Outdoor Education Lecture II
Outdoor Ed…Why & How?
Why teach Outdoor Education
The need for…
Effective learning. Extending the learning process into
instructional settings beyond the classroom provides the opportunity for
bringing greater understanding, deeper insight, and clearer meaning to
those areas of knowledge which all too often, are merely read and
discussed and are seldom experienced.
Basic concepts. Outdoor education provides teachers with a
vehicle fro bringing real meaning to abstract concepts.
Realism in education. Lessons of life are found at every hand
in the outdoor classroom. Students don’t need to rely on words alone,
they can use all of the senses to learn.
Awareness. Modern young people are missing a basic aspect of their
own existence – acquaintance with the earth upon which we depend for
our livelihood and survival.
Environmental appreciation. Because so much of our
lives center on the acquisition and use of material objects, there is a need
to counterbalance this devotion to things with inner renewal that can be
derived from enjoying the simpler things in life.
Environmental literacy. Human survival may well depend
upon our ability to control the pollutants with which we despoil the land.
School as institutions are the primary places of influence that will affect
the masses.
Recreation experience. Outdoor activity can be a major
contributing force toward improved physical fitness and better health.
How – Theories that can be applied
• Experiential
Education
• Maslow’s Hierarchy
• Optimal Arousal
• Constructivism
APPLYING
EXPERIENCING
GENERALIZING
REFLECTING
Experiential Education
Experiential learning focuses on the growth
and success of both individuals and
groups. It incorporates a Brief-ActivityDebrief model involving discussion and
framing of activities beforehand, and
debriefing (reflection/discussion) following
the experience. Metaphor is used often in
this sequence and facilitates cooperative
reflection leading to transference and
generalization in everyday life, as well as in
both individual and group circumstances.
Communication, fun and laughter enhance
the process.
APPLYING
EXPERIENCING
GENERALIZING
REFLECTING
Maslow’s
Hierarchy
Shows exactly what a person
needs. A strong foundation must be
built in order for the other levels to
build upon one another. Each
foundation level must be strong to get
to the next level, and so on. If one
level is weak, then the needs above
that level will be very difficult to
develop, because all of the needs
interrelate.
Optimal Arousal
Arousal is a major aspect of many learning
theories and is closely related to other concepts
such as anxiety, attention, agitation, stress, and
motivation. The arousal level can be thought of
as how much capacity you have available to
work with. Yerkes-Dodson law predicts an
inverted U-shaped function between arousal and
performance.
A certain amount of arousal can be a motivator
toward change (with change in this discussion
being learning). But too much or too little will
certainly work against the learner. You want
some mid-level of arousal to provide the
motivation to change (learn). Too little arousal
has an inert affect on the learner, while too much
has a hyper affect. Also, there are optimal levels
of arousal for each task to be learned. The
optimal level of arousal is:
lower for more difficult or intellectually
(cognitive) tasks, higher for tasks requiring
endurance and persistence
Constructivism
Learning is a process of constructing meaningful
representations, of making sense of one's
experiential world. In this process, students'
errors are seen in a positive light and as a
means of gaining insight into how they are
organizing their experiential world. The notion of
doing something 'right' or 'correctly' is to do
something that fits with "an order one has
established oneself" (von Glasersfeld, 1987, p.
15). This perspective is consistent with the
constructivist tendency to privilege multiple
truths, representations, perspectives and
realities. The concept of multiplicity has
important implications for teaching and learning:
Outdoor Education
History
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
1. Tribal Life
2. Civilization
3. Post-industrialization
4. Life-cycle of OE Programs
5. Trends
1. TRIBAL LIFE
Once upon a
time….
(for a very long
time)
all education was
outdoors
Education was a way of life….
It was hands-on…
And directly related to immediate
& future demands of living
Most OE programs emulate
some aspects of tribal life,
e.g., living in the outdoors
Some OE programs make special effort to involve
aspects of traditional tribal life: e.g., animal
tracking skills, etc….
2. CIVILIZATION
Another name for the Holocene
period is the Anthropogene
period, i.e., the "Age of Man"
because during this period all of
humanity's recorded history and
the rise and fall of all its
civilizations have occurred.
OE is a phenomenon of post-modern
Western society; it does not occur (as
we currently understand and define it)
in Eastern society or in pre-modern
Western society because it requires a
distancing of civilization from nature.
As human civilizations evolved,
knowledge was recorded and stored,
and so it became necessary to
efficiently ‘transfer’ cultural knowledge
to maintain social order.
