Experiential Learning

Field Trips
Amanda Omilon

Experiential Learning is the process of learning through experience. Students learn

through this strategy by taking part in hands-on experiences and situations. Experiential
learning allows students to make observations and reflections about what they
experienced and synthesized. Their conceptual understanding of the simulated experience
can be applied to guide new and purposeful comprehensive thoughts.
Field trips are trips that the students and teachers take away from the classroom to
experience and gain knowledge firsthand. This form of experiential learning requires
students to learn from the involvement to embrace the learner centered ideology. Field
trips fall under the instructional strategy of experiential learning. Experiential learning
structures instruction to allow students to learn by doing or experiencing authentic or
simulated situations. It works by promoting deep and meaningful experiences where all
students have an opportunity to succeed.

Resources needed:
-Teacher and parent help (for planning and chaperoning)
-Planning time
-Funds
-Parent permission forms
-Busing

Considerations when planning and implementing field trips:

-The cost of the trip; obtaining sufficient funds from the school and students
-Planning out the trip (this may need to be done before the school year)
-If some students cannot attend because of medical or parental concerns, what are the
alternative methods to be made for those students?
-Keeping in mind any emergency situations that may occur
-Arrangements of food or lunch breaks
-Any special equipment that needs to be brought
-Parent permission slips
-How will you organize the students?
-How will the field trip benefit all students?

Benefits and limitations of field trips:

Pros:
-Field trips can key into different learning styles by meeting a variety of modalities.
Students can learn by watching, listening, and doing
-Students are exposed to new experiences outside of the classroom which will
broaden their horizons
 -Seeing information taught in a new way or different light can solidify understanding
of material (being exposed to visual representations rather than just verbal)
-Students can learn from another professional to receive new ideas and information (a
trip to the museum involves learning from a guide)
-Parents can be involved in their childs learning by chaperoning (this will allow the
parents to be exposed to what their child is learning, and to help support them along the
way)

Cons:
-Field trips take time to plan (there is a lot of work involved to coordinate locations,
bookings, and transportation)
-Students will miss other classes for full day field trips
-Expenses of the trip (where the money will come from, and can the school and/or
students/parents afford it)
-Assigning parent and teacher chaperones (the process of contacting and distributing)
-Constraints of the curriculum (how will this field trip correspond with the learning
outcomes?)
-Permission slips, medical information, and emergency procedures may come in to
play (meeting the needs of all students, their safety is the first priority)

Assumptions made about Experiential Learning:

-Learning comes as a result of experience
- Learning involves the interaction between the learner and the environment
-Requires a dialectic approach
-All learning must be active and involved
-Learners engage in experience at a qualitatively higher level

Power Dynamics:
- Teachers and schools plan out the trips and decision-making. Teachers, guides,
and other professionals guide the students learning, but the learning focuses on
the students experiencing their knowledge by enhancing hands-on learning. This
focuses on the learner centered ideology by having the students interact in a
learning environment where they can make meaning of themselves by growing in
their own identities
- After the field trip is over, teachers can let the students take the floor in
verbalizing what they experienced and the skills they developed on the trip.
Teachers can purpose guiding questions to reveal more answers from their
students

Appropriateness and Effectiveness of Experiential Learning:

-Field trips incorporate evidence-based learning where students can actually see what
theyre studying in class up close and personal to reinforce their learning and
 understanding. Further in to future lessons, students can look back on what they
experienced in the field trip and visualize what they saw to continue their learning.
-Field trips can be used in all subject areas and cross-curricular lessons (ELA:
creating reports and summaries of the students learning experience and personal outlook,
Science: experiencing nature and wildlife where students can create a project or
PowerPoint on what was learned, Social Studies: have students discuss an exhibit and
record information on an artifact or resource that Indigenous people used, Math: Create
and solve problems pertaining to budget planning for the field trip)

Diagrams:

These diagrams demonstrate the importance, value, and design a field trip offers. The
picture on the left displays that experiencing and performing in an activity helps a student
remember their learning at the highest rate. It also displays the learning outcomes of
analyzing, defining, creating, and evaluating that is enhanced in field trips. The picture on
the right displays what the educator needs to do and how the learner will be affected.
Under the post trip, there are outcomes labelled that the students will receive to coincide
with the curriculum.

Assessments:
Field trips can be both formatively and summatively assessed. Formatively speaking,
a teacher can address how well the students are taking in information and the kinds of
questions they are asking. Summatively speaking, teachers could test the students on
what they learned and experienced, they could have their students give a presentation, or
they could have their students create a project based on what they learned.

Field trips should be used when a hands-on learning experience will indefinitely
embrace student learning. Field trips focus on the needs of the student, following the
learner centered ideology.
 Resources:
http://www.campsilos.org/excursions/hc/fieldtrip.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/field-trips-pros-and-cons-8401