Summary

The teaching of 16-19 ecology provides many opportunities to draw together synoptic links and concepts within biology, embracing molecular, whole-organism, population, community and ecosystem level disciplines within the subject. Fieldwork is important too for supporting effective biology and ecology teaching, particularly if its full potential to practise scientific enquiry and methodology is enabled. However, undertaking fieldwork may cause problems for some schools and colleges and there is growing evidence that the provision of A level biology fieldwork is declining. This paper considers the present trends and related issues and proposes a number of solutions to improve the effectiveness of ecology teaching and fieldwork delivery. The following aspects were viewed as being particularly important:

• Striking a balance between delivering ecological skills, techniques and content across the entire biology curriculum;
• Reviewing the role of fieldwork and associated assessment in coursework;
• Developing more imaginative resources, including those which can support local fieldwork and demonstrate ecology’s potential in contemporary research and careers;
• Demonstrating how fieldwork can help to deliver educational progression between key stages from foundation, through 16-19 and into Higher Education;
• Supporting fieldwork training at all levels, from Initial Teacher Training to Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

For the recommendations made in this report to be achieved, multi-agency action is essential. This will involve DfES, QCA, Awarding Bodies, Ofsted, teachers (in schools, colleges and higher education colleges) and external providers such as the FSC and BES.

"biological fieldwork provides one of the few places in a science curriculum where students quite literally observe the real world ... Biology is a broad and diverse subject, which is becoming more fragmented as new disciplines emerge"

Areas of concern

The main areas highlighted by workshop participants were:

• The poor status of ecology amongst teachers and students despite its relatively high profile and importance in curricula, including A level specifications;
• The declining levels of field experience needed to support effective ecology teaching, particularly amongst teachers who have entered the profession in recent years;
• The decline in teachers’ confidence and competence relating to teaching ecology;
• The lack of development of local opportunities for delivering effective ecology teaching and fieldwork;
• The lack of relevance of some ecology teaching to students;
• The inappropriate ways in which ecological skills and content are sometimes taught;
• The constraints imposed by a strong association with assessment (fieldwork and coursework assessment are frequently seen as synonymous);
• The lack of defined progression in ecology fieldwork from early school years up to A level;
• The frequent lack of school/departmental policy for fieldwork;
• The failure to integrate fieldwork into the teaching programme and school/college administration.

Why bother with ecology?

Before considering how best to deliver effective ecology teaching, the role of ecology within biology needs to be considered. There are a number of reasons why ecology has an important place in the teaching of science and in the biology content:

• Providing a balanced perspective. Ecology links together many other biological disciplines and provides an over-arching view for biology as a whole. This conceptual map provides the academic foundation from which informed decisions can be made at whole organism and community level.
• Providing contacts with whole organisms. There are few opportunities in the biology curriculum for students to experience living plants and animals. It is this contact which provides a powerful tool for developing an understanding of, and in many cases a sympathy for, living organisms.
• Providing a wider perspective. The fact that ecology lies at the core of biology, with many synoptic links to other parts of the subject, means that it is also critical to the science underpinning wider environmental and conservation issues. It is a vital part of cross-curricular teaching for topics such as Education for Sustainable Development.

• Enabling the practising of real science. The teaching of ecology also provides strong opportunities for students to carry out original research. Because much of ecological research is rooted outside the classroom, the practical teaching of ecology can introduce students to ‘real’ science, showing how scientific methodology can work in situations which are more unpredictable and less easily organised than the ‘sanitised’ situations encountered in classrooms and laboratories. Without this experience students can lack an understanding of science and an appreciation of the real capacity of scientists to deliver answers to environmental questions.

Is it possible to teach ecology without fieldwork?

Although it is possible to teach ecology in the classroom or laboratory it is difficult to achieve effectively the ecological content of most biology A level specifications without working outside the classroom. There are other reasons why fieldwork should be encouraged. It will help students to:

• Appreciate the capacity of science to illuminate the unknown. Fieldwork provides strong opportunities to generate data and practice original research. This ‘real world’ experience introduces students to science which can be unpredictable and contradictory. In short, it is the ideal vehicle for teaching practical and transferable scientific methodology and skills. Real world, small scale and local studies can provide knowledge and understanding to transfer to similar or larger scale case studies in other areas. Without this experience, A level students will have a sanitised and misleading impression of the scientific method. This may contribute to unrealistic expectations of what scientists can do, and the answers and guarantees that they can provide.
• Understand that books do not have all the answers. Fieldwork may provide the only opportunity for students to investigate living animals and plants which are interacting with each other and the world around them. It is the first time that students may realise that animals and plants may not fit the tidy ‘identikit’ images portrayed in books and virtual environments. Many major scientific discoveries have resulted from unpredictable and random observations of natural phenomena; the outdoor experience is the only effective way of introducing students to the potential, and challenges, of such observations.
• Understand that fieldwork is useful for careers. Fieldwork provides some basic natural history and investigatory experience and skills which are lacking from virtual or classroom teaching. Field skills are needed to support work in the environmental sector. Currently, there is a shortfall in skills such as field surveying and identification, areas in which the UK used to be a world leader.¹
• Make life-defining decisions. Fieldwork can be novel and inspiring; it can lead to life-defining decisions. It can help to broaden horizons, both literally and educationally, and offers great potential for personal development, building independence, self esteem, self confidence and teamwork.⁷ Such potentially life-defining opportunities for biologists need to be celebrated and nutured.
• Benefit from more effective teaching. Whilst attention often focuses on pressures and demands, fieldwork can be highly effective in developing mutual understanding between teachers and students which enhances the effectiveness of learning and can provide motivation which transfers/remains after the fieldwork experience.
• Understand that bunnies aren’t people. Fieldwork may also help to diminish the excessive degree of anthropomorphism which characterises some students’ work.

