Field trips are an excellent means of providing opportunities to participants to observe and experience things/objects/activities in natural settings. When the participants are exposed to real world, they get firsthand experience and can relate their practical experience with theory. The learners also experience sensory impressions which could never occur in classrooms but are characteristic of the environment in which the new behaviour must occur. Field trips, tours or excursions may or may not be participative learning experiences but the success depends on how well the trips are organized and executed to meet the learning objectives. Field trips should be pertinent to the need of the learner and as much appropriate as possible to real situations. The steps required for planning effective field trips are as follows:
Design experiences that meet specific objectives and needs of the participants.
Select most appropriate site for the expected learning to occur.
Plan logistics like lodging, boarding, transportation etc.
Select individuals to accompany participants during the field trip.
It is extremely useful for the trainer to accompany the participants during the field trip to enhance group process of observing and studying the field situation.
Follow up the field visit through reports and discussions.
The field trip as a training method has the advantage of giving an opportunity to the participants to observe and get first hand information in natural settings; relate their practical experience to the theoretical knowledge covered in a course; discover and supplement those realities that cannot be brought to the classroom situation and break the monotony of learning. The natural setting facilitates in developing interdependence when participants work in small groups of individuals and thereby, develop team spirit. The report writing after field trip is an essential component helps the participants to systematically collect, analyze and present information. In contrary to the advantages, the field trip has certain disadvantages also like arranging field work is a time consuming and cost-effective process and at times the unavailability of required finance may not permit use of this method. Field trip requires high coordination ability on the part of the trainer. If field trips are not planned carefully then the effectiveness of this method may get lost. Sometimes when participants consider field trips as a pleasure trip and source of entertainment then the purpose of field trip gets diluted. Moreover, if the follow-up of field trip is not done then it becomes difficult to analyze the success of field trips.
Participants