Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

This module has been designed for students taking Geo2138, to open up the potential for a transformative Experiential Learning (EL) pathway in the geography curriculum, to consolidate and advance their practice-based and reflective learning (social responsibility, emotional resilience and all-round life skills).

Geo2138 ran in 2022/23 for the last time (to be replaced with Geo2238) so there will be at most 14 students who fulfil the pre-requisites.

The challenge for EL is not only to provide students with opportunities to acquire graduate skills, on and off campus, through the curriculum, but also to support students to recognise and articulate their personal development journey, so that they can draw on meaningful examples to explain how they have gained strengths and competencies and how this is shaping their world-view. Students taking the co-taught EL modules GEO2138 and GEO3143 (both cohorts being new to this approach) report that they best appreciate how much they have grown in confidence and insight at the very end of the year, and then wish that they could ‘take the module again’ to apply this self-awareness in a more focussed way. This is why this module will be available at stage 3 ONLY, and then restricted to students successfully completing GEO2138. This is why numbers are not capped, because eligible students will be limited in number and they will follow a bespoke supervised advanced project.

Co Requisite Comment

Eligible students are any that have taken GEO2138 – already limited to F800 and L701 students who will be taking GEO3099.

Aims

This is an 'engaged learning' ‘project’ module which requires the student to undertake 50-70 hours of community engagement/project development in collaboration with an approved third sector partner (typically the community organising alliance, Tyne and Wear Citizens). The practical aspects of engagement comprise a blended format of desk-based action research via online collaboration with external non-profit partners, combined with in-person activities - campaigning or organizing for social change on and off campus.

Any student taking this ‘advanced’ community engagement project module will have successfully completed GEO2138 through group volunteering with an external VCSE organization. The aim is that they will develop a project proposal (of campus-community engagement, activism, campaigning etc.,) that strengthens mutually beneficial relationships with the external partner through agreed personal interests and goals.

Alongside the experience of community engagement and a personally rewarding project (of community organizing and voluntary social and/or environmental action), the course will give students further opportunities to reflect independently on first-hand experience of working in a voluntary sector, non-profit or social enterprise setting, strengthening skills of social responsibility and emotional resilience introduced at the start of this EL pathway in stage 2.

Students taking the ‘advanced’ module will benefit from continuing peer-support and supervision alongside students taking the co-taught GEO2238/GEO3338. In addition, they will be encouraged to share learning and insights with their peers as part of the workshops intended to build a community of practice for reflective learning.

This module provides a ‘pathway’ to advance:

Students’ skills in developing, undertaking and reporting on community engagement.

Opportunities to develop graduate employability skills and gain an insight into Geography-related graduate careers.

Opportunity to develop key transferable skills that are immediately relevant to a geography graduate career.

Outline Of Syllabus

Semester 1 and 2 (exact split flexible to suit the needs of the partner organization)
This is a practice-based ‘experiential learning’ (EL) academic module that counts towards a final degree. Expectations of directed and self-directed study are equivalent with the co-taught GEO2138/GEO3143 module, with shared classes to allow for peer learning and skills practice, and closely aligned with NCL3008 (Advanced Career Development – for students who have completed NCL2007).

As with Geo2138 before it, the syllabus is organized around 4 elements and ways of learning.
1. 10 x 2 hour workshops comprising a combination of taught content and interactive, collaborative learning.
2. Doing Geography via an individual advanced project in partnership with local organizations (50-70 hours) learning and practising skills of community organizing and coalition building (on a continuum of advocacy and activism).
3. Online collaboration with external partners and structured guided learning via a mix of online training and conference opportunities, and short films and documentaries to discuss. Collaborative online Structured guided learning with external partners:
4. embedded reflection and evaluation strategies that involve keeping a regular diary, contributing feedback to class, and preparing strength-based narrative scenarios (as if for a job interview).

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of the module the student will:

1.       Demonstrate critical understanding of the theories, practices and politics of community-based research practice and community organizing

2.       Have a clear awareness of the processes of knowledge production, and the impacts of knowledge that characterise mainstream geographical research

3.       Negotiate and facilitate a clearly defined collaborative research activity using appropriate methods

4.       Demonstrate critical understanding and reflection of the relationship between people working as/with volunteers and with community organisations in partnerships

5.       Have a sound knowledge and understanding of how skills and knowledge developed during their academic studies can translate into civil society and the workplace

6.       Be able to assess the skills they have developed during the volunteer placement

7.       Respond well to interview questions (in a mock interview assessment) to demonstrate personal strengths, graduate skills and insights.
8.       Demonstrate capabilities across four skill-sets: cognitive/intellectual skills; self-management (e.g. self-awareness and reflection); interaction (e.g. Interpersonal communication, collaboration and relationship building); and application (e.g. occupational awareness and social responsibility).

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of the module the student will have developed:

1.       The ability to manage their own time, workload and personal development within their work placement and within their degree programme

2.       The ability to use reflective learning to identify new skills

3.       The ability to use existing and new knowledge to work effectively within a work situation

4.       The ability to synthesize their degree and work placement environments and to identify the interconnections between the two

The ability to collect, analyse, critically evaluate and present appropriately, evidence relating to the competence of their skills development and performance

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The teaching methods relate to the different aspects of this module. The workshops combine elements of taught lecture content alongside interactive activities (circle arrangement). The supervised practical sessions provide learning opportunities tailored to the focus of the 'advanced' project, aiming where possible to distinguish this from group placements running alongside in the jointly taught modules Geo2238/GEo3338. Co-teaching benefits students working on individual project by practising critical pedagogy and peer support with conscious listening and reflective learning. Supervision also provides an opportunity for students to see the ML to discuss any aspect of the module throughout the academic year. The online small-group sessions allow for one-to-one support from career services for the interview assessment.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The three modes of assessment for this module provide the opportunity to assess the students in a variety of ways. The community-based placement plan ensures that the placement is well-organized and fits the requirements of the module. It assesses the student’s ability to explain how the placement will work and what they will gain from it. The oral presentation provides the students with an opportunity to develop their skill set by verbally presenting strengths, skills and insights gained by learning from experience (EL), in a mock job interview format. This will assess their ability to answer questions posed by the marker. This will be similar to the type of competency questions many may face in a ‘real life’ interview situation. The course essay assesses the ability of the student to make connections between their project, engagement with an external partner organization, and debates and research foci within academic geography.

General Notes

N/A