How enhancing a student’s curiosity and sense of wonder can increase their desire to learn.
One of the most exciting parts of our role here at Next Generation Travel, is receiving positive feedback from teachers that our educational tours have achieved their planned learning outcomes and supported students to improve their subject knowledge, by bringing the subject to life.
In fact, in 2024, 97% of teachers told us their key learning outcomes were met and 96% believe that the tour helped students to improve their educational attainment.
Throughout our 20 years as educational tour providers, we have gathered a vast amount of feedback and conducted case studies which support our belief in the value of educational travel . This has usually always been collected from teachers, so we decided to take things a step further and collate some evidence from the students themselves, by commissioning an independent study.
We hope this to be the start of further research, so that we can help you as the educator, to have the facts and figures needed to make decisions about future school trips.
We’re pleased to share the results of this study, conducted by Dr Elena Altmann, Research Associate, and Dr Marina Bazhydai, Lecturer in Developmental Psychology and Director of the Active Learning Lab, at Lancaster University.
The study focused on the contribution of educational trips to Berlin and Iceland on pupils’ curiosity, wonder, and engagement.
Here are the key findings from the study:
1. Increased Curiosity and Wonder
Students reported significantly higher levels of curiosity and wonder after the trips. The trips seemed to foster a stronger desire to learn compared to typical classroom settings.
2. Enhanced Learning Outcomes
Students indicated greater topic understanding and curiosity, especially about history (Berlin) and geography (Iceland), with many associating the experience with new knowledge and personal growth.
For instance, pupils were asked to write down any technical expressions, terms or questions that they associate with the history of Germany and Berlin. On average, they each produced 6 tokens (words, phrases or questions). The same exercise was done after the trip and both sets of results have been displayed in word clouds to show the difference in the responses.
What is quite apparent is the quality in the answers shows a more detailed knowledge and greater awareness of the subject revealing a positive impact of the trip on the students.
3. Fulfilment of Motivations
Although many students signed up for reasons like travel, entertainment, and being with friends, they also gained unexpected benefits such as increased independence, improved language skills (for Berlin), and facing challenges.
4. Positive Evaluations
Both trips received high praise for their planning and educational value. Berlin's trip was particularly lauded for its connection to history, while the Iceland trip sparked excitement around exploration.
The study concludes that educational trips offer valuable learning experiences by enhancing curiosity and engagement.
‘Pupils indicated that the trip provided them with new experiences, increased their topic understanding, fulfilled their desire for travel, leisure, friendship and entertainment, and allowed them to face challenges and be independent.’
‘Educational trips can be seen as outdoor lessons on a bigger scale, with research demonstrating that they provide an opportunity for powerful and meaningful learning experiences.’
Overall, the results affirm the benefits of educational travel in fostering curiosity and positive learning attitudes, and we look forward to many more years providing schools with these experiences.
Our white paper, "The Effect of Educational Travel Programmes on Children’s Engagement, Curiosity and Wonder”, is now available for you to read. Simply click on the front cover below.
We conducted this study to help educators
We understand the various factors teachers must consider when planning school trips not least that budgets can have a large bearing on whether the trip can go ahead.
When posing the suggestion of a school trip to your SLT, one of the most important questions you may be asked is: what is the educational value of this trip? We hope that the findings of this research can support our group leaders in quantifying that an educational tour is going to boost students’ knowledge and interest in their subject, potentially even improving exam results.
What is great to read in the findings is that aside from having a potentially positive impact from an educational standpoint, trips give students opportunity for fun, bonding and to experience different cultures or environments.
At Next Generation Travel, we pride ourselves in providing trips and experiences that we believe will not only ignite wonder and curiosity in children but will have a positive impact on their performance at school and their interest in a subject. A trip could be the defining factor in a student’s decision for further education or even inspire a career choice. Children have new experiences when they travel and can be challenged to step out of their comfort zone. Parents have often noticed their child return as a more mature person with a stronger sense of independence.
We hope you choose Next Generation Travel to organise your next school’s adventure, safe in the knowledge that we are doing all we can to enhance student’s educational experiences and support your teaching.
We want to thank every student who took part in our study, enabling us to gain better understanding of how our trips boost confidence, elevate knowledge and promote curiosity and display concrete proof that educational visits have a positive impact. We extend our thanks to the team at Lancaster University who conducted this insightful study.
*Data collection took place between February and July 2024. The study was approved by the Lancaster University Faculty of Science and Technology research ethics committee.