Planning Field Trips as a Teaching and Learning Strategy in Legal Education: Some Points for Consideration

Field trips can be a valuable tool in making learning more engaging andprovide unique opportunities for learning certain concepts, including legalconcepts by putting them into a more realistic and relevant context. Researchstudies have shown that there is a significant increase in participants’factual knowledge and conceptual understanding after participation in awell-designed field trip. However, due to differences in academic disciplines,elements which constitute a well-designed field trip vary according to thelearning objectives of the field trip. Thus far, in legal education, therehas been a dearth of both theoretical and empirical research into theelements necessary in the planning of field trips as a successful pedagogictool. Therefore, in this article, the authors seek to analyse the importantelements that should be emphasized in designing a successful field trip forlegal educators. Drawing upon literature from other disciplines, the articleconcentrates its review on Myers and Jones’ field trip planning model inthe determination of the elements that should be present in a well-designedfield trip. Some thoughts and considerations in the application of themodel into planning field trips for legal education are also discussed andrecommendations are made appropriately in adapting the model.