Field trips.
Students love them but they don’t happen often enough.
Out-of-school excursions are not a normal part of most schools in Malaysia. These are often viewed as extras with additional logistics and resource requirement.
Restrictions and Mis-conceptions
Students are often restricted to in-class learning with an emphasis on traditional curriculum revolving around mathematics and science.
This does not allow for a broader experiential learning that leaves a deeper impression on the students for triggering longer term and more active learning.
It is also important to note that schools that organize the occasion field trips as rewards for students getting good grades need to choose these excursions carefully.
While it is encouraging to incentivize students, a trip to the amusement park does not provide much learning or cultural enrichment for the students’ growth.
The benefits of field trips
We at Scholar Base believe that the primary purpose of a school field trip is not solely for the sake of the students’ enjoyment although that is also important. Field trips provide an additional learning opportunity for the class, one that is outside of a structured classroom environment.
Involved Learning is interesting
Students learn best when they are involved in what they are learning. Excursions are hands=on learning that are not boring but exciting and fun.
Students with short attention span need to make extra effort to wade through monotonous and boring classes. This has undesirable results for both student and teacher.
Contextual learning broadens learning
On the other hand, students have increased interest in topics that popped up during the field trips. Students who are having fun discovered learning opportunities around them as they explore with curious minds. They tend to dwell further on these interesting topics proactively.
Active and engaged learning outside of the classroom help to inspire the students to broaden their knowledge of the subjects they are studying while bringing them awareness on topics that they have not been given the opportunity to learn within school grounds.
This contextual learning allows students to relate to the experience, which in turn helps them recall the information that came with the fun experiences that they had on the field trip.
Relating theories to hands-on experience
In a study done by EducationNext, students were brought to an art museum and were later assessed on their cultural knowledge based on the museum tour and their critical thinking skills.
The break from the routine class environment and the introduction of education in different setting brings about excitement in the students. They are able to relate what they have been learning in books and videos in the classroom to actual real life experience.
This allows them to see how ideas are connected while expanding their collaboration, critical thinking and knowledge retention skills.
Curiosity develops critical thinking skills
This extends its influence in the students’ development of critical thinking skills, as students will be made to reflect on the experience in the form of a report or in the form of narration.
Such reflective skills helps the students further understand the information that they have learned during the trip while learning more about the global context of that knowledge.
Project-based Learning
At Scholar Base we understand that a focus on project-based leaning and the integration of arts and culture assist the learning of students in facing real-world challenges.
Scholar Base organizes annual field trips that expose the students to new learning environments and new learning experience.
Not only will the students benefit greatly from the field trip they will also be given the opportunity to develop friendships with children in other classes and foster strong relationships with their teachers in an informal environment.
Recent Field Trips
In our recent field trips, students were divided into two groups depending on age groups. The groups with kindergarten and lower primary children were engaged in more physical activities such as field trip to the Science Center, Dinoscovery, the Zoo, and other such locations.
The group with upper primary children and teenagers visited places that introduce problem solving skills and exposure to science and technology. These included the Science Center, Petrosains and Break The Code.