Methods in a place: bringing together language, ecology and geography for a final-year undergraduate field course

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi37.1781

Keywords:

experiential learning, peer-to-peer learning, enquiry-based approaches, stakeholder engagement, employability, teamwork

Abstract

The ability to work in interdisciplinary teams is becoming increasingly important in academic environments and the workplace. However, few university programmes deliver course content in truly interdisciplinary formats, instead structuring coursework around traditional disciplinary boundaries. This project’s aims were to:

  1. Include student partners in designing an interdisciplinary, experiential course where content was structured around a shared physical place rather than disciplinary boundaries.
  2. Embed authentic interactions with external stakeholders to enhance learning through an enquiry-based approach.

Staff and students from across three colleges within the University of Glasgow co-designed activities for a cross-disciplinary, final-year undergraduate field course, following Gibson et al.’s (2019) ‘three-faculty rule’. During spring 2024, a team of five staff and eight students representing the Schools of Geography and Earth Science, Biodiversity, One Health and Comparative Medicine, and Celtic and Gaelic Studies worked together to structure and then deliver lecture- and practical-based course content centred on the cultural heritage, language, landscape, and species conservation of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The programme consisted of a one-week intensive set of lectures delivered primarily by the student partners, followed by a one-week residential visit to this location. While on-site the team met with a range of stakeholders and visited locations that provided a central focus for student enquiry. After the course, student partners authored draft intended learning outcomes (ILOs), proposed assessment methods, and provided feedback on the stakeholders, locations, and sessions from their experience.

The informal spaces and novel surroundings created by the course facilitated learning and an awareness of the value of different disciplinary approaches to a shared problem (Chan and Wheeler, 2023) and deepened student appreciation of their discipline. Overall, this project demonstrated that interdisciplinary coursework at the final-year undergraduate level can be highly successful due to a more holistic approach and increased student confidence.

Author Biographies

Hannah Mathers, University of Glasgow

Hannah Mathers is a senior lecturer in Geographical and Earth Sciences working on inclusive practice in geography field work.

Cara Captain, University of Glasgow

Cara Captain is the lead student partner on the project, who graduated in June 2025. She is currently studying a Masters degree related to invertebrate biology.

Millie Bompard, University of Glasgow

Millie Bompard is a sedimentologist working to design education-related teaching materials and support inclusivity in the field.

Natasha Walker-Milne, University of Glasgow

Natasha Walker-Milne is a Teaching Fellow in Marine and Freshwater Biology, working with marine conservation, biodiversity markets, underwater technologies, and field course teaching.

Anna McGregor, University of Glasgow

Anna McGregor is a senior lecturer in Ecology and the Environment, working on marine ecology and coastal issues, alongside student skills development and employability.

References

Chan, K. Y. K. and Wheeler, J. D. (2023) ‘Common interests without common expertise: reflections on early-career experiences in cross-disciplinary research’, Integrative and Comparative Biology, 63(6), pp.1543-1549. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icad035

Gibson, C., Stutchbury, T., Ikutegbe, V. and Michielin, N. (2019) ‘Challenge-led interdisciplinary research in practice: program design, early career research, and a dialogic approach to building unlikely collaborations’, Research Evaluation, 28(1), pp.51-62. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvy039

Van Beveren, L., Roets, G., Buysse, A. and Rutten, K. (2018) ‘We all reflect, but why? A systematic review of the purposes of reflection in higher education in Social and Behavioral Sciences’, Educational Research Review, 24(June), pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2018.01.002

Downloads

Published

30-09-2025

How to Cite

Mathers, H., Captain, C., Bompard, M., Walker-Milne, N., & McGregor, A. (2025). Methods in a place: bringing together language, ecology and geography for a final-year undergraduate field course. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (37). https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi37.1781

Issue

No. 37 (2025): Special Edition, ALDinHE Conference Proceedings and Reflections

Section

Conference Proceedings

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).