Philipp NAMBERGER, LMU Munich, Department of Geography, Economic Geography, Germany
Travel is known to broaden horizons. Against this background, the aim of this study is to identify the actual scope and nature of the knowledge and (soft) skills acquired by students during a ten-day field trip to Northern Germany in September 2021. The field trip, which focuses on various aspects of human geography such as urban development, tourism and retail geography, the aviation and automotive industry, the cultural sector, the energy sector, and many more, is part of the geography program at the University of Munich and primarily involves student presentations and visits with experts from academia and practice. In this context, the learning processes of twelve students are analyzed using the method of reflexive photography. Each student has to take two to three pictures a day, capturing things and situations that are new to them, that they did not expect, that they have not known or been aware of before. The pictures help them to identify, describe, analyze and eventually evaluate the skills and abilities they have acquired. Thus, a broad range of different knowledge and skill sets can be identified, including geography-related expertise but also soft skills such as social competences. It can be shown that these skills are developed through specific situations during the field trip and that students bring different background knowledge and preferences to the field trip that influence the perceptions of their individual experience. The results gained by the method of reflexive photography provide valuable insights into what exactly students learn from their experience and how they evaluate it. Furthermore, the results are contrasted with those of a comparable field trip to Toronto, Niagara Falls, Detroit and Chicago in September 2017. In doing so, it can also be shown how the method of reflexive photography reflects language skills and intercultural competencies. In more general terms, the results are also relevant e.g. for tourism and perceptual geography.
Mots clés : reflexive photography|field trips|human geography|perception|knowledge and skill sets
A104067PN