Outdoor Learning Dec 11

Battle Back Centre, Lilleshall The Learning Process

ExperienceActivity, Doing

ReflectionSharing, comparing, processing, reflecting

What

ApplicationPlanning more effective post training behaviour

Now what

ExpansionDrawing conclusions,

Identifying general principlesSo what

Experiential Learning

Cycle

Climate Setting

Closure

Goals

Goals

Process of change and transferability

“Whether it has been a juvenile offender developing more appropriate social behaviours, a freshman student obtaining a more beneficial educational experience at a university, or another programme where adventure is used as a valid educational or therapeutic medium, the credibility of programmes using a challenging environment is based upon the positive effects they have on their students’ or clients’ futures”

(Michael Gass, 1990)

Professor & the Coordinator of Outdoor Education in the College of Health and Human Services at the University of New Hampshire, USA

Why do it

• Tied to important organizational needs, goals and strategies– Maximise people performance

• Training & Development policies are important tools in recruiting, retaining and transitioning people effectively

• Employee training is an investment not an expense– To maximise the ROI from existing knowledge

and skills based training

• Follow a process• Require briefing, planning and preparation• Involve skill content• Take place in the outdoors and uses sports or

physical activities that requires skills as a vehicle for learning

• Use debriefing & reflection to draw out the individual or group learning from the activity

• Create bridges back to the participants work / personal experience

It DOES

It does NOT

• Use intense, competitive physical challenge as an end in itself

• Promote participation in unstructured acts of daring

• Focus on danger in itself as a challenge

Relationship between client and provider

• Agree activities are relevant to individual development needs• Risk-taking activities within a framework of security• Appropriate objectives for the company, group or individual involved• Courses should develop participants' awareness of managerial /

organizational issues and development of their own managerial / communication / life skills

• Courses can help participants progress from simple problem solving to coping with ambiguity and uncertainty and with conflicting views on the definition of the problem and on ways of tackling it

• Provide a framework within which individuals can review their own performance

• Suitability of the particular methods adopted by the organisation offering the activity

Providers should

• Communicate clearly the benefits of outdoor development & experiential learning

• Set objectives that integrate closely with organisational goals and strategies

• Evaluate effectiveness of programmes• Agree customer requirements and fulfil them• Promote best practice in the business of providing

high quality experiential learning in the outdoors• Diminish unhealthy rivalry between providers

Individual Benefits

• Focus on what individual can do NOT what they cannot

• Conducting a personal audit of performance • Gain insight / self awareness• Gain confidence in own abilities• Improve motivation• Improve ability to deal with stress /pressure• Counteract stress and burn out• Renew efforts to gain & maintain physical &

mental fitness• Overcome fears

Organisational Benefits

• Improved People Performance– Unlocking of people's potential– Improved Leadership– Empowering individuals– Improved Team Working – Improved communications– Dealing better with change– Speeding up decision making