The benefits of theater field trips

The benefits of theater field trips
Field trips to the theater provide a number of educational benefits to students, according to researchpublished in Educational Researcher. Jay P. Greene and colleagues found that giving students the opportunity to take part in a field trip to see a live theatre performance produced an increase in tolerance as well as a greater understanding of the plot and vocabulary of those plays.
 
Schools in Arkansas were assigned by lottery to receive free tickets to attend one of five live theatre performances over a two-year period. Classes from participating schools were then randomly assigned to take part in theatre field trips or to serve as a control group and not take part in the field trips. In addition, for two of the five experiments, a second treatment group was added in which students were randomly assigned to watch a film version of the theatre play.
 
The impact on students of the theatre field trip was measured on five outcomes: tolerance, social perspective taking (the ability to understand others' feelings and perspectives), content knowledge, theatre consumption, and theatre participation. Students in the theatre field trip treatment groups scored higher for levels of tolerance and social perspective taking (+0.14 and 0.16 of a standard deviation higher than the control group). Students' content knowledge of the plot and vocabulary in the plays was also greater (by 0.15 of a standard deviation) than students in the control group.
 
However, watching a film did not produce benefits, and as the film-viewing group also left school for a field trip, the results suggest that the educational benefits to students come from the experience of watching live theatre, and not simply from leaving school for a field trip. Results also indicate that theatre field trips may encourage students to visit the theatre more often.

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