Children's Recollections of a Historic House Visit: Recall of Experiences and Use of Cognitive Tools

Abstract

ABSTRACT This descriptive study explored the historic site visitor experience through children's recollections of their visits. Following a class field trip to a historic house, 22 third-grade students wrote reflective journal entries that detailed their experiences during the visit, a data collection method designed to focus on the authentic voices of children. After coding the journals using systematic content analysis, the data showed that participants recalled a variety of experiences, including narratives, objects and rooms/areas, on-site activities, affective responses, and physical sensory information. Participants used cognitive tools, such as description, analysis, and different types of responses to narratives, to create individual interpretations from their experiences. The consistency of the data suggests that educators and those conducting visitor studies take advantage of children's abilities to recall experiences and use cognitive tools to encourage further engagement with content and deeper discussion or response.