Field Trips as a Teaching & Learning Strategy

Kristen graduated in 2001 from William Jewell College with a B.S. in Elementary
Education. During her senior year of college, she received the "Outstanding Senior in
Education" award. Kristen spent two years teaching third grade in a public school and is
currently teaching at home. She has been freelance writing for one year and has
published several articles on Demand Studios.
By Kristen O'hara, eHow Contributor

Field trips can be an essential part of learning, if they are used properly. They provide a hands-on
experience that cannot be completely duplicated in the classroom. Educators who prepare the
students by engaging their background information and demonstrating the interconnectedness of the
subjects will enable the students to fit the new learning into a web of information they already hold.
Encouraging discussion and allowing the students to experience, use and apply the information will
create a more permanent, deeper learning that all educators seek.

1. Field Trips as Experience

o Educators have long understood that experiential learning makes up the majority of
what we learn. However, in the book, "Making Connections," Renate and Geoffrey Caine
point out that all learning is an experience. Unfortunately, some of those experiences do not
focus on higher-level learning, which enables the learner to connect and apply the
information. In other words, not every experience produces meaningful learning. Providing
rich experiences is essential to children's education, but it is also necessary to guide the
students to fit those experiences into their prior knowledge. This allows the students to make
connection and gain deeper, more permanent knowledge, rather than creating a list of
random, unconnected facts.
According to Caine and Caine, educators must "orchestrate the experiences from which
learners extract understanding." They should arrange the experiences to fit them into what
the students already know, and they should link the disciplines (subjects) to highlight the
interconnectedness and contribute to the students' ability to make connections.
When used properly, field trips can create such enriching experiences that provide
meaningful, long-lasting learning in the learner. As Caine and Caine state, "Brain research
establishes and confirms that multiple complex and concrete experiences are essential for
meaningful learning and teaching." Field trips easily provide the concrete, hands-on
experiences that the learners need. Educators, however, must use and organize them in a
way to create the complex experiences that produce real learning.

2. How to Use Field Trips in the Classroom

o It is not enough to take students on multiple field trips. To create deep and lasting
learning that produces a change in the learner, educators must organize the trips alongside
 a well-planned curriculum. First and foremost, choose a trip that is engaging and will be of
high interest to the students.
With an appropriate destination in mind, begin by engaging the students' background
information. Encourage a discussion on the topic related to the trip. Find out what the
students already know. If their background information is limited, help them create some.
Read books together, research on the internet and watch videos. Allow them to do some
research independently, if capable, and arrange time to share the information in class. Make
an attempt to interconnect the disciplines. Help the students understand how math, science,
history, and literature are connected within the topic.
Next, prepare the students for the field trip. Explain what they will do and see during the trip.
Give them tips on what to expect and important things to look for. Devise a few deep thinking
questions. Encourage them to come up with some of their own questions during the trip.
Challenge them to search for more ways the subjects connect. Also, encourage them to
search for aspects of the field trip that they find particularly interesting.
Finally, make it an emphasis to discuss the experience after the field trip. Caine and Caine
suggest that the best way to encourage connections and deeper learning is to communicate
and engage the learners in "talking, listening, reading, viewing and acting" related to the
learning. Encourage the students to talk about the experience. Allow them to share their
questions, connections and facts. Give them time to respond in a variety of ways to what
they learned through writing (write a story or a review), speaking (prepare and give a speech
about the place) and creating (design a bulletin board, make posters, create advertisements)
related to the trip.
Providing experiences that allow students to engage, connect and use their information will
contribute to the deeper learning that all of education seeks.

 Singing and the Actorwww.vocalprocess.co.uk

Musical Theatre vocal techniques Downloads, videos & courses
 Learn English VocabularyLearnRealEnglish.com
The Secrets To Speaking English Faster. Free Email Course.
 Teach English to Childrenwww.anaheim.edu
Anaheim University Teaching English to Young Learners Online Cert.
 Self Directed Learningoltraining.com/SDLwebsite/indexSDL.php
Symposium 2/8-11/12, & Journal promote & present SDL research
Ads by Google

References
 "Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain;" Renate Nummela Caine
and Geoffrey Caine:1994
 Field Trip Ideas
Read more: Field Trips as a Teaching & Learning Strategy | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/way_5525022_field-trips-teaching-learning-
strategy.html#ixzz1LYbn70ap