Advantages
Students are encouraged to choose sites of interest to them. Additionally they must discuss emotional and embodied engagements to these. This personalised approach gives students a sense of ownership over their work leading to higher levels of engagement and originality. Through its practical requirements and pedagogical underpinnings, this assessment applies theory beyond the classroom and fosters a sense of independence and creativity in students. Using objects and places (and emotional and embodied responses to these) as the basis for learning is an approach to assessment that is easily transferrable across HaSS disciplines.
Challenges
Students may become anxious about the embodied,
practical
element of the task or choosing their own field sites. This can be mitigated by clearly and thoroughly explaining the task during class time and allowing additional time to consult with students
Tips for implementation
It is important to provide students with a list of potential sites that they can visit but also encourage them to choose others beyond this pending staff approval.
How it supports academic integrity
This assessment is based on a first-hand field visit in which the must apply theoretical concepts in a specific, embodied way – this may act as a deterrent to plagiarism and ghost writing. In addition to submitting their final comparative essay , students could also be asked to provide hand- written field notes from their visits to further ensure the originality of observations and subsequent work. These notes, on-site videos or 'selfie' photos could act to secure against the use of generative AI.