This chapter examines skills developed by, and brought to play in, fieldwork. Progressing from generic skills used and refined through fieldwork, the discussion focuses on the geographical nature of skills used across all fieldwork activities, to the key geographical skills and tools that can be drawn upon to construct authentic fieldwork experiences for students. Fieldwork has always been an important facet of geography, helping to inform, validate, and consolidate the study of people and place. Fieldwork remains, to this day, rather simple and straightforward. It involves the gathering of primary data in the field. The ‘process’ of fieldwork occurs through the use and application of a wide variety of geographic and generic skills. The following discussion of fieldwork skills will examine the place of: • fieldwork skills in students wider learning, • fieldwork skills for thinking geographically, • specific geographic fieldwork skills, • geographic fieldwork tools and technology.

Geographers have always had a love affair with fieldwork. It has been their staple since the beginning. Geography teachers have a collective understanding of and consensus about what fieldwork is and its role within their geography teaching. In its simplest form, fieldwork helps to make sense of what students learn in the classroom, but it is much more than that. Teachers unanimously affirm its central role in providing an extension to classroom learning by involving students in active data collection in the field.The importance of generating a ‘culture’ of fieldwork cannot be under-estimated. The earlier students are introduced to the expectations of fieldwork, the more effective future fieldwork activities will be, resulting in development of their skills, independence and enjoyment of the activity.