Gutenberg invented the printing press
600 years ago. Until then all books
were handwritten and rare/precious,
housed by the churches. With the
invention of the printing press, the oral
education tradition began to give way
to the written education tradition.
Dr. Kurt Hahn, German educator who
inspired many innovative educational
experiments including the beginning of the
Outward Bound movement in 1941.
6 Declines of Modern Youth
(Dr. Kurt Hahn, 1930s)
Fitness due to modern methods
of locomotion
Initiative and enterprise due
to the widespread disease of
‘spectatoritis’
Memory and imagination
due to the confused
restlessness of modern life
• Skill and care due to the weakened
tradition of craftsmanship
• Self discipline due to the ever-present
availability of stimulants and
tranquilizers
• Compassion due to the unseemly
haste with which modern life is
conducted or as William Temple called
“spiritual death”
4 Antidotes of Modern Ills
(Dr. Kurt Hahn, 1930s)
•
•
•
•
•
Fitness Training
Expeditions
Projects
Rescue Service
Outward Bound was NOT the first
OE Program
Three examples of pre-OB OE developments
• 6th century BC, Ancient Greece – mountain
climbing, hunting and horseback riding to
emotionally strengthen youth for their roles
as citizens and solidiers
Pre 1800 to early 20th Century
Friends Hospital opens in Philadelphia. A major component of
treatment is based on idea that natural environment is healing for the
"mentally ill" cited in Davis-Berman, & Berman, (1994)
1901 "Tent therapy" - on the hospital grounds Manhattan State
Hospital East to isolate TB patients from other patients. cited in
Davis-Berman, & Berman, (1994)
1929 Camp Ahmek, beginning of a "therapeutic approach" to
camping cited in Davis-Berman, & Berman, (1994)
1946 Salesmanship Club of Dallas (Campbell Loughmiller) –
beginning of therapeutic camping
movement http://www.salesmanship.com/pages/history.html
http://fdsa.gcsu.edu:6060/lgillis/AT/2IATC/advthe.htm
• German “Wandervogels”
“At the beginning of the twentieth century groups of students formed
themselves into Wandervogel, the Wandering Birds . At first they were
very earnest young people, fully of nostalgia for the Germany of a purer
age in the remote past. Alcohol and tobacco were renounced by many
members. Simplicity, idealism, self-control were keynotes of the early
phase of the movement…
Every weekend the countryside was invaded by young people. Great
importance was attached to singing round the campfires to create a spirit
of brotherly communion. Relics, monuments and places associated with
Germany’s undefiled past were objects of pilgrimage. The present day
Germany by comparison was insidious and corrupt, controlled by selfseeking adults.
The Wandervogel was a youth movement controlled by youth, unlike one
its counterparts in English speaking countries, namely, the Boy Scouts,
which is so clearly tied to adult patronage – one the reasons for its recent
relative decline. German youth, on the other hand, went a-wandering to
escape both teachers and parents.
3. POSTINDUSTRIALIZATION
21st Century Western Society
There is clear evidence of systemic and chronic human
maladaption, e.g., worsening:
• mental health For example, rates of depression and anxiety, the two
disorders which account for approximately 50% of all mental health
disorders (Seligman, *), have substantially increased in their prevalence
rates over the last 50 to 100 years. For depression prevalence trends see
Fombonne, 1998; Joyce, Oakley-Browne, Wells, Bushnell, & Hornblow,
1990; Klerman, 1985; Klerman & Weissman, 1989; Lavori, et al., 1987. For
anxiety prevalence trends see Twenge, 2000). It also appears that the
average age of onset for depression is occurring earlier (Joyce, et al., 1990;
Klerman, 1985; Klerman & Weissman, 1989; Lavori, et al., 1987). It also
interesting to note that suicide accounts for approximately half of all violent
deaths, with suicide rates highest in high-income societies (World Health
Organization, 2001).
• social/cultural health
Examples of significant social problems are increasing rates of unemployment, violence
and crime. The global unemployment rate is now as high as ever at approximately 30%
(International Labor Organization, 1996) and is expected to remain a major long-term
problem with adverse social effects (World Health Organization, 1994) and although the
most recent trends in the unemployment rates are improving, there remain deep
problems (International Labor Organization, 2001). With regard to violence and crime,
there have been clear increasing trends in Australia over the past 20 years
(Weatherburn, 2002). In the United States, there are some divergent views about
violence and crime rates. According to Blumstein (2000), there have not been any
consistent trends up or down over the past 40 years. However, the American
Psychological Association (n. d.) claims that people mistakenly believe that violence in
the United States is on the downswing because crime overall has decreased since the
early 1980s. Much of this decrease, it seems, is attributable to the aging of the baby
boom generation and consequent reduction in the numbers of teenagers, the
demographic group that contributes disproportionately to crime rates. Thus, according
to the American Psychological Association (n. d.), violent crime continues to be on the
up in the United States, especially among juveniles, and this trend seems likely to
continue (American Psychological Association, n. d.). Perhaps what is more notable
but also often overlooked, is that the United States, an “exemplar” developed country,
has homicide rates approximately 20 times greater than in most other industrialized
countries (Shannon, n. d.).
