Keywords

Field trip, experiential learning, k 12, florida, teachers

Abstract

Field trips are visits to an out-of-school setting designed for educational and academic purposes whereby as a result students gain firsthand knowledge and experiences. Historically, it was the potential for student learning that motivated teachers to utilize field trips. However, there is reasonable suspicion among scholars today that teachers are utilizing field trips less since the start of the new millennia; the common reasons being cited among others include a slumping economy, an increase in accountability due to high-stakes testing, and rising fuel costs. Unfortunately, there is no empirical evidence that can confirm or deny this suspicion. Therefore, the purpose of this survey research study is twofold. The first goal is to investigate what proportion of Florida K-12 public school teachers, within the field of social studies, science, mathematics, and language arts utilized a field trip during the 2012-13 academic school year; along with investigating the total number and frequency in which they used those field trips. The second goal is to identify if there were any significant differences in the number of field trips that those teachers utilized based on four independent variables (a) the grade level at which the teachers teach, (b) teachers' years of teaching experience, (c) the content focus of the field trips, and (d) whether teachers graduated from a teacher preparation program or not. The study utilized a non-experimental causal-comparative research design to conclude that there were some significant differences in the number of field trips teachers utilized as a result of two of the independent variables.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2014

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Russell, William B.

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Education and Human Performance

Degree Program

Education; Social Science Education

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0005359

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0005359

Language

English

Release Date

August 2014

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Education and Human Performance; Education and Human Performance -- Dissertations, Academic

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