Outdoor education in the UK has been growing in popularity and with it a further understanding of its benefits. Research shows that many young people still don’t access natural environments and many educators still struggle with how to provide them. This is particularly prevalent in urban environments where spatial inequality has been linked to a decline in health, well-being and personal development. Community mapping involves a community coming together to create a map of their locality and share local knowledge. This can take many forms. Sometimes it might be a traditional cartographic map while other times it may be stories, sculptures or poems. In this research I explore how community mapping can be used as a pedagogical tool, looking particularly at how it can help educators approach outdoor education in an urban environment. I take a teacher action research approach, inspired by previous art-based approaches to educational inquiry. Through doing a community mapping project with two groups of 8 to 10 year olds on an urban farm in central London I share the visable and often invisible components of our pedagogies, including children’s voices and work as well as the voice of myself and another educators, reflecting on the realities of outdoor education in an urban environment. I discover the cross curricular possibilities that such a project brings, the spaces it opens up for us to learn from children’s voices and the many ways in which community mapping can be used to address aims and goals of the UK primary curriculum. Community mapping can help educators overcome a lack of confidence in how to approach outdoor learning. The child-led nature of projects can allow children and educators to work together to co-create their understanding of the locality, noticing the small details they hadn’t seen before. It can provide a space for educators to learn more about how the young people they work with see the world around them while also providing authentic experiences that can be utilized in wider classroom learning. This research allows other educators to take away what resonates with them, with their experiences and pedagogies, and use these new understandings to enhance their own educational practices in their own settings.

This study investigates the use of co-operative learning in the teaching of mapwork to Geography students in tertiary education. Diverse methods of teaching Geography mapwork and also theories of learning that are relevant to the teaching of mapwork are discussed. Co-operative learning, and how it can be employed in the teaching of mapwork is fully explained. The study revealed that co-operative learning method can help students to achieve higher marks in mapwork. It is an instructional method that uses small groups of students working together to meet educational goals. The approach relies on interaction and interdependence and thus is especially suited to higher level conceptual tasks requiring problem-solving and decision-making. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

This study investigates the use of co-operative learning in the teaching of mapwork to Geography students in tertiary education. Diverse methods of teaching Geography mapwork and also theories of learning that are relevant to the teaching of mapwork are discussed. Co-operative learning, and how it can be employed in the teaching of mapwork is fully explained. The study revealed that co-operative learning method can help students to achieve higher marks in mapwork. It is an instructional method that uses small groups of students working together to meet educational goals. The approach relies on interaction and interdependence and thus is especially suited to higher level conceptual tasks requiring problem-solving and decision-making. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

MEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies / The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges prevalent in teaching mapwork in Geography at Grade 12. The researcher adopted the mixed-methods research design which, combines elements of the qualitative and quantitative approaches. The researcher used an interview schedule and questionnaires to collect data. Purposive sampling and simple random sampling were used to select participants for the study. The population comprised of Heads of Departments of Geography, Geography teachers and Grade 12 learners. The Qualitative sample consisted of 5 Heads of Departments of Geography and 5 Geography teachers. The Questionnaires were administered on 150 learners. The researcher analysed the qualitative data thematically. The Quantitative data was analysed through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The findings showed that the dearth of learner-teacher support materials and overcrowded classrooms are the major set back on teaching Geography mapwork at Grade 12. The study recommended that the Department of Basic Education should provide schools with enough learner-support materials and construct enough classrooms at schools, so that there is a conducive teaching-learning environment. / NRF