• environmental health
For example global warming attributable to human activity,
rate of usage of non-renewable resources which is 20% in
excess of what is sustainable (*ref WWF report
http://www.worldrevolution.org/), ongoing destruction of
natural habits resulting in increasing numbers of
endangered and extinct plant and animal species
• physical health
now recommended that people need
minimum 1 hour a day of physical exercise
to prevent obesity
Responding to 21st Century Needs
Education, social services,
government, etc. all need to
respond to post-industrial needs
We must invest in promising,
creative avenues, e.g., outdoor &
experiential education
4. LIFE CYCLE OF OE
PROGRAMS
International Life Cycle
(Priest, 1999)
Outdoor Education Internationally
5. TRENDS
1. Increasing disconnection between what
academics interested in OE want to spend their
time doing and what people and organizations in
the field want from academics. Basically, academics
want to study process, people in the field want
evaluation outcomes.
2. The new generation of content is emerging in
web-form. Basically, websites such as Active
Reviewing, OutdoorEd.com, and the Outdoor
Education Research & Evaluation Center are
collectively serving hundreds of hits for research info
each day, seemingly reducing traffic on listservs.
3. No significant changes in the quality or quantity of research and
knowledge generation in traditional publication forms. Basically, it
appears that there are no current major initiatives in building substantial
new research programs or generation of new theory, etc. that are likely to
bear significant fruition in the coming year. If I could pick one exception, it
would be Keith Russell's work on AT research at the Wilderness Research
Center, Uni of Idaho. Don't get me wrong - there is other good work
around - but there is little work that is appearing as part of a long-term
knowledge-building strategy. One study proves nothing - a series of
cumulative studies can.
4. Increase in 'research at the fringes'. OE methodology remains
compelling and needed; it will continue to attract increasing attention from
alternative-thinking psychologists, social workers, educators, etc. and this
will continue to foster a bubbling of 'research at the fringes'. While
tantalizing and interesting, such research is never going to go deep within
OE to build a new platform of knowledge.
5. Domination of US-based research will begin to wane. In the
beginning decades of OE since World War II, the UK generated the
little research and theory-building that was conducted, then the US
dominated in terms of programming, theory-building and research
from the 1960s-1990s. This domination may have peaked. Little new
seems to be emerging from the US, and there is too much focus on
safety, liability, risk management, etc. issues. On the other hand there
are positive signs of knowledge-building growth from the UK and
Europe. In the longer-term, future decades could see the significant
emergence of OE knowledge-building from Asia. The situation in
Australia / New Zealand seems to be, like the US, somewhat stable or
in possible decline.
6. Adventure Therapy - the one to watch. Adventure therapy may
emerge during the coming decade as a significant hothouse for the
development of OE-related theory.
7. Graduate Training will be sought. As organizations
mature and become increasingly sophisticated, they will have
an increasing need to have managerial and director-level staff
who have received post-graduate training. At the same time,
universities are increasingly under the pump to bring in dollars,
but most of this comes from undergraduate education. .
8. The big and small OE organizations are
endangered. The big organizations such as Scouts and
Guides, Outward Bound, Project Adventure, and NOLS all
faced a very tough decade in the 1990s. The big movers now
are the medium-sized, specialist organizations. Small
operators are going to continue to suffer greatly with all the
increasing administrative challenges of running programs.
9. The possible connections between outdoor education and other
fields will become more apparent. In the global, multiple age, a key
strength to survival and evolution is investing in connections. Thus,
connections between OE and other fields will emerge as increasingly
important in the coming decade.
10. The role and purpose of nature in outdoor education will
become more apparent. As society becomes more disconnected from
natural environments, the primary importance of human experience in
nature becomes more highly valued and studied. Whilst the USdominance of outdoor education during the 1960's-1990's lead to
adventure programming approaches which place little emphasis on
human relationship with nature, it is predicted that the role of nature will
emerge during the next decade as being more critical in OE theory and
research.
• Proliferation of OE programming
• Increasing diversity in:
– Purposes
– Cultures
– Locations
– Methods
– Participants
– Staff
– Death or Evolution of OB?