Field trips are commonly the most memorable scholastic experience of children (and young students) in their formative years. Despite their brevity, they offer fertile grounds for affective learning because they inspire situated learning in integrated and interacting personal, social, and physical contexts. Generic learning outcomes ensue in the areas of knowledge and understanding; skills; attitudes and values; enjoyment, inspiration, and creativity; and activity, behavior, and progression.

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A Guide to Field Trips
Olivier Serrat
2015

2. On Learning
Learning is not the transmission of knowledge from one
person to another: it is a situated, social process whereby
meaning is co-constructed to make sense of the world.
Excepting complex concepts or isolated facts, learning
outcomes are most readily impelled by interactive,
experiential problem-solving in a real-life environment.
Learning outcomes, both short-term and long-term, may
involve the development or deepening of skills, knowledge,
understanding, values, ideas, and feelings.

3. The Domains of Learning
Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives distinguishes
three domains of learning: (i) cognitive, (ii) affective, and
(iii) psychomotor. The cognitive domain relates to mental
skills; the affective domain relates to emotions; and the
psychomotor domain relates to physical skills, including
manual dexterity. A fourth domain of learning, relating to
interpersonal skills, has in recent years attracted more
attention.

4. The Role of Emotions in Learning
Learning has cognitive, affective,
psychomotor, and interpersonal
dimensions and cannot be considered a
mere "product" of study in formal
educational establishments. The most
powerful learning emerges from
experience, upon which one has reflected
consciously to effect a more or less
permanent change in behavior. Emotion
that drives attention is important in
education because attention stimulates
learning.

5. The Affective Domain
Affect is essential for learning but the
affective domain is also the least
studied, most often overlooked, and
hardest to evaluate of Bloom's
taxonomy of educational objectives.
We forget that infants respond to how
something is said long before they
understand what is said. Affect is the
experience of feeling or emotion from
interaction with stimuli, implying a
degree of acceptance or rejection.

6. More on the Affective Domain
There are
five levels in
the
affective
domain,
moving
through the
lowest
order
processes
to the
highest:
• Receiving—Being aware of or sensitive to
the existence of certain ideas, materials, or
phenomena and being willing to tolerate
them.
• Responding—Being committed in some
small measure to certain ideas, materials, or
phenomena by actively reacting to them.
• Valuing—Ascribing worth to certain ideas,
materials, or phenomena.
• Organizing—Ascribing worth to certain
ideas, materials, or phenomena within an
internally consistent value system.
• Characterizing—Acting in accordance with
an internally consistent value system.

7. Affect and Field Trips
We must, more comfortably,
incorporate emotion into
education. Field trips (or
excursions) are an attractive
proposition: they offer
fertile grounds for affective
learning in out-of-school
settings, either through
(brief) observation or
(slightly) more sustained
investigation under a
"project".
Broader cognitive
learning outcomes such
as development of
process skills are also
increasingly looked at. All
the same, one might
argue that any gain is a
bonus considering the
brevity of most field
trips—typically, 30
minutes to one hour.
Outdoor environmental
education programs for
teenagers can last
anything from one day to
three weeks.

8. Recess
Tell me and I forget,
teach me and I may
remember, involve me
and I
learn.―Benjamin
Franklin
Most learning is not the result of
instruction. It is rather the result of
unhampered participation in a
meaningful setting. Most people learn
best by being "with it," yet school
makes them identify their personal,
cognitive growth with elaborate
planning and manipulation.―Ivan Illich

9. On Process Skills
Children learn by doing:
toward this, they rely
principally on sensory
experience to reflect on and
acquire knowledge. Process
skills, necessary to solve real-
life problems, are most
judiciously developed during
early childhood (6–8 years of
age) to (i) spark interest and
curiosity, (ii) structure
thinking, and (ii) integrate
learning experiences.

10. More on Process Skills
Pell-mell, the principal process skills relate to:
• Symbolizing—Using symbols to represent an idea.
• Observing—Using senses to learn about something.
• Classifying—Arranging and labelling objects by common attribute.
• Segmenting and Blending—Separating or joining the parts of a whole.
• Describing—Verbally portraying the attributes of an object, person, or
event.
• Questioning—Making inquiries that might set investigations in motion.
• Investigating—Seeking detailed information on a subject.
• Collecting and Interpreting Data—Gathering, organizing, and synthesizing
evidence; seeing patterns.
• Forming Conclusions—Identifying the main idea; generalizing results;
retelling events.
• Problem Solving—Formulating a strategy to work out a solution.
• Predicting—Suggesting an event in the future, based on observations.

11. On Field Trips
Field trips are
excursions to locations
selected for educational
purposes, during which
children interact with
exhibits, facilities, and
surroundings in their
functional settings to
gain an experiential
connection to ideas,
materials, or
phenomena they study
(from afar) in the
classroom.
Field trips are commonly
the most memorable
scholastic experience of
children (and young
students) in their
formative years.
Regardless of content
area, this is because they
inspire situated learning in
integrated and interacting
personal, social, and
physical contexts.

