Yomna Abdulla

University of Bahrain

http://www.uob.edu.bh/en/

The use of field trips in an education system is not a new phenomenon, as it has been used since several decades, due to its numerous benefits. Educational field trips improve the ability of students in absorbing new information, expose them to various real experiences and enhance their connection with the society. It also develop their team work and it is considered a break from the classroom. On the other hand, educational field trips may have some shortcomings such as it may not be easy to plan and may be costly due to transportation costs. Nowadays, with the increase use of technology which in some cases deviate the concentration of students in classrooms, I believe that there should be a rebound to the use of field trip in higher education’s curriculum.

Prior literature has indicated the importance of field trips. Aggarwal (2008) argues that educational field trips enrich, vitalize and complement the knowledge of students. Educational field trips can be seen as a two-way experience as it benefits both students and lecturers. Aggarwal (2003) indicates that it aids lecturers in clarifying, co-relating and coordinating concepts. It also improve their teaching styles to be more interesting and inspiring.

In this article, I would like to share my experience of using a field trip as a teaching tool for my undergraduate students. The objective of this trip was to reinforce experiential and contextual learning. The main motivation of using this educational tool is the Bahrain 2030 Vision of having a knowledge based economy and University of Bahrain Transformation Plan (2016-2021) which places a premium on a enhancing the students’ with 21^st century higher education skills. These skills include collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, communication, Information literacy and flexibility. I am confident that educational field trips can provide students with some of these skills. The trip targeted final year students registered in FIN 435: Portfolio Management course who are in need of enhancing their real world connection and integrating theoretical with practical concepts.

Our field trip was to Bahrain Bourse which is a self-regulated marketplace, offering investors, issuers, and intermediaries exchange-related facilities for a wide range of financial instruments. I chose Bahrain Bourse because it was the most relevant place for the course curriculum as well as it provides a great opportunity for live information and data.

Overall, the outcome of the trip was tremendous as indicated by the students’ feedback. They mentioned that they benefited both on the academic and the social side. I summarize the merits of the trips in the following points:

• It relates the theoretical concepts to real world applications which enhance the understanding of students.
• It energizes the monotonous classical teaching style, making it more interesting and up-to-date, as well as, it increases the social bond between students.
• It enhances and develops skills to students such as communication skills, critical thinking, as during the trip, students were engaged with experts discussing financial concepts as well as career plans.

Furthermore, the trip has equipped me with real examples and up to date information which has developed and strengthen my teaching material and style.

Finally, based on this experience, I have decided to organize field trips more often as it enrich students’ learning experience on various aspects as well as I highly recommend it to be one of the main teaching tools in higher education.

Yomna Abdulla is an Assistant Professor at the College of Business Administration, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain. She holds a PhD in Finance from the Manchester Business School, UK. Her research areas of expertise is empirical issues in corporate finance including trade credit, working capital, debt maturity, capital structure and financial policies in public versus private firms.

References

Aggarwal, J.C. (2003). “Essentials of educational technology teaching learning.

Innovations in education”, Vikas publishing house pvt Ltd.

Aggarwal, J.C. (2008). “Principles & methods & techniques of teaching”, Vikas

publishing house pvt Ltd.