What is the LEAP!TM approach to Educational Travel?
LEAP!TM philosophy permeates every aspect of NETC's educational tours. NETC is the only educational travel company to offer LEAP!, teaching strategies based on modern techniques used by excellent teachers in the classroom. LEAP! brings creative, fun solutions to the unique challenges presented by a constantly changing tour environment. The result is that all students are engaged, anticipating the next challenge, while involved in critical thinking and developing their own thirst for knowledge.
The academic basis for LEAP! is Howard Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences, the philosophy of constructivism and the synthesis of transmission, transaction and transformational approaches to learning.
Why is LEAP! Important in Educational Travel?
We're sure you'll agree: educational tours should not be a series of lectures given on a bus. Students learn best when they are personally invested, engaged and challenged. In any group, a wide variety of learning styles and social skills will be represented, and they each deserve an equal opportunity to shine. Traditional tour guiding is based on Victorian teaching methods long ago abandoned in the class-room. Our 21st century students deserve better. LEAP! is the answer and NETC is unique in being the only educational travel company offering LEAP! on student tours.
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How is LEAP! Delivered on your educational tour?
NETC Tour Directors are trained to be cultural mediators who translate and interpret places and events. They perform a wide range of explanatory and orientation functions on the educational tours, such as:
- Raise the students' awareness of cultural differences AND similarities
- Help them deal with cross-cultural challenges AND celebrate successes
- Prompt and question the students
- Challenging students with questions and tasks
- Creating relevant context for students in new locales
- Facilitate the involvement of all types of learners and personalities
- Encourage the students to speculate on outcomes, and discuss and debate issues
- Employing a successful thematic approach
…along with many other excellent educational activities!
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What is LEAP! Tour Director Training?
NETC Tour Directors have developed their exceptional leadership and educational skills as a result of extensive LEAP! training, which includes cultivating an understanding of how all students - and all people - learn. Tour Directors are also well trained in handling the many challenges inherent in managing a group of students. In addition to extensive logistical training, our Tour Directors' key skills include the ability to:
- Constructively divide students into separate sub groups,
- Ask questions and take answers effectively
- Engage all types of learners and include students with different social skills
- Empower the students to take intellectual risks
- Create context and relevance for events, historical landmarks and other tour items
- Present educational information in a fun and interesting manner to involve students
- Use themes to make connections to a variety of academic disciplines as well as existing knowledge
- Prompt students to speculate on outcomes and construct their own scenarios for outcomes
The outcome of this unique educational approach is that students...
- Understand the complex trends, political movements, social conditions and power struggles which led to wars, revolutions and other important historical events which have shaped the countries they visit - rather than simply knowing that they happened, but not necessarily understanding how or why.
- Understand WHY they are visiting these incredible places, and learn about interesting and often sur-prising connections to their own experience and their own country.
- Understand on a much deeper level how and why other cultures are different from our own, and also come to appreciate how in many ways they are similar.
In this way, students learn a great deal about the world, and about themselves.
In this way, they learn.
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An Example of How a LEAP! Trained Tour Director Works with a Group
- During a bus journey between destinations, students may form small groups and make up a rap song, or write a poem about a historical event or a place or person, trying to capture as much relevant and educational information as possible. Each small group then presents their song or poem to the larger group, and the winners earn a prize.
- After spending the day visiting inspiring historical landmarks, students will organize a role-playing game, in which they, for example, portray spectators watching a triumph in the Roman Forum, or leaders discussing political and social issues in the prelude to a revolution.
- Structured, Tour Director-led debates encourage students to learn about great figures from different places and time periods.
- Scavenger hunts challenge students to scout out specific items, places or other objectives, tangible or intangible, based on clues they receive from their Tour Director.
- Mock auctions involving lavishly detailed historic sales pitches set teams competing to sell paintings, chateaux, towns or even countries to the rest of the group.
- "Think, pair, share is especially successful on buses
- Dissecting pizza, designing aqueducts and constructing cathedrals...
The list is infinitely long - and always growing. You can read about some of these activities in our materials, but the vast majority happen spontaneously on tour, led by the Tour Director. Because of their LEAP! training, our Tour Directors' activities are always pedagogically sound and extremely effective.
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LEAP! Educational Activities Described in Our Itineraries
NETC tour activities achieve a variety of different objectives. Many of our fun and fascinating projects, such as cooking dinner with professional chefs, learning to dance the flamenco, gladiator school and bullfighting school, allow students to break out of the tourist bubble and get more intensely involved in a place. Students are empowered and inspired by these types of experiences. Educational, hands-on activities like these also help students more deeply appreciate the art of the activity that lives at the core of the culture.
Many activities such as debates and role-plays, which encourage critical thinking and deep understanding of issues, are designed to complement sightseeing and are often scheduled in the evenings or on the bus during long drives.
These educational activities are more than just great learning experiences - they are great fun for the students!
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LEAP! Video Gallery
