Field Trips as Teaching Tools in the Law Curriculum

Abstract

While field trips are often employed in primary and even second level education as a pedagogical tool, aimed at exposing students to real life experiences, such activities are not as popular at third level (Falk and Balling, 1982; Muse, Chiarelott and Davidman, 1982; Anderson and Zhang, 2003). However, such experiential learning techniques can be invaluable to university students by allowing them to engage more with the world around them and to see a practical side to their area of study. Scarce indentifies field trips as a form of ‘short-term experiential education’ and comments that ‘what students learn and the way they learn it should be rooted in society and in social experiences’ (Scarce, 1997, p. 219). He locates these activities in the experiential learning framework, as espoused by educationalists such as Dewey (1938) and DeMartini (1983). This short article contains an analysis of academic literature on the use of field trips in third level education and their potential value in the law curriculum. Law is a suitable subject to explore through the use of such trips, as lecturers endeavour to illustrate how the rules and principles propounded in legal instruments and cases influence society and how, concomitantly, societal changes and opinions influence the creation and development of law.