The Development of an Inquiry-based Field Trip Activity to Promote Students’ Positive Perceptions of the Educational Curriculum Course

An inquiry-based field trip activity was designed for graduate students in the science education program to enhance their understanding of the school curriculum as well as to promote positive perceptions of the Educational Curriculum course. The course focuses on basic knowledge about the school curriculum and how to develop it. Four secondary schools with distinguished curricula were chosen as models for school visits. The learning activity consisted of three phases. In the preparation phase, students were asked to develop questions about the curriculum based on the schools that were visited. In the exploration phase, students were guided by the questions to gather information from each school visit. Finally, each group of students conducted two presentations in the presentation phase, consisting of a comparative study of each school curriculum and the development of a school curriculum based on desired goals and visions. After completing the course, a Likert-scale type questionnaire was applied to investigate students’ perceptions of their understanding and the learning activities. In terms of understanding, students perceived that they understood the school curriculum at a high level, especially applying knowledge from the field trips to develop a new curriculum. In terms of learning activities, not only did students show a moderately positive perception towards each phase of the learning activities, but they also showed a highly positive perception towards the course. Thus, the developed activity could be utilized as a model for developing an effective school field trip for a teacher-training program.