future Developments
• Develop these lesson plans over time…
– Teacher feedback
– Teacher lesson development
– New lessons
– Lesson evaluation forum
Future Developments
• Potentially end up with a number of lessons
and resources for each 8 way strategy
• Why stop at the Ouseburn Valley and 8 way
thinking?
• Teacher resource sharing network with ‘real
life’ teaching feedback and development.
Value of Approach
Offers a Framework for Learning for use
with:
1. Children (primary/secondary) either in
– Short term – different groups working on
one of the 8 ways
– Longer term – with each 8 way offering
focus for a lesson
Value of Approach…
2. ITE Students – lends itself to cross
curricular activities/learning & thematic
planning, whilst retaining a
geographical emphasis
3. Undergraduate geography
students -offers an effective way of
developing a sense of place
Value of Approach…
4. Field studies/outdoor education
teachers etc – offers a fresh and
different way of viewing an area
5. Community groups – may offer a
new perspective on issues developing in
an area
Value of Approach…
For all users
• Very interactive – really engages and
enthuses users
• Each group that does it sees things differently
– fresh for them and the teacher/tutor
• Different approaches have value to different
learners
• Raises awareness of issues in local area
• Stimulates working with local community
User reaction
“This Eight Way of Thinking provides you
with an easier way to understand an
area, in this case the past, present and
future of the Ouseburn. It allows you
to think in many ways and from
different angles and then lets you put
these things together to form a broader
view of the area.
User reaction…
• “This has made me think about Ouseburn in a
way I wouldn’t otherwise have done. This
method is an extremely good way of
perceiving a place as it makes it become
almost 3 dimensional so that you can look at
an area in a different way, a way which you
wouldn’t have seen before.”
Yr 1 Undergrad geography students
Issues
• Time – took far longer than we
supposed
• Technical problems
• Getting a consistent approach to
presentation
• Working on developing the materials
• Need to adapt to different ages
Where next?
• Become a focus for Northumbria’s
primary ITE students
• Teachers from the local GA branch
trialling the materials and refine
• Northumbria’s Yr1 Undergrad
geographers using the approach to
study the area
• Web based resource? Funding?
Acknowledgements
Rachel Lofthouse
Newcastle University
Cath White
Northumbria University
Richard Kotter
Northumbria University
Kye Askins
Northumbria University
Alison Stancliffe
Ouseburn Valley
Newcastle PGCE Geography Students 2005/6 &
2006/7
Tyne & Wear Branch of the Geographical
Association
Geographical Association
References
8 Way thinking
Gilbert, Ian 2006
www.teachingexpertise.com
issue 12 summer 2006
Refs
Ouseburn Valley
http://www.ouseburntrust.org.uk/
http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrianswall/uploads/Th
e%20Lower%20Ouseburn%20Valley.pdf
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/norwich/local/TRA23
497.html?ixsid=
http://www.victoriatunnel.info/Index.html
My Walks
http://nuweb.northumbria.ac.uk/mywalks/intro.php