12. The Interactive Experience Model
• The personal context of a visit relates to
each child's individual characteristics and
cultural background; intrinsic motivation
and expectations; prior knowledge,
interests, and beliefs; and choice and
control.
Personal
Context
• The social context of a visit pertains to
within-group sociocultural mediation as
well as mediation facilitated by others.
Social
Context
• The physical context of a visit includes
advance organization and orientation;
exhibits, facilities, and surroundings as well
as the "feel" of the location; and reinforcing
events and experiences outside the site.
Physical
Context

13. Field Trip Favorites
Aquariums Cathedrals
Community
Agencies
Farms Historical Sites
Horticultural
Gardens
Industrial Facilities Libraries Museums
National Parks Natural Settings Planetariums
Science Centers Theaters Zoos

14. More on Field Trips
By placing an accent on
exploration, discovery, and
involvement, what with the
added excitement caused by
the unexpected, field trips
amplify affective
experience. Because they
involve all five senses, they
provide multidimensional
experience that cannot be
reproduced—let alone
lived—in a classroom.
Beyond the cognitive skills that
classroom education emphasizes,
viz., numeracy and literacy, field
trips can most notably promote
affective learning outcomes such
as increased curiosity, interest, or
intrinsic motivation; improved
attitude towards a topic; and such
values as empathy and tolerance
if the outdoor setting involves
community service. The
expression of such affective
learning outcomes often involve
statements of opinions and
beliefs and assessments of worth.

15. Recess
Education is an admirable
thing, but it is well to
remember from time to
time that nothing that is
worth knowing can be
taught.―Oscar Wilde
I think the big mistake in schools is
trying to teach children anything,
and by using fear as the basic
motivation. Fear of getting failing
grades, fear of not staying with
your class, etc. Interest can produce
learning on a scale compared to
fear as a nuclear explosion to a
firecracker.―Stanley Kubrick

16. On Formal Experiential Learning
for Children
Some organizations, e.g., government agencies, museums, and
businesses, offer excellent formal experiential learning activities
and programs, which are usually run by a venue's staff; teachers
find these comfortable because the students are bound to a
choreographed agenda. However, such activities and programs
give insufficient opportunity for students to personally interact
with and connect to the experience.

17. The State of the Art of Field
Trips …
Field trips have a distinguished history in primary and (early)
secondary education—with early uptake in Germany at the close
of the First World War. Notwithstanding, they remain an
insufficiently understood and therefore underused pedagogical
technique. To reach their undoubted potential, field trips should
be properly conceived, adequately (but not excessively) planned,
well taught, and effectively followed up. (They also deserve more
attention from sociologists.)

18. … and How to Improve Them
Field
trips
should,
among
others:
Define learning outcomes, however "soft" they may
be.
Embed the field trip in a classroom's curriculum
through alignment with related topics and design
of pre-visit and post-visit materials.
Offer multiple learning opportunities in situ.
Take advantage of the unique qualities of the
setting and provide experiences that cannot be
replicated in the classroom.
Provide a degree of structure but allow time for
exploration, discovery, and involvement.

19. … and How to Improve Them
Field trips
should,
among
others:
Give children a measure of choice and control over
their individual and group experience.
Extend opportunities and encouragement for
children to engage in discussion with both adults
and with their peers.
Emphasize exploration, discovery, and
involvement rather than transmission of facts,
with the intention to collect primary experiences
and data for subsequent analysis in the classroom.
Be continuously improved through feedback from
teachers and children.

20. What Conditions Outcomes
Field trips cannot replace school-based education but
they should not have to compete to demonstrate their
pedagogical worth. In formal education, learning
outcomes are customarily pre-decided independently
of the learner, for example through curricula and
defined standards. In field trips, learners are invited to
drive their own learning outcomes. Notwithstanding,
the learning outcomes a field trip can impart are
conditioned by the structure of the field trip, the
personal context of children, the social context of the
visit, the novelty of the physical context, teacher
agendas and actions during the field trip, and the
quality of preparations and follow-up experiences.

21. On Generic Learning Outcomes
Progress must also be made in assessing the "soft" outcomes
field trips deliver. In 2008, the Museums, Libraries, and Archives
Council in the United Kingdom developed an Inspiring Learning
Framework to help identify benefits that people gain from
interacting with museums, libraries and archives. The Council
delineated Generic Learning Outcomes in the areas of (i)
knowledge and understanding; (ii) skills; (iii) attitudes and
values; (iv) enjoyment, inspiration, and creativity; and (v) activity,
behavior, and progression.

