Abstract:

The changing perspectives and ever widening contexts of contemporary formal education tend to incline towards more practical learning in actual places and real-life situations. Real life is not a museum exhibit displayed in glass cabinet, and stared at from a rather limited and unnatural classroom learning environment, it rather suggests practical involvement and immediate experience. A plausible way to advance thematically intertwined complete experience, stemming from immediate contact with the objects studied in their authentic natural or cultural environments, would be the travel-based learning. By way of designing and re-shaping the continuing learning process, the travel-based learning combines the knowledge of methodology, doing, and thinking into comprehensive learning behavior. The essence of travel-based learning as a pedagogical phenomenon lies in the actual physical presence of the learners in time and space, which makes immediate personal contact with the learned subject possible.

The aim of the article is to define the travel-based learning as a rich conceptual field of today’s form of study, formulate its fundamental pedagogical ideas and demonstrate its relevance and potential in the field of education and research. The study, which emphasizes theoretical approach, raises several important questions:
1) how does the travel-based learning support the 21st century concept of learning, what is the pedagogical potential of the travel-based learning in modern schools;
2) what are the differences in planning and executing activities in the travel-based learning, what are the benefits and shortcomings of the travel-based learning in comparison to other similar forms of study such as outdoor learning, study visit, adventure learning, discovery learning and many others?

Without a doubt, it is necessary to conduct a comparative literature review prior to empirical studies for the travel-based learning is not a self-explanatory educational concept but, in post-modern framework, only one of many alternative learning strategies with a clear vision of future. Indeed, the travel-based learning seems to suggest a much larger number of different ways towards acquiring knowledge and skills than is currently offered by our classical reproductive educational ideals. The 21st century school requires adopting a much broader view towards learning; one that combines practical side of doing things and promotes experiencing fully with all our senses. Based on our experience as teachers, educators and instructors, we are certain that the travel-based learning needs to be implemented in more versatile ways into today’s formal education and examined scientifically to a much larger degree.

References:
[1] Beames, S., Higgins, P., & Nicol, R. (2012). Learning Outside the Classroom. Theory and Guidelines for Practice. New York: Routledge.
[2] Brown, Mike, & Beames, Simon (2016). Adventurous Learning. A Pedagogy for a Changing the World. New York: Routledge.
[3] Bunting, C.J. (2006). Interdisciplinary Teaching Through Outdoor Education. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
[4] European Commission. (2019). Key competences for lifelong learning: https://op.europa.eu/fr/publication-detail/-/publication/297a33c8-a1f3-11e9-9d01-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-107520914
[5] Wattchow, Brian, & Brown, Mike (2011). A Pedagogy of Place: Outdoor Education for a Changing World. Monash University Publishing.

Keywords:

Activity pedagogy, alternative education, key competences for learning, travel-based learning, outdoor learning, experiential learning.