Geography Education Research (GER) Challenges and Opportunities at Master’s Level

1. Geography Education Research (GER) Challenges and Opportunities at Master’s Level Dr Mary Fargher m.fargher@ucl.ac.uk Geography UCL IOE @IOE_mageoged

2. curriculum development practice with a view to improving the quality of the geography curriculum experience for young people. • richer theoretical understanding of curriculum development in geographical education • integration of theoretical knowledge and understanding of geographical education and research methods in geographical education in tandem with their own experiences and practices in schools and education. MA GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION AT UCL IOE https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/courses/graduate-taught/education-geography-ma

3. 2018/19 (Our 50th year!) MA Geog Ed dissertations Does geography have an image problem? Do different GIS have contrasting impacts on pupil’s geographical understanding? To what extent do BYOD (bring your own devices) enhance geographical teaching and learning? Whose curriculum? Developing curriculum coherence through action research. How can the professional geography teacher become empowered as an expert? To what extent can teachers ‘find PDK’ in the new GCSE? On putting the geography back into (A level) geography. The effectiveness of using augmented reality in teaching map skills in Hong Kong. Beyond the map : To what extent can GIS support powerful geographical thinking? How much do young people value their geography education? Powerful geography and the International Baccalaureate – A case study in Dar Es Salaam.

4. Dissertation in Geography Education + Integrated Research Methods module Part 1: The Integrated Research Methods (Autumn term) aimed at supporting students develop the research skills and understanding required for carrying out a piece of research • Submission of research proposal at the end of Autumn term • Allocation of supervisor in January Part 2: Carrying out the research (Spring & Summer Term) • Individual supervision session (equivalent of face-to-face support from their supervisor and an additional 5 hours of support in the form of reading and providing feedback on your drafts ) • Submission deadline 1st September

5. The on-line self study units

6. Support already in place for students…………….

7. But still challenges…………………… ‘Quite a lot of the activities / forum posts required you to have a topic to talk about, but early on, people didn't really have a good idea about what they were going to write about yet.’ ‘Personally I kept thinking about the practicality to do my focus of interest for the dissertation. At first I wanted to do research which involves students as participants, but then I have limited access to students. I had so many ideas as well, but when thinking about time to conduct the research, I was discouraged’. ‘My topic changed and I was assured that this is normal, so I didn't worry about it changing. I wish I could see a summary video to make the methodologies clear and simple to understand - I often find them mind-boggling to read about. I wanted to hear it explained in very simple terms.’

8. What our students said about the challenges and opportunities of carrying out Master’s research • They value the peer-support in carrying out research and the advice of their module tutor • But they would like more ‘real’ collaboration with others • They would welcome input and opportunities from more knowledgeable others who had studied the research module before and had already completed their dissertations

9. https://youtu.be/JNj2_kLtz00

10. CC Collab CC Collabis a scheme to support innovative collaborations across departments and faculties for advancing the UCL Connected Curriculum (CC) Colleagues from more than one department were invited to work with their students on addressing either the third or the sixth dimension of the CC • Students make connections across subjects and out to the world (3rd dimension), or • Students connect with each other across phases and with alumni (6th dimension)

11. Challenges and opportunities in choosing a research topic and carrying out a dissertation project: Drawing on alumni’s experiences • Designed a survey for current students on our Dissertation modules • Launched the survey • Contacted alumni on the three MA programmes from 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17 cohorts

12. The project Students connect with each other across phases and with alumni Aims To create opportunities for students to learn from alumni through: • accessing short videoswherealumni talk about their own experiences of conceptualising a coherent research proposal and carrying out their research investigation and • participation in a student mentoring session (in a live forum discussion), where students have the opportunity to enquire further into alumni’s experiences and ask more specific questions related to their own research Video 1 https://moodle-1819.ucl.ac.uk/mod/helixmedia/view.php?id=677721 Video 2 https://moodle-1819.ucl.ac.uk/mod/helixmedia/view.php?id=677861

13. The survey

15. Data analysis and results fed back into programmes • Feedback analysed by the project team to inform drafting of the interview schedule with the alumni, leading to recording a short video (7 min); • Each student lead carried out a focus interview with a group of max 5 students in their subject specific programme area, for a further informing the interview protocol; • Student Leads in the three programmes met together to further sharpen the interview schedule. • 12 alumni selected; interview protocol emailed to them; responses to interview questions drafted in writing by alumni and emailed to the project team; • Project team to support alumni in refining their responses and finalising the scripts for the videos • Alumni invited to UCL Institute of Education to record the videos; • Autumn 2018 : Videos uploaded to Moodle area and made available to GEMS students; •  January - February 2019: A mentoring meeting to take place through Moodle, led by each of the Student Leads in each subject. • Collation and analysis of findings across all of the subjects surveyed March – June 2019. • Integration of findings into planning for Dissertation modules 2019-20 June – July 2019.

16. Outputs of the project • improved provision of resources through creation of 12 video cases of alumni sharing their experiences that led to successful completion of their dissertations/reports; • Video 1 https://moodle-1819.ucl.ac.uk/mod/helixmedia/view.php?id=677721/ • Video 2 https://moodle-1819.ucl.ac.uk/mod/helixmedia/view.php?id=677861 • creating a database of case-studies of ‘best-practice’ in supporting PGT students gain an insight into implications of the choice of and use of a variety of methodological approaches; • we expect our recommendations to be relevant beyond the MA in the GEMS cluster and hence be of potential benefit to future students on the full range of taught postgraduate MA in Education programmes, irrespective of their subject specialism. • Sharing our findings across the department and the wider university.