This article was updated on 6 November 2018. You can read the updated version of Top 4 Benefits of International School Travel here.
The importance of taking the students out of the classroom to absorb, interact and be immersed in history, and educational tours, has several learning benefits for students to obtain practical information within the brain. The saying “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand,” provides the backbone to the theory of retaining more information when visually experiencing activities in the chosen environment. Below are four key educational benefits and reasons why getting your students out of the classroom is good for them!
1. Reinforces classroom material
If you’re a teacher that struggles to grab your student’s attention from time to time, school tours and history field trips are sure to spark excitement to learn. Reinforcing the course material and allowing the history lesson to come to life, gives them the opportunity to visualise, experience and discuss the information, allowing students to recall the experience long after the trip (Salmi, 2003; Falk & Dierking, 1997; Wolins, Jensen, & Ulzheimer, 1992).
2. Encourages students to learn
Often educational tours use multimedia to visually grab attention and encourage students to partake in an enjoyable learning experience. However, in the classroom these exposed sensors may be limited. Students are more likely to enjoy and learn from a history class located in the center of where it all began, than in the classroom. For example, they would retain more information from a NASA tour in Florida, where all sensors are exposed - over a powerpoint slide lesson in the classroom.
3. Provides a cultural experience
Embarking on educational tours, and submerging students into cultural experiences have been found to be invaluable for their development and understanding. It allows them to open their eyes to new environments, positively shapes their perspective on an international level and trigger ideas and solutions, that may not stem from their familiar comforts and habits (Miller, 2013).
4. Allows for lifelong memories to be made with friends
Taking the students out of the classroom and into a new environment allows them to work as a team with other classmates outside of their normal group. Not only that, but they make lifelong memories among peers, which is no doubt a fun learning experience in itself.
Now's the time to start planning your next educational school trip!
