Understanding Teachers' Perspectives on Field Trips: Discovering Common Ground in Three Countries

Abstract

The school field trip constitutes an important demographic market for museums. Field trips enlist the energies of teachers and students, schools and museums, and ought to be used to the best of their potential. There is evidence from the literature and from practitioners that museums often struggle to understand the needs of teachers, who make the key decisions in field trip planning and implementation. Museum personnel ponder how to design their programs to serve educational and pedagogical needs most effectively, and how to market the value of their institutions to teachers. This paper describes the overlapping outcomes of three recent studies that investigated teacher perspectives on field trips in the United States, Canada, and Germany. The results attest to the universality of some of the issues teachers face, and suggest improvements in the relationship between museums and schools. INtROdUCtIONSchool field trips are common in the western world. Teachers plan out-of-school visits with their classes to settings they believe will complement and enhance their students' understanding of aspects of the world that may or may not be part of the classroom-based curriculum. This paper discusses three recently completed independent studies of teacher perceptions and field trip practices conducted in three different countries: the United States, Canada, and germany. Strikingly, among these three studies there are many congruent outcomes. Viewing these results collectively enables us to suggest that issues surrounding teacher perceptions of field trip planning and implementation may be widespread and-to a degree-independent of specific school systems and field trip cultures.

Upper Secondary Students’ Situational Interest: A case study of the role of a zoo visit in a biology class

“…advance content preparation, active participation in structured science activities, and follow-up activities (National Research Council, 2009). Recent research has shown that advance field trip preparation gives students a framework which guides what they should pay attention to during the visit and how they should interpret what they see (D. Anderson, Kisiel, & Storksdieck, 2006;D. Anderson, Lucas, Ginns, & Dierking, 2000;Griffin & Symington, 1997).…”

The Potential of Non-Formal Laboratory Environments for Innovating the Chemistry Curriculum and Promoting Secondary School Level Students Education for Sustainability

“…Otherwise, an effective linkage of in-and out-of-school learning is difficult to achieve. Anderson, Kisiel and Storksdieck advise people offering field trip opportunities to consider directing their attention towards the teachers' needs, particularly because teachers seem to have multiple objectives [53]. The authors emphasize that both affective and cognitive objectives are the goal of the teachers.…”

Un programa de formación continua con profesores de ciencias en el contexto de la relación Museo-Escuela

“…La literatura internacional da cuenta de un grupo importante de trabajos, tanto en el plano de la indagación de las opiniones y percepciones de los docentes con respecto a los museos, el patrimonio, las colecciones, y su posibilidad y potencialidad como recurso para la enseñanza (por ejemplo Anderson, Kisel y Storksdieck, 2006); así como en el plano del diseño, ejecución y valoración de cursos o espacios para la capacitación y la formación de los profesores en el contexto de la relación museo-escuela (por ejemplo Leinhardt y Gregg, 2002).…”

“…Entre los factores identificados se destacan la relación con los contenidos curriculares, la relevancia histórica y cultural del sitio, el acceso y logística, así como las visitas y las experiencias previas de los docentes. Anderson, Kisel y Storksdieck (2006) abordan las problemáticas comunes que enfrentan profesores de tres países diferentes (Estados Unidos, Canadá y Alemania), a la hora de realizar una visita con sus estudiantes, así como las sugerencias y propuestas para mejorar la relación entre los museos y las escuelas. Dentro de los problemas detectados, sobresalen las dificultades propias de relacionar dos sistemas educativos con filosofías y propósitos distintos (formal e informal) y entre los más acuciantes, se señalan: la comunicación y cooperación, la dicotomía entre la logístico y lo pedagógico, el acceso y uso de los materiales y la formación de los docentes en el uso de recursos no convencionales.…”