22. Recess
We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child's
spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even
suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in all its
intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood
should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the
sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom.
Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up
himself to life.―Maria Montessori
Crucial to science education is hands-on involvement:
showing, not just telling; real experiments and field trips
and not just "virtual reality".—Martin Rees

23. Generic Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and
Understanding
Skills
Attitudes and
Values
Enjoyment,
Inspiration,
Creativity
Activity,
Behavior,
Progression

24. More on Generic Learning
Outcomes
The GLOs are
inspired by a
postmodern
view of
learning
which holds
that:
• Learning is integral to life.
• Learning is constructivist, experiential, and
performative—involving active minds and bodies.
• Learning is a process by which individual and
collective identities are produced.
• Culture is a practice that creates meaning.
• Socio-cultural differences give knowledge
perspectival character.
The GLOs help
to:
• Talk to people about learning.
• Reinforce people's understanding significance of
learning.
• Analyze the work of museums, libraries and archives
and help them understand their impact.
• Design better learning experiences and spaces.

25. More on Generic Learning
Outcomes
The GLOs do not measure learning as
such. However, they do collect direct and
sometimes intimate information about
what people say they learned. There is no
discernible reason why the GLOs should
not find profitable use in the context of
field visits.

26. The Generic Learning Outcomes
Checklist
Knowledge and Understanding
• Knowing about something
• Learning facts or information (e.g., subject-specific,
interdisciplinary/thematic
• Making sense of something
• Deepening understanding
• Learning how organizations operate (e.g., a library, museum, national
park)
• Making links and relationships between things (e.g., naming things,
people, places)
• Using prior knowledge in new ways

27. The Generic Learning Outcomes
Checklist
Skills
• Knowing how to do something
• Intellectual skills (e.g., reading, thinking critically and analytically,
making judgments)
• Key skills (e.g., numeracy, literacy, use of ICT, learning how to learn)
• Information management skills (e.g., locating and using information,
evaluating information, using information management systems)
• Social skills (e.g., meeting people, sharing, team working,
remembering names, introducing others, showing an interest in the
concerns of others)
• Emotional skills (e.g., recognizing the feelings of others, managing
intense feelings, channeling energy into productive outcomes)
• Communication skills (e.g., writing, speaking, listening)
• Physical skills (e.g., running, dancing, manipulating, making things)

28. The Generic Learning Outcomes
Checklist
Attitudes and Values
• Feelings and perceptions
• Opinions about ourselves (e.g., self-esteem)
• Opinions about or attitudes toward other people
• Attitudes towards an organization (e.g., a library, museum, national
park)
• Positive attitudes in relation to an experience
• Negative attitudes in relation to an experience
• Reasons for actions or personal viewpoints
• Empathy and capacity for tolerance (or lack of these)

29. The Generic Learning Outcomes
Checklist
Enjoyment, Inspiration,
Creativity
• Having fun
• Being surprised
• Innovative thoughts, actions, or things
• Creativity
• Exploration, experimentation, and making things
• Being inspired

30. The Generic Learning Outcomes
Checklist
Activity, Behavior, Progression
• What we do
• What we intend to do
• What we have done
• A change in the way we manage our lives (e.g., study, family,
community contexts)
• Actions (reported or observed)
• Change in behavior
• Progression (e.g., toward further learning, developing new skills)

31. Recess
Do not train a child to learn by force or
harshness; but direct them to it by what
amuses their minds, so that you may be
better able to discover with accuracy the
peculiar bent of the genius of each.―
Plato
Children must be
taught how to think,
not what to think.―
Margaret Mead
It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of
instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of
inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands
mainly in need of freedom. Without this it goes to wrack and ruin
without fail.―Albert Einstein

32. Further Reading
• ADB. 2008. The Reframing Matrix. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/reframing-matrix
• ——. 2009. The Five Whys Technique.
www.adb.org/publications/five-whys-technique
• ——. 2009. The SCAMPER Technique. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/scamper-technique
• ——. 2009. Wearing Six Thinking Hats.
www.adb.org/publications/wearing-six-thinking-hats
• ——. 2009. Asking Effective Questions. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/asking-effective-questions
• ——. 2011. Critical Thinking. Manila.
www.adb.org/publications/critical-thinking

33. Further Reading
• John Falk and Lynn Dierking. 2000. Learning from Museums:
Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning. AltaMira
Press.
• Jennifer DeWitt and Martin Storksdieck. 2008. A Short Review
of School Field Trips: Key Findings from the Past and
Implications for the Future. Visitor Studies. Vol. 11, No. 2 pp.
181–197. dx.doi.org/10.1080/10645570802355562
• Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council. 2008.
www.inspiringlearningforall.gov.uk/

34. Videos
• ADB. 2012. The Five Whys Technique. Manila.
vimeo.com/67185517
• ——. 2012. The Reframing Matrix. Manila.
vimeo.com/67186254

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