At the end of 2016, the Ministry of Education and 11 other departments officially issued the Opinions on Promoting Primary and Middle School Students' Study Travel (hereinafter referred to as 'Opinions'), which was officially included in the primary and secondary school education and teaching plan.
As an important way to promote quality-oriented education, study travel has received extensive attention from all walks of life and has been actively carried out throughout the country. However, as a collective out-going activity, there are some issues and challenges in the implementation process of study travel. Handan, as a national demonstration area for study travel, will be the research object of this study, and in-depth interviews will be conducted with teachers, students and parents recruited from key junior high schools and ordinary junior high schools who have participated in study travel by using the qualitative research method. This study attempts to explore the impact of study travel on quality-oriented education. The results show that study travel promotes quality-oriented education, but at the same time, some issues in the implementation process also seriously hinder the development of quality-oriented education and the issues and challenges in the implementation of study travel have been discussed. Subsequently, this study offers beneficial suggestions for the study travel curriculum design and the implementation and implications for contributing to it. The in-depth qualitative interviews with involved stakeholders build a more comprehensive understanding of study travel as a whole. This research complements the previous literature on study travel, design and implementation, provides more valuable information on the study travel industry and the development of quality-oriented education in China.
The implementation of study travel should be strictly controlled from the three dimensions of before, during and after study travel. At the same time, the curriculum of study travel should be designed according to the objectives of quality-oriented education, the situation of students, the resources of study travel camps and the knowledge of textbooks. Educational institutions, governments and industries should strengthen solidarity, deepen cooperation and join hands to meet the issues and challenges.