Is escaping the classroom escaping learning?

While escaping four walls of the classroom for excursions or incursions takes a lot of consideration and careful planning, there are many benefits to students, teachers, and even the community (Lorenza, 2009).

Benefits to students include enhanced learning (Johnson, 2009), inspiring the uninspired, increased expectations of themselves, and overall conceptualisations of theories, ideas, and cultures explored in class. Lorenza (2009) also highlights that there are benefits that extend beyond the curriculum:

* improved self esteem

* Improved self confidence

* increased motivation

* positive social behaviour

* awareness

* interaction

* benefits to the communities from these improvements.

Davies (2017) and Turke et al. (2017) confirm my opinion that excursions can also be a very valuable opportunity to improve the students-teacher bond that is so crucial to students academic performance and emotional well being. This connectedness goes hand in hand with motivation, and behavioural and emotional engagement (Turke et al., 2017), and longitudinal studies have shown these effects lasted for up to three after the event.

So while we may consider that the most important learning goes on only between four walls, escaping the classroom may actually be teaching students much more than you may realise.

Davies (2017) Teacher-students relationships are key to greater wellbeing. Retrieved from https://au.educationhq.com/news/38243/teacher-student-relationships-are-key-to-greater-wellbeing/#

Johnson, J. (2009). Beyond four walls. Experiential and situated learning.

Lorenza, L. (2009). Beyond four walls. Why go beyond the bounds of school?

Turke, S., Caldas, S., Kagesten, A., Parsons, J., Ahn, J., & Winch, P (2017). Seeing the Growth: Strengthening Teacher Connectedness Through Outward Bound Excursions. Journal of youth development 12(2).