ABSTRACT:This investigation sought to identify the motivations that comprise teachers' agendas when leading student fieldtrips to science museums or similar sites. A survey distributed to upper elementary teachers resulted in a variety of open-ended responses that were analyzed and coded to identify recurring themes. In addition, ten teachers planning to lead a school trip to a natural history museum were interviewed and observed. Interview and observation data were used to triangulate findings and refine descriptions of actual practice. Eight fieldtrip motivations were identified including to connect with the classroom curriculum, to provide a general learning experience, to encourage lifelong learning, to enhance interest and motivation, to provide exposure to new experiences, to provide a change in setting or routine, for enjoyment, and to meet school expectations. Results indicated that 'connecting to the classroom curriculum' was an important consideration, although teachers had different interpretations of what this meant. Further examination of the teachers' agendas suggested the influence of different contexts, including that of the school and the museum site. These findings lead to suggestions for facilitating school visits to informal settings by considering the teachers' fieldtrip perspectives and agendas.C 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 89: 936 -955, 2005

A study of docent-led guided school tours at a museum of natural history was investigated. Researchers engaged in naturalistic inquiry to describe how natural history content was conveyed to students and what students gained from this model of touring. They also investigated how the content and pedagogy within the guided tour complemented recommendations from formal science standards documents and informal learning literature. About 30 visiting school groups in Grades 2-8 were observed. Teachers (n ¼ 30) and select students (n ¼ 85) were interviewed. Researchers found that tours were organized in a didactic way that conflicted with science education reform documents and research related to learning within informal contexts. Students' responses to interview questions indicated high satisfaction with the tours but low levels of science learning. ß 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: [200][201][202][203][204][205][206][207][208][209][210][211][212][213][214][215][216][217][218] 2003 Museums are important and well-respected educational and cultural resources. In particular, they serve as learning environments for students who take part in guided museum tours. In this article, we present the results of an investigation of guided tours of school groups at a large natural history museum. We describe and discuss the nature of these tours and how their structure and content relate to recommendations for science education reform [American Association for the

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The school field trip constitutes an important demographic market for museums. Field trips enlist the energies of teachers and students, schools and museums, and ought to be used to the best of their potential. There is evidence from the literature and from practitioners that museums often struggle to understand the needs of teachers, who make the key decisions in field trip planning and implementation. Museum personnel ponder how to design their programs to serve educational and pedagogical needs most effectively, and how to market the value of their institutions to teachers. This paper describes the overlapping outcomes of three recent studies that investigated teacher perspectives on field trips in the United States, Canada, and Germany. The results attest to the universality of some of the issues teachers face, and suggest improvements in the relationship between museums and schools. INtROdUCtIONSchool field trips are common in the western world. Teachers plan out-of-school visits with their classes to settings they believe will complement and enhance their students' understanding of aspects of the world that may or may not be part of the classroom-based curriculum. This paper discusses three recently completed independent studies of teacher perceptions and field trip practices conducted in three different countries: the United States, Canada, and germany. Strikingly, among these three studies there are many congruent outcomes. Viewing these results collectively enables us to suggest that issues surrounding teacher perceptions of field trip planning and implementation may be widespread and-to a degree-independent of specific school systems and field trip cultures.

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