499 research outputs found
Materials for Life (M4L)
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bcs/1421/thumbnail.jp
Unravelling the geographical palimpsest through fieldwork: discovering a sense of place
Fieldwork enables students to gain a greater understanding of the people and places that they encounter. Urban areas are popular destinations for fieldwork because they present a landscape that is in a continual state of change. Yet, as this article indicates, the past is ever present in the urban landscape as each place can be regarded as a palimpsest, where layers of history, geography, culture and politics co-exist. Through active participation in fieldwork, students have the potential to unravel this palimpsest and discover a deeper sense of that place. The example used here reflects upon urban fieldwork in Barcelona as experienced by a group of undergraduate students who, as they carry out and reflect upon their field work, benefit from gaining a sense of place informed by a range of geographical processes and meanings. The article concludes with a series of suggestions for those embarking on fieldwork and wishing to unravel the geographical palimpsest
Gaining a âsense of placeâ: studentsâ affective experiences of place leading to transformative learning on international fieldwork
This paper reveals the extent to which undergraduate students demonstrate transformative learning whilst on international fieldwork in Barcelona, Spain. Groups of students create a series of discrete active learning situations that allow them and their peers to engage more fully with their locale and in turn experience a deeper understanding of âplaceâ. Reflective field trip notebooks are used to capture the experiences of students. Results show that through the use of the affective domain (Krathwohlâs taxonomy) and applying cyclic experiential learning (Kolb) combined with critical reflection (Mezirow), students demonstrate progression and, in some cases, regression along Krathwohlâs taxonomy
Wordsworth & BashoâWalking Poets
âWordsworth and Basho: Walking Poetsâ is a group exhibition based in the Wordsworth Trust, in Grasmere, UK. The exhibition builds on momentum developed through previous collaborations between the Wordsworth Trust, the University of Sunderland and Bath Spa University, in which a range of contemporary artists created fresh and challenging perspectives on Wordsworthâs poetry and Basho's work.
Dr Manny Ling collaborated with the Japanese sumi painter Christine Flint Sato and produced a series of work that explored East Asian and western contexts.
Dr Manny Ling also designed and curated the exhibition catalogue (ISBN: 978-1-906832-20-9
Modulating Surrogates for Bayesian Optimization
Bayesian optimization (BO) methods often rely on the assumption that the
objective function is well-behaved, but in practice, this is seldom true for
real-world objectives even if noise-free observations can be collected. Common
approaches, which try to model the objective as precisely as possible, often
fail to make progress by spending too many evaluations modeling irrelevant
details. We address this issue by proposing surrogate models that focus on the
well-behaved structure in the objective function, which is informative for
search, while ignoring detrimental structure that is challenging to model from
few observations. First, we demonstrate that surrogate models with appropriate
noise distributions can absorb challenging structures in the objective function
by treating them as irreducible uncertainty. Secondly, we show that a latent
Gaussian process is an excellent surrogate for this purpose, comparing with
Gaussian processes with standard noise distributions. We perform numerous
experiments on a range of BO benchmarks and find that our approach improves
reliability and performance when faced with challenging objective functions
Understanding emotional geographies experienced during international fieldwork leading to effective learning and teaching strategies
The benefits and challenges of international fieldwork are well rehearsed. However, understandings of studentsâ affective experiences on fieldwork are less well developed (Boyle et al., 2007). In particular, little examination has been given to how tutors can respond to the affective and emotional geographies (Pile, 2005) that arise on international fieldwork (Glass, 2014) which also affect perceptions of âplaceâ (Urry, 2005). Simm & Marvell (2015) examine how the learning and teaching strategies employed can prompt both positive and negative responses when participating in international fieldwork which may enhance or hinder studentsâ engagement and performance. Using the innovative strategy of student-led teaching of peers (Marvell et al., 2013), this paper examines how, firstly, the emotional geographies on international fieldwork can be identified and, secondly, how tutors can respond with appropriate learning and teaching strategies in order to enhance the fieldwork experience of students in terms of their personal and scholarly development. Based on field trips to Barcelona, Spain, we analyse a range of media from video and oral interviews, and field diaries to evaluations and reflective essays in order to reveal studentsâ perceptions, views and emotions of participating in international fieldwork. Most revealing are the themes and issues raised by more âimmediateâ reflection undertaken in-the-field compared to the more ârefinedâ and considered reflexivity done after the fieldtrip. Such understandings of the emotional geographies can enable appropriate learning and teaching strategies to be employed. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to enhance studentâs experiences and engagement during international fieldwork through critical reflectivity as well as making better use of under-utilised aspects such as transit-time between destinations
Emotional geographies experienced during international fieldwork: an evaluation of teaching and learning strategies for reflective assessment
The benefits and challenges of international fieldwork are well rehearsed. However, understanding of studentsâ affective experiences during fieldwork is less well developed. Little examination has been given to how tutors respond to the affective and emotional geographies that arise during international fieldwork which also affect perceptions of âplaceâ. Using the innovative strategy of student-led teaching of peers, this paper examines how, firstly, the emotional geographies on international fieldwork can be identified and, secondly, how tutors can respond with appropriate teaching and learning strategies to enhance the fieldwork experience of students in terms of their personal and scholarly development. Based on field courses to Barcelona, Spain, we analyse a range of media from video and oral interviews, field notebooks and reflective essays to reveal studentsâ perceptions and emotions of participating in international fieldwork. Most revealing are the themes and issues raised by more âimmediateâ reflection undertaken in-the-field compared to the more ârefinedâ and considered reflexivity completed after the fieldtrip. Such understandings of the emotional geographies can enable appropriate teaching and learning strategies to be employed
Applying pedagogies to wicked problems in geography
This paper will introduce the idea of âwickedâ or âmessyâ problems, and review the latest ideas on how it can be integrated into curricula and facilitated into our teaching. We will discuss how the approach fits in with the recent trend towards inter-disciplinary collaboration between university departments, and the stimulation of imaginations, creativity and critical thinking. We will briefly critique the opportunities and challenges of teaching âwickedâ or âmessyâ problems, considering issues such as: facilitating of students working in small, multi- or transdisciplinary teams; using multiple methodologies in teaching; using effective learning and teaching approaches; and the practicalities of translating research into effective teaching. Finally, we ask whether communities of practice will naturally evolve, and what role geographers have to play in such developments
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