'THEY’RE JUST FUN TO BE WITH”: BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF LEARNERSTHROUGH OVERNIGHT SCHOOL TRIPS

[摘要] This study applies Falk and Dierking’s (2000) Contextual Model for Learning to a study addressing the under-researched phenomenon of overnight school trips.The three overlapping contexts of Falk and Dierking’s (2000) Contextual Model for Learning demonstrate that learning is an intricate process that takes into consideration a person’s sense of self, place in society and understanding of the physical world.Acting as participant observers, six members of a research team from the University of Pittsburgh accompanied 48 eighth grade students from a rural community in a Midwestern state on a four-day overnight school trip to Washington, D.C.During the trip, the research team recorded their observations using digital audio recorders.After the trip, the recordings were transcribed into 25 pieces of media, named by site and observer.Analysis of the transcripts produced 31 codes applied to 400 excerpts.The findings of the study directly connected to the Contextual Model for Learning’s sociocultural and physical contexts.The study concluded that over the course of the trip, students created a community of learners, sharing their learning and working together to make meaning of the experience. While chaperones and staff members of the sites explicitly shared some of the behavioral expectations, students also learned to read the space they occupied, and identified and complied with implicit behavioral norms.However, evidence that students contemplated their place in the world as a result of this trip exists (the personal context).This study concludes with a discussion of implications for further research.

[发布机构] the University of Pittsburgh