Out of the Classroom and Into the City

This article explores the researcher’s use of field trips as anexperiential learning tool in a social studies methods course as a pilot study. Theresearchers analyzed course evaluations and student reflection papers using documentanalysis to determine (a) the positive and negative aspects of utilizing field tripsduring the course, and (b) the ways the field trips advanced or limited pre-serviceteachers’ learning. The findings indicate that students found the field trips to beworthwhile but had concerns about the time and distance. They were able to makeimportant connections to course content but reacted negatively to the inclusion ofdiversity in the field trips