Incorporating field trips as science learning environment enrichment – an interpretive study

This interpretive study of learning environments involved two groups of Israeli science teachers who participated in courses and implemented field trips as part of science‐technology‐society (STS) education and under the framework of general system theory. The different groups of preservice and experienced teachers were selected in order to provide diverse perspectives on learning environments associated with the enactment of field trips as enrichment for the science classroom. The article describes the field trip programs and provides examples of how teachers in different stages of their professional development perceive the content, learning activities and problem solving as characteristics of the learning environment. The learning environment categories identified under the content characteristic were interest, interdisciplinary, innovation, difficulty, and contexualising. Under the activity characteristic were autonomy, involvement, collaboration, interaction, effectiveness and concretisation. Under problem solving were identified interaction, availability of resources, teacher support and democracy. The teachers' perceptions of the experienced learning environment were diverse and the categories described provide a framework of planning improvement in the content domain as well as in the enactment process of the field trip planned according to the principles of the general system theory.