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Exploring The Educational Impact Of Academic Field Trips Over Time, Tara Parrello, Colby L. Valentine

Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education

Experiential learning can be in the form of internships, field trips, service learning, and research projects. The practical nature of criminal justice is a logical fit for experience-based learning. Specifically, academic field trips may be viewed as examples of short-term experiential education. However, do experiential learning trips have an academic impact over time? Using survey data, the current study examines if students acquire and retain knowledge after a prison tour of Eastern State Penitentiary. Pre- and post-tour surveys of student learning outcomes showed a statistically significant gain between the pre- and post-tour survey results. A follow-up survey explored if students …