Adult's Perception of Field Trips Taken within Grades K-12: Eight Case Studies in the New York Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Introduction and Purpose Students have participated in school related field for many years. Commonly they visit zoos, museums, and historical sites. Although average school district in this country spends approximately 2% of their annual budget on these presumed educational experiences, little research has been conducted to determine effectiveness of these field on student's long-term interests, education, and overall perceptions. Despite this expenditure on field individual school districts rarely conduct investigations into effectiveness of these excursions. According to Delaney (1967 p. 4), the field trip is education's oldest technique, it is also one of least understood. This study attempted to add to body of knowledge related to longitudinal effects that these have on students (adults) in terms of their education, careers, interests, etc. Gaining a better understanding of effective or ineffective aspects of field would serve to better educate school districts on this subject and subsequently, enhance field trip in terms of student academic and social learning. Shedding light on benefits or drawbacks of school could also be helpful to educators as they plan these educational excursions. It would also be beneficial if school districts were aware of longitudinal effects that field could potentially have on their students. In past studies researchers have looked into topics of memory retention, long-term impact, novelty factor, and entertainment verses education issue, and student pre-visit agendas involving field trips. This study of eight adults looked at those topics as well as social aspects of field trips, advantages of hands-on experiences, perceptions of museums, and exposure to careers and cultures. Review of Literature Museums: Memory Retention and Pre-visit Agendas Museums and other popular educational field trip sites invest large amounts of money in order to promote and support value of school visits to their facilities. In recent years they are becoming focused on making connect with important ideas of real world in order to have a long-term educational impact. Much of what an individual comes to discover about what he or she in a museum only becomes apparent weeks, months, or even years after experience (Falk, Dierking, 1997 p. 2). In a study of one hundred and twenty-eight individuals, forty-six of which were adults, conducted by Falk and Dierking (1997), 96% could recall a field trip taken between first and third grades. One hundred percent of subjects remembered one or more things learned on trip and could relate it to content/subject matter. Seventy-nine percent of all subjects remembered whom they went on trip with including friends, teachers, and chaperones. This study revealed that field clearly create both educationally and socially related memories among subjects. Other studies have shown that pre-visit agendas strongly influence how much of an impact a field trip can have on participants' information retention. The better organized trip--the greater attitudinal change and retention ... those who participated in a well-organized field trip performed better on a test of knowledge related to trip, than those who attended poorly organized field trips (Hurd, 1997 p. 3). Falk, Moussouri, and Coulson (1998) studied effects of pre-visit agendas on museum learning. Visitors with a focused agenda plan their visit before they go to museum; usually with a specific goal in mind (p. 2). They also looked into student's motivations when on a school field trip to a museum. Some students viewed trip as an educational pursuit, some students regarded trip as entertainment while others perceived excursion as a break from class routine. …

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