Evaluating Interior Design Lecturers’ Perspectives on Educational Field Trips in Precedent Studies: Impact on Studio Practice and Lifelong Learning

Field trips are a part of teaching tools in design education, especially in interior design, since experiential learning has a direct influence on student comprehension of spatial environments. Direct exposure to building components, construction materials, and built environments through experiential learning enables students to acquire useful knowledge that enlightens them on design principles and improves their ability to solve problems. This research aims to evaluate the interior design lecturers’ perspective on educational field trips in precedent studies and the impact of it on design studio practice, especially on their lifelong learning. The study has used a mixed-methods survey to investigate the experiences, perspectives and structural issues of Malaysian design lecturers in the implementation of field trips in design studio education. The results demonstrate a sharp gap between the ideals and realities of education. The lecturers who are surveyed have a powerful, coherent opinion about the practical importance of field trips and agree that the exposure to the real world can be very important to sharpen the execution of designs (M = 4.58) and the gap between the abstract studio theory and the tangible projects. But 91.7% of these same lecturers are severely hampered by tight budgetary constraints, and 62.5% are stifled by inflexible administrative approval paperwork and documentation procedures. Systemic change, however, can address these challenges. By formalising field trips as part of the core curriculum map, institutions can avoid bureaucratic bottlenecks and continue to support experiential learning. At the same time, design programmes must develop strategic industry collaborations or deploy high-fidelity virtual substitutes to reduce financial limitations. Finally, it is important to protect and further develop these practical learning opportunities to prepare the next generation of interior designers with the spatial awareness, material literacy and technical skills required in a changing, internationalised industry.

Educational field trips, precedent studies, interior design education, experiential learning, studio-based learning

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