Supporting Teachers to Continue Field-Trip Learning in the Classroom

Although the literature demonstrates that field trips have potential for long-term impact and acknowledges the importance of follow-up activities to extend the learning, there is little insight into how teachers follow up on the field trip experience once returning to the classroom. The purpose of this study was to describe activities and approaches teachers used in the classroom after a field trip. The authors also examined differences between teachers who did a high amount of follow-through compared with those who did little; the teachers were compared along a number of dimensions, including the subjects they teach and the number of years they've been teaching.

In this qualitative study, researchers interviewed 5th and 6th grade teachers and their students who participated in an Earthkeepers earth education program. A three-day immersive experience, Earthkeepers cultivates students' ecological understandings, develops positive attitudes towards the natural world, and provides students with skills students need to make informed ecological choices within their daily lives. The program is divided into four learning components. Students complete the first two on site and are responsible for completing the final two on their own. Given this program design, teachers must follow-up in some capacity.

Using teacher and student surveys, researchers categorized the twenty-six participating teachers into three groups: those who did low, medium, or high levels of follow-up. Categorization was determined by the frequency and extent to which topics from the program were integrated into subsequent classroom activities. Additional interviews of the teachers in the high and low categories provided insights as to how follow-up activities were implemented, the barriers to implementation, and how these approaches influenced student completion rates of the program.

This research was based on the participation in the Earthkeepers environmental education program. A total of 26 teachers and their fifth- and sixth-grade students participated in the study. The program included a three-day immersive nature experience outside of school, bookended by classroom activities before and after the excursion. The program has four main elements: knowledge, experience, yourself, and sharing (represented by the acronym KEYS). The knowledge and experience elements happen during the field trip, and the yourself and sharing elements happen post-trip. Yourself involves encouraging students to adopt behaviors that reduce energy and resource use, and increase time spent in nature. Sharing encourages students to share their experiences of these behaviors with other students. Specific tasks are associated with completing each element, and students earn metaphorical keys when they've completed them. Each student must keep track of his or her completion of each key, but teachers keep track of overall progress and completion.

To collect data about the outcome of the program, teachers completed post-program surveys where they described follow-through activities they did in their classrooms. Students were also asked to complete post-program surveys, where they described teacher efforts to support the post-field-trip learning experience. After reviewing the surveys, the researchers realized there was a range of followup activities, from a great deal to almost none at all. The researchers then categorized the teachers into three groups: those who provided high, medium, and low levels of follow-through with their students. These categorizations were based on how much time was spent doing program follow-through, the extent to which students were involved in environmentally related activities and projects, and how often teachers included ideas or concepts from the program in their classroom activities. Out of 26 teachers, five were in the “high follow-through” category, 17 were in the “medium” category, and four were in the “low” category. The researchers interviewed the nine teachers who were in the high or low categories, asking questions related to their follow-through intensity and content of activities. These interviews helped the researchers learn about and contrast the factors that encouraged, or created obstacles to, teacher follow-through efforts.

The authors found several differences in teaching practices between teachers with high and low levels of follow-up instruction. Teachers with high follow-up ratings taught science for a minimum of two hours a week, while the majority of teachers with low follow-up ratings taught science for one hour a week. With more class time dedicated to scientific content overall, teachers with high follow-up ratings were able to more easily integrate Earthkeepers concepts into their curriculum. By contrast, teachers who devoted less time to teaching science in the classroom expected students to complete the program independently at home.

Teachers with high follow-up ratings set aside class time for discussion and completion of the Earthkeepers program, helping students plan and execute their new behaviors. These teachers assigned goals and deadlines and created a system where students could track their progress. A teacher's commitment to follow-up assigned importance to ideas learned in the program. Students recognized the sentiment. In classes where teachers did a high level of follow-through, 98% of students completed the Yourself key about lessening impact, and 78% earned the Sharing key. By contrast, in classes with low levels of follow-up, only 44% of students completed the Yourself key, and 29% completed the Sharing key.

Teachers in the low-level follow-through category introduced the tasks to students and recognized their accomplishments, but failed to provide support for students throughout the process or integrate the Earthkeepers experience into classroom discussions. These same teachers did not prioritize integration of program concepts into the science curriculum, citing curricular challenges and pressures to meet state standards as obstacles. These teachers also had fewer years of experience with the Earthkeepers program, whereas teachers with high levels of follow-through had participated in the program for at least 13 years, so they had more experience incorporating Earthkeepers topics into existing science lessons.