{"id":7019,"date":"2023-03-20T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T13:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=7019"},"modified":"2023-03-20T11:52:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T16:52:58","slug":"cultural-field-trips-do-they-really-enhance-sel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/cultural-field-trips-do-they-really-enhance-sel\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultural Field Trips: Do They Really Enhance SEL?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at Learning and the Brain, we like research-informed teaching suggestions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, we remember Prof. Dan Willingham\u2019s timeless motto: \u201cone study is just one study, folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a><\/p>\n

That is: one study might show a particular conclusion \u2013 but one<\/strong> study isn\u2019t entirely persuasive<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Instead, we\u2019d like SEVERAL studies looking at roughly the same question. If those studies all point the same direction, then we can feel increasingly confident that this conclusion has merit.<\/p>\n

For instance:<\/p>\n

Several years ago I blogged about<\/a> an impressive study by Dr. Jay Greene. It suggested \u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 that attendance at live theater<\/em> improved students\u2019 knowledge of the play (not a big surprise)<\/p>\n

\u2026 and, it improved students\u2019 tolerance (surprise!)<\/p>\n

\u2026 and, it enhanced their desire see the world from another\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

Because I REALLY WANT those statements to be true, I looked at this research with extra skepticism. But I was ultimately persuaded that the study design made lots of sense.<\/p>\n

Of course, \u201cone study is just one study.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be GREAT to see more research on this topic. Well, I have good news\u2026<\/p>\n

Take Two<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve recently come across a\u00a0second study<\/a> looking at the benefits of live theater — this one led by Angela Watson (no relation that I know of).*<\/p>\n

As is often the case, this research team looked at some of the same<\/em> questions, and some additional<\/em> questions as well.<\/p>\n

So, they asked:<\/p>\n

Does live theater provide benefit for students? How about art<\/em> museums<\/em>? How about symphonies<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Do these cultural field trips benefit students in different demographic groups?<\/p>\n

The Greene study looked at tolerance and \u201csocial perspective taking\u201d \u2013 the desire to see the world from another\u2019s perspective. Watson’s research also asked questions about\u00a0conscientiousness<\/em>\u00a0and empathy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So, what did they find?<\/p>\n

Methods and Conclusions<\/h2>\n

As you can imagine, these questions require lots of logistical complexity.<\/p>\n

We can study \u2013 say \u2013 “retrieval practice” fairly easily in a classroom. But, schlepping large groups of students to plays, museums, and symphonies takes a lot<\/em> more coordination, planning, and cooperation.<\/p>\n

Basically, these researchers had students attend different numbers of plays, symphonies, and museums: as few as one trip, or as many as six.<\/p>\n

And, they had students fill out questionnaires. And, they followed up for two years!<\/p>\n

So, do additional \u201ccultural\u201d field trips make a difference for these students?<\/p>\n

As is so often the case, the answer is both \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, for instance, attending the theater\/symphony\/museum did NOT make students more interested in going back.<\/p>\n

And, contrary<\/em> to Greene\u2019s study, it did NOT make students more \u201cempathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, students responded to statements like these: “After seeing a play or a movie, I have felt as though I were one of the characters.”<\/p>\n

Their responses did not vary depending on the number of field trips they went on.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Team Watson did find some benefits.<\/p>\n

Attending field trips did increase “social perspective taking.”<\/p>\n

That is: students were asked questions like “When you are angry at someone, how often do you try to ‘put yourself in his or her shoes’?”<\/p>\n

Students who attended more field trips put on those shoes more often<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Also, female students — although not males — demonstrated higher levels of conscientiousness after participating in more cultural field trips. (Alas, this change didn’t last as long as the others.)<\/p>\n

The news isn’t all good, but not all bad either.<\/p>\n

What About Tolerance?<\/h2>\n

The case of “tolerance” is especially tricky.<\/p>\n

When Watson & Co. ran the numbers, these field trips didn’t affect the students’ answers to questions like:<\/p>\n

“Some people have views you oppose very strongly. Do you agree that these people should be allowed to come to your school and give a speech?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, strictly speaking, field trips didn’t increase tolerance.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, Watson speculates that\u00a0the wording of these questions was especially complicated<\/em>. And, she notes that the students in this cohort had relatively low reading scores.<\/p>\n

So, perhaps<\/strong>,<\/em>\u00a0students really did feel more tolerant<\/em>, but the question’s complexity masked that change.<\/p>\n

Watson supports this hypothesis by noticing that the students at the high end of reading comprehension\u00a0DID have higher tolerance scores.<\/p>\n

In other words: the students who understood the question better expressed higher levels of tolerance — and might reflect a truer understanding of the field trips’ effects.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

We now have even more research showing some SEL benefits for field trips to cultural events.<\/p>\n

This trips…<\/p>\n

… consistently help students “put themselves in someone else’s shoes,”<\/p>\n

… might increase students’ tolerance of others’ opinions,<\/p>\n

… enhance girls’ conscientiousness (albeit temporarily).<\/p>\n

We have less certain evidence that field trips enhance empathy, or that they encourage students to attend\u00a0more<\/em> cultural events.<\/p>\n

Equally important: having MORE studies on one topic allows us to contemplate these SEL benefits with greater nuance and sophistication.<\/p>\n

\n

* To be precise, Watson’s study is a “working paper.” It hasn’t been peer reviewed in an academic journal.<\/p>\n

\n

Watson, A., Greene, J., Holmes Erickson, H., & Beck, M. I. (2019). Altered attitudes and actions: Social-emotional effects of multiple arts field trips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here at Learning and the Brain, we like research-informed teaching suggestions. At the same time, we remember Prof. Dan Willingham\u2019s timeless motto: \u201cone study is just one study, folks.\u201d That is: one study might show a particular conclusion \u2013 but one study isn\u2019t entirely persuasive. Instead, we\u2019d like SEVERAL studies looking at roughly the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7019"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7025,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7019\/revisions\/7025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}