A field trip in the first week at university: perspectives from our LLB students

ABSTRACTField trips are a major part of the pedagogy of experience. Generally, core theoretical knowledge is developed in class before a practical field application is facilitated to link knowledge. Field trips are both observational and participatory. This paper describes how the Bachelor of Laws students at an Australian university undertook a field trip to the Parliament during their first week at university. In contrast to traditional transmission of content knowledge and teaching legal rules, this field trip was purposefully designed as an early memorable, motivating experience for students to reflect on personal learning by connecting theory and context. This structured program had supporting activities and an aligned summative assessment. Findings of this qualitative study suggested that students and academics concurred that field trips are important for learning though their perceptions about it differed. For the students, it was a valuable learning experience which contextualised learning, develo...