Field trips in French schools: teacher practices and motivations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We explored the use of field trips for educational and teaching purposes by French kindergarten, primary-school teachers and natural science teachers in secondary schools. More specifically, we studied field trips in a natural environment by undertaking a French curriculum analysis and surveying teachers. We examined the responses of 511 teachers about their practices and motivations, as well as the levers and barriers to implementing these field trips. Results showed that this practice is widespread at all years of education, and differences between years seem to be related to the curriculum. We found few differences in learning motivations (reasons/objectives and interests/specific feature) and perceived barriers between different school teachers. Indeed, the teachers’ motivations are essentially scientific and rooted in a scientific inquiry approach. Studying ‘on real’ was the interest most often cited by teachers, essentially for the purpose of scientific learning. The only notable difference we found concerns the levers for implementing the field trips: a larger proportion of kindergarten and primary-school teachers see field trips as an ideal support for environmental and sustainable development educations. These results are dependant of the French official curriculum which plays a key role in influencing the current implementation of school-organised field trips by the teachers.