Exkursion – ett lärandetillfälle? : Lärare och elevers uppfattningar om exkursioners betydelse för lärande i ekologi

The main purpose of this study was to obtain insight into what students and teachers think about field trips in ecology and whether they think that fieldtrips result in increase of students’ learning. Open questionnaires and half structured interviews were used to investigate this. Persons who answered the questionnaires and participated in the interviews were senior high school teachers in biology or science and high school science students. All the teachers and most of the students thought that field trips in ecology resulted in increased learning. Those students who had spent more time on field trips found it more learning and fun than students which had spent less time on field trips, which can indicate that if students spend more time on field trips they think it is more fun and that they learn more. The teachers realized some difficulties with taking students out on field trips such as lack of money, lack of time, large groups and fitting the field trips into the school schedule. Earlier studies confirm to a large extent my results regarding teachers’ views upon field trips and they also show that field trips result in an increase of students’ knowledge. My study is unique because I investigate the students’ views on field trips, if they experience that they learn on field trips and if field trips make them motivated to learn more about ecology