Field trips: A look at environmental effects on learning

Despite the prevalence of school field trips to informal education settings like museums, zoos, and nature centres, relatively little is known about their educational effects upon learners. Six studies on school field trip learning are reviewed. The studies suggest that children s perception of the novelty of the field trip setting will affect what they learn on a field trip. All children will learn about the setting in which the trip occurred, but only those in a moderately novel environment will learn much about the intended lesson. In settings where novelty is either extremely great or small, imposed learning will be inhibited. Educators need to be aware of the effects of settings on learning in planning their lessons. In this way they can capitalize on the location of learning, rather than be penalized by it.