What is LEAP!TM ...?
LEAP!TM is a philosophy that pervades every part of every NETC tour. NETC is the only educational travel company to offer LEAP! It is based on modern teaching techniques that excellent teachers use in the classroom. LEAP! brings creative and fun solutions to the unique challenges presented by a constantly changing tour environment. The result is that all the students are engaged, on the edge of their seats anticipating the next challenge, all the while involved in critical thinking and developing a 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?
Educational tours should not be a series of lectures on a bus. Students learn best when they are engaged and challenged. In any group a wide variety of learning styles and social skills will be represented, they each deserve an equal opportunity to shine. Traditional tour guiding is based on Victorian teaching methods long ago abandoned in the classroom. Our 21st century students deserve better. LEAP! is the answer and NETC is unique in being the only educational travel company offering LEAP! on their 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 things, places and events. They...
- Raise the students' awareness of cultural differences AND similarities
- Help them deal with cross-cultural challenges AND celebrate successes
- Prompt and question the students
- Challenge them with questions and tasks
- Create context for them
- Facilitate the involvement of all types of learners and personalities
- Encourage the students to speculate on outcomes, and discuss and debate issues
- Employ a thematic approach
And much more!
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What is LEAP! Training?
NETC Tour Directors have developed these skills as the result of extensive LEAP! training which includes understanding how students (all people!) learn and how to manage a group of students. In addition to extensive logistical training, 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
- Present information in a fun and interesting manner
- 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 trends, political movements, social conditions and power struggles which led to wars, revolutions and other major historical events, rather than simply hearing that they happened, and not necessarily understanding how or why.
- Understand WHY they are visiting places and what the connections are to their own experience and their own country.
- Understand how and why other cultures are different form our own, and at the same time how similar.
In this way, they learn.
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An Example of How a LEAP! Trained Tour Director Works with a Group
- Students form small groups and make up a rap song, or write a poem about a historical event or a place, or a person, and try to capture as much information in it as possible. Each small group presents to the larger group, possibly on a bus journey, and the winner earns a small prize.
- A role-play is organized where, for example, the students will portray people watching a triumph in the roman forum, discussing political and social issues in the prelude to a revolution or similar.
- Different types of debates help the students learn about great figures from different places and different time periods.
- Dance is used, for example, in the context of medieval life.
- Scavenger hunts challenge students to find specific things based on clues they receive from their Tour Director. These might be tangible or not!
- Mock auctions involving lavish sales pitches, have small groups competing to sell paintings, chateaux, towns or even countries to the rest of the group.
- Think, pair, share is used, especially on buses where it's harder to communicate with the entire group.
- Dissecting pizza, building aqueducts and cathedrals...
The list is infinitely long-and always growing. Some of these you can read about in our materials but the vast majority of them happen on tour lead by the Tour Director. Because of their LEAP! training activities are pedagogically sound.
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LEAP! Activities Described in the Itineraries
These activities have a variety of different objectives. Many of them, such as cooking school, flamenco dancing, gladiator school and bullfighting school, allow students to break out of the tourist bubble and really get involved in a place. Much like a student may get a haircut in Paris or stroll around a supermarket. Students are empowered by these kinds of experiences. They also serve to help appreciate the art of the activity that is at the core of the culture.
Other activities such as debates and role-plays encourage critical thinking and deep understanding of issues.
The activities are designed to complement sightseeing and are often scheduled in the evenings or on the bus during long drives.
Most importantly, they are great fun for students of ALL ages!
LEAP! Video Gallery
