VISIBILITY OF ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES IN SELECTED PHILIPPINE MUSEUMS: THE RELEVANCE OF EDUCATIONAL FIELD TRIPS IN HISTORY TEACHING

Abstract

Museum visits have been integrated to the curriculum as valid activities. They are meant to enhance classroom instruction in the field of history. Recently published textbooks on Philippine History have incorporated in their framework the importance of geography, geology, and the environment in the understanding of the historical process. The environmental shift in historical studies is gaining ground. This paper highlights facets of the history-environment interplay as perceived by History 1 students of UP Los Baños in fieldtrips held during the first semester, 2009-2010. The research problem is focused on the visibility of selected features of the environment, namely: plains, forests, sea, rivers, mountains, and lakes. The museums involved in the study were the Veterans Federation of the Philippines’ Museum, Library, Archives and Theatre, the Ayala Museum, the Katipunan Museum, the Manuel Quezon Memorial Shrine, and the Bantayog ng mga Bayani/Heroes Monument.

Majority of the participants acknowledged the efforts of the museums in providing links between history and the physical environment. Of the 265 students, 131 or 49.4% of the participants found the museums successful in showing the connection between history and the environment; 103 (38.9%) very successful; 27 (10.2%) moderately successful; 1 (0.4%) slightly successful and 1 (0.4%) not successful. They also evaluated the  importance  of the environment in shaping historical events as highly important in both Ayala Museum and Veterans Museum; important for Museo ng Katipunan; slightly important for Quezon Memorial Museum; and not important for the Bantayog Museum. Furthermore, the students made an assessment that the off-campus undertaking was a successful pedagogical strategy.