Barriers and solutions

There are obvious benefits to including ecology in the biology syllabus, and fieldwork can be an important tool in helping to deliver effective ecology teaching. However, there are obstacles to such teaching. Those which were considered particularly important by workshop participants are listed below; alongside are suggestions for possible solutions.

Barrier 1

The reputation of ecology

Despite the apparent strengths and advantages that ecology confers on biology as a whole it can create a polarisation of views. Teachers tend to be either strongly supportive of ecology, or strongly against it ². Their students have similar views. Whether the latter group is influenced by their teachers, or whether there is something about the nature of ecology which elicits these strong opinions is unknown.

One particular difficulty for ecology is its breadth and complexity. Somehow a balance needs to be struck between the very broad foundation needed in ecology (where professional ecologists have listed over 50 key principles and concepts underlying their subject) and a contemporary research orientation which may be highly topical and, therefore, intrinsically more interesting to many students.

The fact that this balance is still not being achieved is revealed conclusively by recent research involving teachers and students ². One view which is often expressed in this recent research is that ecology is an old-fashioned subject, and not associated with up-to-date scientific research. It lacks relevance to the real jobs and practical applications such as medicine and pharmacology². This misconception needs to be addressed. A research orientation within ecology teaching will also strengthen the scientific base from which students view their role as beneficiaries and custodians of the world around them. It can provide some scientific substance which is too often lost in the froth and superficiality which surrounds environmental issues.

The profile in the curriculum

Although the QCA biology subject criteria for AS/A2 level have allowed Awarding Bodies to place ecology anywhere in the two year course, most specifications have adopted a similar approach and have allocated most of the content to module(s) in the A2 (second) year. Overall, the space given to ecology is adequate, occupying up to 20% of the available time and there is no evidence that ecology has a lower profile in contemporary specifications than in previous years. However, its delivery is being influenced by its position (almost exclusively in A2) which has resulted in a marked periodicity in the delivery of associated fieldwork³ (mainly after June AS modules or between mid-September and autumn half-term) which has also led to temporary pressure on available space through fieldwork providers such as the FSC. This periodicity is also affected by avoidance of some periods (eg. late-Autumn and early-Christmas terms) because the weather is regarded as too inclement for fieldwork, subjects competing for timetable space, the need to cover other parts of the specification, and revision and preparation for examinations.

Fieldwork is not a mandatory requirement and in some specifications there are alternatives to fieldwork. There is evidence from a number of sources that the provision of fieldwork has declined over a long period, but this fall has been more marked since Curriculum 2000 was introduced³.

The fact that most biology fieldwork is taught as part of the second year (A2) courses, and students can choose to drop biology between the first and second years, produces uncertainty for teachers who are organising fieldwork far ahead of the event itself. This can create logistical and budgetary difficulties.

Thought should also be given to the progression of fieldwork throughout the secondary science curriculum. The A level provision should be built on work carried out in earlier years. Without this progression, the impact of fieldwork will be diminished (see also section 5).

An imbalance of content and skills

The teaching of ecology is often delivered through a fieldwork event. It is frequently undermined by an overwhelming and distorted focus on practical skills and techniques, which sometimes leaves whole areas of ecology untouched. This means that the true potential for ecology teaching to deliver synoptic elements of biology, and a deeper understanding of the nature of science, is not achieved. This is a major omission in achieving the public understanding of science and contemporary issues which underpins much of the recent curriculum developments and wider government policy.

The strong association of ecology fieldwork with assessed coursework is a relatively recent phenomenon which has influenced the way in which the subject is taught in the field. Whilst it is undeniable that fieldwork provides unique opportunities for data gathering, statistical analysis and ICT applications, this may be one of the major reasons why the broader scope of ecology is lost (see 1 above). With it goes the opportunity to show how ecology is involved in many contemporary issues which affect the students and their communities and habitats (see above), both locally and further afield.

The association between fieldwork and coursework does, however, provide a justification for continuing to deliver fieldwork. It is a negotiating tool for teachers and other advocates when dealing with managers, colleagues and parents. The fact that the loss of the coursework link may weaken fieldwork provision needs to recognised and countered.

