School Trips and Experiential Learning In Eastern Indonesia
Authors:   , Dabamona Samsudin A. 
Published: February 2022

For many decades travel and learning have been closely linked, as activities carried out in close interaction with the host are claimed to broaden the horizon of the traveler. This concept is brought into education in the form of school trips. In-class curriculum can be enhanced by making trips to specific places outdoors to obtain hands-on experiences and learning based-on-context. Furthermore, school trips are often justified through their appeal because of their potential for multiple learning purposes and significant learning outcomes outdoors. However, research to date regarding educational trips and their outcomes are mostly ignored in the context of developing countries such as Indonesia. Much of the research on school trips often focused on technical aspects and neglected the curriculum as the core elements of experiential learning and seemed to ignore the voices of students as the subject in school trips. Moreover, these studies have also focused on teaching effectiveness with an limited understanding of how other parties such as school teachers and related stakeholders involved make sense of school trips based on their experience. This thesis addresses this lack of research by exploring how experiential learning via school trips in the outdoor education setting is perceived and contributes to students’ learning in the Papua, Indonesia context. The current qualitative study was conducted in Jayapura, Papua province of Indonesia. School trips were linked to in class curriculum through lessons on Papuan arts and culture, and Papuan local content, and organized to two cultural venues (cultural museum of Cenderawasih University and Abar cultural village). Three groups of participants were involved in the research namely secondary level students in two schools, secondary level teachers and what the researcher considered as multiple stakeholders in school trips (local government staff, academicians, and people in charge in the venues). Data was collected through reflective diaries and interviews and grounded theory was used to analyze the data. From student’ lenses, school trips have seen to mediate abstract concepts of concrete action, enriching interpersonal skills, promoting actual cultural issues, provide engagement and novelty. It is also found that teachers articulated school trips as a means to integrate experiential learning through motivating active learning for students and covering their weaknesses in presenting Papuan cultural arts and local lesson content. Teachers also indicated the major concepts of how the trips can enrich classroom learning, escaping students’ boredom through excitement, enabling multidisciplinary learning-combined impact, and contributing to students’ cultural and environmental values. Learning from multiple stakeholders’ lenses, the main contributions are three-fold: shaping cultural values and identity of learners; curriculum demand; and a strategy to attract students’ enthusiasm. Elaborating the barriers, students mostly stressed on learning commitment and this can also be affected by teachers’ role in managing students during experiential learning sessions. Apart from the density of materials students noted to carry out the topic, facilities and human resource capacity were also claimed to be constraints. Meanwhile, teachers and stakeholders shared similar barriers such as funding and bureaucracy. Teachers also suggested the internal barriers from schools such as lack of support and adjustment in teaching timetable; while an overlapping hierarchy was identified by multiple stakeholders questioning responsibility and regulation. This work is significant in addressing the questions of proximal relations among the parties involved (students, teachers and multiple stakeholders) to understand the research problem. It brought together the voices derived from different perspectives to generate the findings and add to discussion. This research provides a holistic model of experiential learning perceived through school trips in relation to Papuan arts and culture and Papuan local content. It contributes to the body of knowledge and enhance conversations on methods, theory and practice, in particular in the context of developing countries. Further research from an educational perspective could seek to examine the effect of how the experiential learning within school trips can be stored and recalled as a memorable experience. Another issue of further consideration in tourism and travel studies which can be implied from this study is that of the cultural venues’ impact on student visitors’ cross-cultural understanding based on different cultural backgrounds.