Learn more about the EdExchange  

Search and Filter

Submit a paper

Not yet affiliated? Have a paper you wish to post? Check out the EdWorkingPapers' scope and FAQs, and then submit your manuscript here.

The Play’s the Thing: Experimentally Examining the Social and Cognitive Effects of School Field Trips to Live Theater Performances

Jay P. Greene,
Heidi H. Erickson,
Angela R. Watson,
Molly I. Beck

Field trips to see theater performances are a long-standing educational practice, however, there is little systematic evidence demonstrating educational benefits. This article describes the results of five random assignment experiments spanning two years where school groups were assigned by lottery to attend a live theater performance, or for some groups, watch a movie-version of the same story. We find significant educational benefits from seeing live theater, including higher levels of tolerance, social perspective taking, and stronger command of the plot and vocabulary of those plays. Students randomly assigned to watch a movie did not experience these benefits. Our findings also suggest that theater field trips may cultivate the desire among students to frequent the theater in the future.

Keywords
arts education, theater education, field trips, randomized controlled experiment
Education level
K-12 Education
Topics
Student Learning
Tags
Student engagement
Download 05/2019
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/gaq9-v892
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Greene, Jay P., Heidi H. Erickson, Angela R. Watson, and Molly I. Beck. (). The Play’s the Thing: Experimentally Examining the Social and Cognitive Effects of School Field Trips to Live Theater Performances. (EdWorkingPaper: -51). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/gaq9-v892

Machine-readable bibliographic record: RIS, BibTeX