Lou Preston

Bio: Lou Preston is an academic researcher from Deakin University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Outdoor education & Environmental education. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 16 publications receiving 202 citations. Previous affiliations of Lou Preston include Federation University Australia.

Making connections with nature: bridging the theory--practice gap in outdoor and environmental education

Abstract: In this paper I describe my experience in attempting to assist tertiary students connect with the natural environment through outdoor and environmental education experiences The paper addresses research conducted with students undertaking an outdoor and environmental education degree and focuses on the pedagogical methods employed in this context I argue that outdoor and environmental education practitioners may benefit from moving away from a mode of teaching based upon 'generic' methods and look instead to a more local, specific and contextual form of education By describing an outdoor and environmental education journey in a local, 'ordinary' place and students' experiences in unearthing the stories embedded in this place, I aim to provide some practical strategies to engage young people in a direct and meaningful way The intention is to broaden the pedagogical possibilities related to facilitating experiences in natural environments and thus contribute to bridging the rhetoric/reality gap in outdoor education

Pedagogy of connections: Findings of a collaborative action research project in outdoor and environmental education

Abstract: Improving human-nature relationships is often a stated aim of outdoor education, yet this aim is not always made explicit in practice. This paper reflects on a pedagogical intervention which aims to find ways to explicitly develop students' connections with natural places through a tertiary outdoor and environmental education program. It describes the intervention process, which is guided by principles of collaborative action research. Furthermore, the intervention uses a multi-pronged teaching approach incorporating repeated visits to natural places utilizing different 'ways of knowing', weekly readings, journal writing, collaborative discussions, and others. We summarize the key findings of the research project and report that repeated visits to a natural place using different ways of knowing (e.g., historical, scientific, ecological, artistic, experiential, etc.) are influential in improving connections. We conclude with a discussion of the opportunities and dilemmas of using action research as a form of pedagogy.

Inquiry-Based Learning in Teacher Education: A Primary Humanities Example.

Abstract: Inquiry-based learning features strongly in the new Australian Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum and increasingly in primary school practice. Yet, there is little research into, and few exemplars of, inquiry approaches in the primary humanities context. In this article, we outline and explain the implementation of a place-based simulation as a vehicle for inquiry in a humanities subject in a teacher education course. Preliminary findings of surveys of pre-service teachers conducted pre and post the implementation of the inquiry model suggest increased engagement and enhanced learning outcomes. Further analysis is required in order to determine the depth of pre-service teachers’ understanding of inquiry approaches.

Australian primary in-service teachers’ conceptions of geography

Abstract: This article reports on the results of a survey of Australian primary pre-service teachers’ experiences, conceptions and perceptions of geography. Research was conducted with two cohorts of undergraduate primary pre-service teachers; one group in second year and another in the final year of a four-year teacher education course. The findings show congruence with similar studies conducted in the UK and indicate that pre-service teachers had a very narrow conception of geography and geography education; a conception that was information-oriented and focused on broad knowledge about the world and locational knowledge and skills. The article concludes by exploring some of the implications for the implementation of the new national geography curriculum in Australia and for primary pre-service geography teacher education more broadly.

Field "Work" vs "Feel" Trip: Approaches to Out-of-Class Experiences in Geography Education.

Abstract: Fieldwork is viewed as integral to geography teaching and acclaimed benefits often include holistic, student-driven learning, where all the senses are engaged and the impacts are more than cognitive. While these benefits are often assumed, in this paper, I argue that geography fieldwork in schools is often teacher-led and focused on the intellectual task of knowledge acquisition and skill development. Based on a qualitative content analysis of examples of fieldwork in a state geography teachers’ journal, I assert that the affective and sensory dimensions, are often used to promote the benefits of fieldwork, but seldom explicitly addressed through fieldwork pedagogy and learning activities in school geography. I contend that this is a missed opportunity for a deeper, more embodied and critical engagement with, and response to, the places visited.

Postmodern Subjects, Postmodern BodiesThinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Postmodernism in the Contemporary WestYearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural PoliticsGender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

Abstract: Preface (1999) Preface (1990) 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire I. 'Women' as the Subject of Feminism II. The Compulsory Order of Sex/Gender/Desire III. Gender: The Circular Ruins of Contemporary Debate IV. Theorizing the Binary, the Unitary and Beyond V. Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance VI. Language, Power and the Strategies of Displacement 2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix I. Structuralism's Critical Exchange II. Lacan, Riviere, and the Strategies of Masquerade III. Freud and the Melancholia of Gender IV. Gender Complexity and the Limits of Identification V. Reformulating Prohibition as Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acts I. The Body Politics of Julia Kristeva II. Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity III. Monique Wittig - Bodily Disintegration and Fictive Sex IV. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions Conclusion - From Parody to Politics

Developing sustainability-literate citizens through outdoor learning: possibilities for outdoor education in Higher Education

Abstract: UNESCO's challenge to Higher Education institutions to provide educational leadership in sustainable development, provides an impetus to develop innovative, interdisciplinary curricula and pedagogy. Whereas Higher Education curricula in sustainability and sustainable development have tended to come from the environmental sciences, recent studies have highlighted the need for more holistic, experiential, interdisciplinary approaches. As a pedagogical approach, outdoor learning may have something to offer since it lends itself to holistic and experiential learning and enables integration of knowledge and skills from a range of discipline areas. Outdoor and environmental education research suggests that educational experiences in outdoor settings can be significant in developing environmental sensitivity and knowledge. Such knowledge and attitudes are components of ecological literacy and, more recently, sustainability literacy. This paper considers how outdoor experiential pedagogy might contribute to the c...

Transforming Earth Science Education Through Immersive Experiences: Delivering on a Long Held Promise:

Abstract: The value of field trips is undisputed across disciplines. Field-site visits whether in social or physical sciences provide grounding for place- and discovery-based learning. Yet field trips have l...

Decolonising encounters with the Murray River: Building place responsive outdoor education

Abstract: How Australians experience a place such as the Murray River has been extensively shaped by our colonial heritage. Colonial notions of how the river ought to behave and be utilised have contributed to the transformation of the river physically, ecologically and culturally. Colonisation has also left behind an intellectual legacy in the way Australians conceptualise ‘nature.’ At a practical level, outdoor education experiences of the Murray that do not make reference to the particulars of the place, such as the current declining ecological health of the Murray, might well be read as an act of colonisation. In order to decolonise encounters with places, I suggest that outdoor education pedagogy develop experiences that are place specific and responsive. In this critical reflection on practice, I draw on student encounters with the Murray River to highlight ways of placing personal experiential learning into a broader cultural context in order to counter colonial understandings of ‘nature’ and foster deeper awareness of our relationships with the river and the land.