National Impact Study of the Effects of Art Museum Field Trips on Students Grades 4-6
Client: National Art Education Association and Association of Art Museum Directors | Location: Alexandria, VA | Funding: Institute of Museum and Library Services, Samuel H. Kress Foundation
We partnered with the Museum Education Division of the National Art Education Association and the Association of Art Museum Directors to conduct the first ever national study of the effects of K-12 art museum field trips.
OVERVIEW
Art museum field trips, defined as one-time museum field trips in which students engage with original works of art within the physical setting of an art museum, are a rite of passage for many school groups across the country, yet little was known about the impact they have on students. Despite the wide-held belief that these field trips make a positive difference in the lives of children, there is dearth of rigorous research about the effects of these programs, and there has been a dramatic drop off in the number of field trips scheduled each year (even pre-pandemic).
To understand the value of field trips so as to be able to demonstrate that value with evidence, NAEA and AAMD came together to initiate a research study, and we came on as the research partner. From 2015 to 2018, we planned for and then conducted the first ever national study of the effects of single-visit art museum field trips, with a focus on grades 4 to 6.
APPROACH
We, along with an advisory board of museum educators and arts education academics collaboratively formulated a hypothesis that was then rigorously tested using a quasi-experimental study with control and treatment groups of students in grades 4-6. We hypothesized:
“Though short in duration, single-visit programs affect students in complex, multi-dimensional ways; there is not one direct effect, but rather potentially multiple, interrelated effects that are central to the education of young people in particular: creative thinking, critical thinking, sensorial and affective responses, human connections, and academic connections.”
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Broadly, we found that single-visit program in an art museum affects students in four ways:
Questioning – Students ask complex questions about artworks;
Multiple interpretations – Students are accepting of multiple interpretations of an artwork;
Physicality of art – Students think about art in terms of materials; and
Emotive recall – Students experience greater emotive recall of the program.
Results of the research were translated into a User Guide which is invaluable for the art museum education field. The results can be used as a tool to communicate the value of field trips to policymakers and school administrators and as an advocacy tool to argue for more fundings and resources to support field trips.
