Visiting the local church is said to be a powerful case of participatory learning. Inside the church the students have an actual, multi-sensory encounter with Christian practice. Moreover, leaving the classroom to visit some artifact nearby is attractive and is said to raise the situational interest of the students. An empirical study on the effects of such field trips, however, is still missing. This volume addresses this research gap in religious education. It provides insight into the theoretical background, the empirical design and the results of a project about field trips to the local church in compulsory Catholic religious education in German primary schools. It draws a comprehensive picture of such effects by identifying the benefits of scholastic field trips as well as the obstacles of this didactic Set-up. The volume closes with a description of didactic principles and methods which help to improve scholastic field trips to the local church.

Ulrich Riegel is Professor for Religious Education within the Seminar of Catholic Theology at Siegen University, Germany. His main research is on both the empirical analysis of religious teaching and learning and the empirical analysis of religiosity. Recent research projects address the process of disaffiliation from the churches and how teachers deal with religious heterogeneity in religious education.