Why educational excursions are a crucial aspect of life in school

St. Martins Kaewa Secondary School students during a past educational excursion at Haller Park. [Kelvin Karani, Standard] I am just back from a weeklong camping expedition with our grade 8s, and what an experience that was! We made some lifelong memories, solidified our relationships, put our theoretical learning into practice and had some new learning experiences while at it. It was fun, it was trying, it was rewarding! Which got me reflecting about the whole idea of outdoor learning experiences. Excursions. Many learning institutions have made excursions a prominent part of their curriculum, making learning fun and memorable. Field trip and field excursion are interchangeably used in literature. An excursion is a school journey involving any organised travel made by teachers and students primarily with an educational motive in mind. A field trip, on the other hand, is an organized visit of teachers and students to immediate or distant places to enrich learning experience and to further instructional purpose of regular classroom activities. In various disciplines, students, teachers, and researchers travel out into the field to engage with real-life phenomena, gather data, and put theory into practice. Field excursions are often lauded as crucial learning experiences by students and teachers, despite the relatively high costs of this pedagogical approach. Field excursions resemble work, with an emphasis on enacting knowledge and labouring together to create knowledge. The importance of educational excursions in schools is manifold. One of the benefits of excursions is that they make students curious and thirsty for more knowledge on the topic. Students are eager to learn and see what they have learned in the classroom through textbooks. Problem-solving, critical thinking, social skills, teamwork are just some of the other skills the concept hones. Academic augmentation One of the importance of educational excursions is the boost it gives to concepts learned in the classroom. A teacher can reinforce basic concepts by arranging an excursion to the topic related site. For example, management students learning about human resources and employee management can be taken on an excursion to a factory or a company. This gives students an enhanced learning experience on how resources are managed in factories and companies. This also improves academic performance of students. A student exposed to educational tours has more practical knowledge. Being able to transfer this practical knowledge on to paper during assessments can give you a better chance of scoring higher grades. Students not exposed to excursions and educational tours will have only bookish knowledge and may just simply try to reproduce what the textbook claims. Practical knowledge is better According to a 2014 research article conducted and published in the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, about 65% of students prefer visual learning aids. These learners prefer to see how to do things rather than just talk about them. They prefer to watch demonstrations rather than sit through a lecture. True to the famous phrase 'seeing is believing', your perspective changes when you see something in person. For example, learning about a historical monument by visiting the site gives you a better insight than reading about it in a text. Educational excursions help students to grasp concepts through visual learning. New cultural experiences Excursions allow the kids to have new experiences and observe new things that are not available at school - things like rare and exotic wildlife and plants, different cultures and the stories of our history. This personal involvement and the memories created lead to a deeper understanding of the learning subject. The students can witness, picture and understand the hardships faced by others, both now and throughout history. Excursions help to develop their understanding of different cultures, races and religions - and learn to value them. Window of opportunity Another importance of excursions for students is that this exposure opens up a window of opportunity when it comes to careers and choices. During interactive sessions on educational excursions, students talk to different people from varied fields. In classrooms, students' knowledge of the outside world is limited. This also helps in improving the art of communication in students. Excursions introduce students to other professions other than the ones introduced behind closed doors of a classroom. Enhancing the student/teacher dynamic School excursions help the students see their teacher out of the school environment - yet still in a professional setting. The teacher and the group create shared memories, spending far more time together than they would on an average school day. Teachers are also able to get to know students outside the classroom, getting a better idea of their interests and how they learn. Better perspective Travelling often involves new situations, new people, and new adventures. Some educational excursions are organised to a different state or country. Such excursions introduce students to a whole new world. A world they might not have seen or encountered. Therefore, field trips enhance students' outlook and help them to gain a fresh perspective of the world around them. Developing social skills School excursions often require students to spend time in small groups, observing, chatting and learning. Kids get divided into groups with people they might not usually mix with - and sometimes even students from other schools. Throwing in team-building exercises, problem-solving tasks and the additional stimulation from the natural environment - or wherever the excursion is - is a fantastic opportunity for growth. Change of environment There's nothing like the buzz of excitement from a group of school kids, leaving the classroom, hopping on the bus and heading on an excursion. It's one of our favourite memories in school. It's a change of pace and a way to mix up the way the curriculum is delivered. And when kids are learning in an environment where they're energised and engaged, they will retain more! What research tells us A 2010 research survey conducted by education professors Martha Nabors and Linda Carol Edwards from the College of Charlston, US, aimed to shed light on the positive instructional impact of school excursions. A survey was mailed to 60 nationally recognised field trip sites across the US and a return rate of 63.3 per cent was achieved. The survey was designed to solicit feedback from nationally recognized field trip sites regarding their experiences with successful visits by students; and to compile data to reflect the opinions of field site coordinators for successful field trips. Site coordinators reported the following: Active Learning interactions as important to the success of an excursion: Participatory, Discussion, Questions by learners, and Assessment by instructors. Evidence collection to evaluate how the children developed an understanding of the content. The site coordinators also listed the following types of behaviours exhibited by previous classes of students who were effectively and properly prepared for the field trip visit: Students were well-behaved. There were fewer discipline problems. There was less time getting ready for activities and transitions. The visit was less confusing regarding expectations and procedures. The students were more attentive. The students showed respect for the well-being of the site's resources/ offerings. The students demonstrated control and order throughout the experience. The scholars further noted that excursion destinations can enable students to inquire about varied content-related information by observing, asking questions, and devising their own explanations for how and what they are learning. Students also make personal connections with their teachers, peers, and site coordinators, who can open new doors into the learning process. Organising field excursions With budgets getting tighter all the time, school heads ought to make the money they have available work as hard as they do. While many schools in the country are usually looking for "non-essentials" to cut from the budget, it's completely vital that the proven value of excursions is not discarded in the cost-cutting. School excursions have been shown to boost academic, social, mental and physical development, particularly for disadvantaged pupils for whom it might be their first experience away from home. So, when finances are stretched, headteachers can make these outings more cost-effective and affordable so they can continue to offer the all-round learning experiences. Careful planning before the trip can help institutions make the best use of available resources, including time. Think about making the trip cross-curricular - a destination, which is good for studying geography, for example, also probably has something to offer for English, history, other languages, and maybe even science and art. Writing a poem or keeping a diary about their trip and experiences, for example, can boost literacy skills. This is an effective way for a school to offer the trip to a wider group of students and help spread the fixed costs. Choosing carefully can help cut costs. When money is tight it's tempting to cut corners and take a DIY approach to organising your trip, but choosing an established and reputable provider could save you money - and hassle - in the long run. Established operators such as the World Expedition Schools and Kenya School Adventure (Moving Mountains) are examples of trusted operators around. Keeping residential trips affordable for all pupils is almost impossible, especially for families in financial hardship, looked after children and those with additional needs. To ensure inclusivity, schools are likely to need some careful financial management to cover costs for disadvantaged children without financially overburdening your better-off cohort. Fundraising is one good way to supplement the budget, as well as a good opportunity to teach your students about working together, planning and budgeting, and resilience. Local charitable organisations and grant funding from the government are always ways which can be explored to help fund these excursions. Due to the innumerable benefits of educational excursions, the modern education realm has included excursions and trips as part of the school curriculum in many parts of the world. Students are given a hands-on learning experience on these trips, thereby providing a holistic approach to education. The time has now come to include educational tours and excursions in our curriculum. Modern industries today warrant the need for educational institutions to compulsorily include excursions in the syllabus. This practical exposure encourages students to perform better, score higher grades. Including educational excursions in the current learner-centred curriculum provides an all-round development of learners and guarantees a holistic approach for students.

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