Abstract
Pre-service geography teachers need field-based competency in reading and interpreting climate and ecological data, not merely conceptual familiarity with the relevant terminology. This study examines SPBL (Spatial Problem-Based Learning) implementation across a seven-meeting fieldwork sequence at Malabar Urban Forest, Malang, asking how task performance varied across the data-collection, synthesis, and analytical-drafting phases, and why any variation occurred. Using an embedded mixed-methods case study (N=45), task scores at four measurement points were compared via Friedman's test given violated normality assumptions, then triangulated against structured interview data from the same cohort. Field-data collection tasks (M=87.53-87.36) significantly outperformed both the mid-term baseline and the subsequent analytical-drafting phase (χ²(3)=118.26, p<0.0001, Kendall's W=0.876). Interviews revealed that the later decline stemmed from underdeveloped methodological reasoning rather than weak field literacy, attributable to a curricular sequencing gap in which Biogeography precedes Research Methodology. The forest displayed measurable microclimatic heterogeneity (27.0-31.2°C; canopy cover 40-85%; light intensity 258-43,500 lux) and a taxonomic vulnerability in the pole stratum exceeding Santamour's 10-20-30 threshold, both functioning as authentic content for climate-literacy instruction. Pre-service teacher climate competency depends on curricular sequencing as much as on field pedagogy design.