Making the Most of Out-of–School Visits: How Does the Teacher Prepare? Part I: Development of the Learner Integrated Field Trip Inventory (LIFTI)

Abstract

This paper reports on the first Phase of a two-part study, involving the development and implementation of an intervention to improve the learning of science, involving learning experiences outside school (LEOS). Part I reports on the development of the Learner Integrated Field Trip Inventory (LIFTI), while Part II describes the implementation and evaluation of the LIFTI, in which there is evidence that it can lead to improvements in the learning of school science. The LIFTI was developed based on modern views of learning, using social constructivism as a referent, and on previous research such as the Field Trip Inventory reported by Patrick, Matthews and Tunnicliffe (2013). The LIFTI comprises three components: Social, Procedural, and Cognitive. Each of these components was used to design activities prior to, during, and after an out-of-school visit. The development and use of the LIFTI is exemplified here using an off-site visit to a Show Home, used to develop student understanding of heating and insulation, a learning area from an achievement standard of the New Zealand science curriculum.