More than a grand day out? Learning on school trips to science festivals from the perspectives of teachers, pupils and organisers

ABSTRACT

Science festivals are a rapidly-growing phenomenon worldwide, and many such events host trips by school parties. However, what type of learning takes place on these visits, and how effective it is, is an area that merits more academic study. This paper investigates these questions from the perspective of three groups – teachers, pupils and festival organisers – and asks how well the attitudes and priorities of these categories are aligned. We find that teachers and organisers share the primary aim of affective learning (excitement, inspiration) and that this is experienced by almost all pupils. A secondary aim of cognitive (factual) learning is reported by just under half of pupils. However a third aim of careers learning which was expressed by festival organisers and some teachers was not reported by pupil participants. In addition, we found that the groups could work more effectively together to promote educational aims by measures such as reducing the novelty of the event situation and making educational agendas for the visit clearer. Finally, to address the areas of misalignment pinpointed in this study, we give a series of recommendations to optimise learning at such events.

KEYWORDS:

• Science festivals
• public engagement
• public understanding of science
• out of school learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Cherry Canovan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9751-5646

Notes

1 https://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/about.

2 For example science museums, science centres, zoos and botanical gardens.

3 Pupil premium is additional funding for state schools in England which is designed to improve the performance of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities, and to close the gap between them and their peers.

4 www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-conditions-of-grant-2017-to-2018.

5 All participating primary schools have been anonymised.

6 Pupil participants were anonymised using names of their own choosing.

7 Names of WowFest organisers have been changed.

8 Novelty levels which are too low can also affect learning; Anderson and Lucas (ibid.) note that ‘Low levels of perceived novelty result in low levels of curiosity behaviour and low levels of on-task behaviour.’ However science festivals are inherently novel environments due to their temporary nature.