Patricia LORENZ
Ridge View Residential College
plorenz@nus.edu.sg
Lorenz, P. (2023). The SFI experience: exploring the Malaysian jungle to facilitate deep learning [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/paper-presentations/the-sfi-experience-exploring-the-malaysian-jungle-to-facilitate-deep-learning/
SUB-THEME
Communities and Education
KEYWORDS
Outdoor learning, SFI, student centric education
CATEGORY
Paper Presentation
ABSTRACT
This paper presentation in the sub-theme of “Communities and Education” examines how a newly created SFI course in the Communities and Engagement pillar of the NUS General Education (GE) Programme can facilitate deep academic learning, while engaging the students extensively in the field. Crossing the border to Malaysia can hardly be described as unchartered frontiers, and a trip modern-day Malaysia is a far cry from the experiences of the first explorers who mapped the mangroves, swamps, and jungles of the Malayan peninsular centuries ago. Yet, for many city-dwelling Singaporean students a five-hour trek through a tropical forest in Pahang might seem as alien as the unchartered terrains of peninsular Malaysia was to seasoned explorers of the past. The newly created Southeast Asia Funding Initiative (SFI) encourages academic staff of residential colleges at NUS to create credit-bearing courses with an extensive field trip component that exposes students to the ASEAN region. Under SFI a four-credit point course needs to engage students for at least 10 days abroad. A course that features such an extensive overseas field trip has to engage students a lot less in the classroom, which beckons the question whether deep academic learning can be facilitated in such a course. Avid outdoor educators will surely argue for the benefits of learning experiences outside the classroom, while many academics might reason that outdoor education lacks academic rigour (Putting nature back in human nature, 2023; Why Singapore’s “Otterman” believes in learning beyond the classroom, 2022).
This presentation examines the students’ learning experiences during RVN2002 “Wild Asia: Conservation Matters”, a course newly created under SFI and first offered to students of Ridge View Residential College in Special Term 1 of Academic Year 2022/23. As the title suggests, the course focuses on conservation efforts within the Southeast Asian region. As this course is offered under the Community and Engagement pillar of the NUS GE Programme, it requires students to actively engage with community partners and participate in community partner projects. Beyond this, students are continuously exposed to the natural world and explore forest trails in three ecologically significant areas of Peninsular Malaysia; namely the Sungei Yu Ecological Corridor, Taman Negara, and Fraser’s Hill. Prior to the overseas field trip, students participate in five educational sessions and one local field trip. Two of the academic sessions are purely student-led and engage students in peer teaching sessions, providing background knowledge relevant for the overseas experience. As such, the course is highly student-centric and encourages self-directed learning, which previous research has demonstrated to be highly beneficial (Lorenz & Guan, 2023). The candid reflections of students gathered and discussed on the last day of the overseas field trip illustrate the benefits of engaging the students in novel outdoor learning experiences. Student reflections expressed the beneficial exposure to the unknown, “this trip offered the opportunity to discover so much beyond what I was familiar with”; highlighted the value of experiential learning, “there’s a wealth of knowledge and experiences outside of the classroom that cannot be replicated”; and demonstrated that deep learning took place, “if any school trip I’ve had in my life was eye- opening it has to be this”. As such, students’ reflections on their personal learning journey demonstrate clearly that such unconventional modes of outdoor and experiential learning provide an academic platform to engage students more holistically and facilitate deeper learning than conventional courses.
REFERENCES
Lorenz, P. & Guan, Y. (2023). Engaging students in cross-disciplinary module design: a case study on the co-creation of a sustainability module in Singapore. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 6(1), Special Section 1-16. https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2023.6.1.ss6
Putting nature back in human nature: Exploring Asia’s environmental challenges (2023, March 2). NUS News. https://news.nus.edu.sg/putting-nature-back-in-human-nature-exploring-asias-environmental-challenges/
Why Singapore’s “Otterman” believes in learning beyond the classroom (2022, December 21). NUS News. https://news.nus.edu.sg/why-singapores-otterman-believes-in-learning-beyond-the-classroom/