Declining expertise

This is at the heart of the decline in biology fieldwork. Biology teachers with whom fieldwork has an emotional resonance are declining in numbers as are those with fieldwork experience; new recruits to teaching have less experience of fieldwork themselves, with increasing numbers coming from laboratory or classroom-based disciplines. It is likely that without external pressure and support, factors such as health and safety, cost, intransigent colleagues, pressure from teaching unions, parental concerns and students’ jobs will exacerbate the decline ^{4, 5,}.

If allowed to continue, this trend will result in schools losing the ‘tradition’ of offering fieldwork to support biology teaching and it will be much more difficult to re-instate fieldwork in the future, particularly as supporting resources such as books and equipment, and knowledge about sites, techniques and fieldwork procedures also fade away. Low levels of fieldwork provision are already the norm in lower secondary science teaching ^{3, 4, 5}. These trends will also exacerbate the declining levels of expertise amongst trainee teachers who are trained increasingly in schools rather than through higher education courses.

The interest in and support for biology fieldwork contrasts strongly with geography teaching⁴.

At present, there is no formal need for levels of combined science or biology fieldwork provision to be included in Ofsted inspections. Recent surveys by the FSC have shown that levels of fieldwork provision are rarely commented on in inspection reports.⁸ This means inevitably that the value of fieldwork is downgraded; ‘if it isn’t inspected, it isn’t important’.

Poor progression between education stages

Most secondary curriculum documents between Key Stage 3 and Post-16 do contain ‘guidance’ comments on fieldwork. However, there is no overview which is available which shows how progression can be achieved through all key stages. As a result, much of the potential to build skills, knowledge and understanding through progressively developed fieldwork is lost. ‘Not pond dipping again!’ is a common refrain.

This lack of obvious progression continues into the transition of ecology teaching between sixth forms and higher education and is producing the greatest mismatch in skills and knowledge compared to other disciplines such as human biology and physiology². Environmental biologists are the least well prepared for higher education. This may be symptomatic of the weak links between Awarding Bodies/QCA and Higher Education (HE), but exacerbated in ecology’s case by the relative lack of lobbying by subject bodies and specialist societies.

Preparing for and structuring fieldwork

Fieldwork often suffers from being disjointed from the rest of the biology curriculum. The fact that it is often used to deliver the skills and techniques components of the ecology ‘module’, and/or is the vehicle for completing coursework probably adds to its disembodiment from the rest of the subject, thus undermining its potential synoptic value and negating a powerful opportunity to demonstrate its value to the subject as a whole.

This problem is exacerbated if fieldwork is delivered through pre-determined ‘packages’ — where the curriculum is determined and constrained by external providers who impose restrictions on what they deliver. Such inflexible packages are unlikely to be able to deliver the breadth and depth of subject matter which are needed by teachers and students who are coming from a large variety of backgrounds.

Practising skills and techniques, or merely collecting raw data, should not be the sole purpose of fieldwork. A narrow teaching approach such as this, often allied to a lack of time, stifles the creativity and scope for original research which outdoor activity offers.⁷ Fieldwork needs to be structured so that time for reflection is available. Ecological fieldwork is a powerful learning tool because it helps to bring some sense and order to a very complex subject; it is, however, also potentially confusing unless students and teachers are able to reflect on their own learning.

These limitations have been recognised in the Key Stage 3 Science Strategy’s Framework for Teaching Science. The Strategy’s professional development activities and guidance supports teachers in using the Schemes of Work to encourage pupils to consider what they have learned and to check their own progress. The development of these ‘thinking skills’ are also important analytical tools for scientists because they encourage students to apply their knowledge to unfamiliar situations such as those which are often encountered outside the classroom. A similar approach could be adopted for A level teaching if the balance of focus moved away from an overwhelming need to deliver content, techniques and skills (see Section 3 above).

The location of fieldwork

Teachers should not confuse field work with field courses. An ideal starting point for many students could be fieldwork local to schools and colleges, using local resources such as identification keys which include locally occurring animals and plants. Fieldwork need not take place long distances from the school; a relatively brief out-of-classroom experience in the school or its neighbouring environment can provide an effective introduction to fieldwork and can provide a launch pad in progression from the classroom to a fieldwork in a more distant, novel environment. The potential impact of longer residentials in more distant or ‘novel’ environments should not be underestimated, particularly in providing wider educational and personal development opportunities for students who may not prosper in more familiar, local or classroom situations. The impact of such experiences — both on cognitive and personal/social development — has been demonstrated worldwide⁷.

Organising biology fieldwork is difficult within schools and colleges with large numbers of candidates and, therefore, the potential administrative knock-on effects of timetabling biology field courses. Here again, local fieldwork may be a suitable provision. A series of local events, staggered over time, can be effective, although impacts on local habitats do need to be considered. There is evidence that a time-delayed progression of events (including associated ‘indoor’ activities such as classroom preparation, analysis, reflection and interpretation) can be more effective than all-inclusive fieldwork ‘oneoff’ events. This is probably even more true for a complicated subject such as ecology. However, although the progression that can be achieved through structured events such as these is defined in various curriculum documents it needs to be clarified in a separate standalone document for ecology and associated fieldwork so that students and teachers are more aware of their educational purposes (see section 5).