Taking the Student to the World: Teaching Sensitive Issues using Field Trips

Field trips can provide an opportunity to take the student to the world, as an alternative to presenting the world to the student in the classroom. Such trips can create a forum for exploring controversial and distressing topics by exposing the students to first-hand experience, rather than second-hand accounts: witnessing the effects of blind obedience in the remains of a concentration camp whilst hearing the story of the survivors is a very different experience to the detached presentation of information in a classroom. This article outlines the benefits of using field trips to teach sensitive topics through accounts of four excursions taken by students in the School of Psychology at Bangor University. These case studies are presented alongside a list of tips to support those planning a future venture and evidence of the impact on students and staff.