On Outdoor Education’s “Place” in the Victorian Curriculum
Introduction
Outdoor education has always been considered as a set-set of physical education, essentially as an extension for the academically challenged or for correcting deviant behaviours in adolescent boys (mostly) This paper however aims to explore a range of different aspects of outdoor education experiences as to highlight it as a creditable and academically sound pursuit in secondary school education on its own merits. This will be achieved in four parts, outdoor education as a precursor to lifelong recreation, outdoor recreation as social reconstructionism, outdoor recreation as experiential learning, outdoor education as exposure to ‘wilderness”.
Outdoor Education as a Precursor to Lifelong Recreation
The first way of defining a position involves viewing outdoor education through an empirical lens, firstly where outdoor education (with the main aim being recreation) can be seen as a major determinant of physical, spiritual, intellectual, social and emotional growth of not only individuals but population groups (Duerden , Widmer, Taniguchi & McCoy, 2009); however outdoor recreation is a vast term encompassing any outdoor activity that is meaningful, voluntary and intrinsically motivated; Lastly that ‘experiencing’ recreation has lasting physiological and psychological benefits.
Outdoor education can also be viewed as a tool of assimilation to a culture due to the fact that recreational pursuits originate from vastly different parts of the world. Football for example has different meanings around the world such as American football, Australian football, soccer and rugby. (Floyd et. al, 1993) All four sports are similar, the same objective, the same relative equipment, yet in their country of origin each sport exhibits a defined culture.
However recreation does not just mean hiking or canoeing, or in the “wilderness”, such as a local park or lake. A worker on their lunch break may experience recreation walking to purchase their lunch or participating in health initiatives, a student could cycle to school and back a senior citizen may recreate by sitting in a park. Kaplan (1995) stresses the importance of outdoor recreation and how it can be facilitated in the creation of a ‘restorative environment’ to counter the ‘directed attention fatigue’ that individuals experience from their occupations. Academics such as Kaplan and Loynes advocate the need for spaces to facilitate a restorative environment in which populations can re-create from physical and psychological fatigue, in turn improving the health of society.
In summary recreation is instrumental to the effective functioning of a society due to the fact it is be an activity conducted freely for intrinsic motivations to act as a tool of growth and physiological benefit; or as a state of mind, or as a phenomenological experience which is transient and needs to be constantly achieved. Whichever viewpoint is taken, outdoor education begins the dualism between occupation/recreation which needs to be effectively balanced for a healthy society
Outdoor Education as Social Reconstructionism
A second way of viewing the place of outdoor education is the idea of the social reconstructionist curriculum; Schiro (2008) suggests that a social reconstructionist relies heavily on directing student autonomy and discovery learning to deal with the rising issues or contestations in society, ideally through direct and hands on exposure to the subject material.
Dewey (1938/1997) would argue that such emphasis on learning has enabled students to take a self-directed alternative to learning and become the primary source of knowledge, Real consideration needs to be given to educational ideas such as Bloom's Taxonomy and Gardner’s Theory of Multiple intelligences as the can be beneficial to a social reconstructionist classroom because it promotes various modes of diverse learning styles. Since this approach would cater for multiple intelligences, students are capable of achieving life-long learning goals, which can further enhance student motivation in the classroom. For this reason, learning can also be constructive in the sense that the student is in full control of his or her learning. With the openness of a social reconstructionist classroom, knowledge production is vital when providing students the opportunity to explore their own learning styles. In that respect, successful learning also occurs when learners are fully engaged in the active learning process.
During the fourth year professional placement unit at Monash university I was placed in a leadership specialism school for a select group of year nine students (which is the closest school to a pure outdoor educational institution in Victoria). The importance of this surrounds the concept that experiential learning is the desired result, requiring an integrated school setting.
Schiro (2008) classifies the integrated school by identifying five key attributes of this approach;
- First, students are seen as complex “conglomerates of intellectual, social, emotional and physical components”( Noddings, 2005b, p.12, as cited in Schiro 2008, p.100)
- Second, knowledge is integrated into broader, multidisciplinary pursuits rather than specific knowledge disciplines; with the main objective is to contextualise the content knowledge to real occurrences in the outside world,
- Third, integrated schools (such as the Alpine Leadership School at Mt Hotham, Victoria) tend to have few fixed periods during the day, which is aimed towards enhancing the transfer of knowledge between activities by letting students commence and conclude activities in a flexible timeframe.
- Fourth, integrated schools tend to run simultaneous activities or utilise a greater degree of interdisciplinary knowledge in the attempt to target as many of Gardner’s learning styles
- Fifth, Integrated schools attempt to integrate the students’ home life with their school life, which aims to portray that the world is not fragmented between work and home or occupation and leisure
In summary, outdoor education can be seen as a vehicle for integrated learning where traditional units of study are combined. Also due to the idea that integrated learning aims to pair the students “home” life with their “academic” life, ultimately preparing them for life beyond higher secondary schooling.
Outdoor Education as Experiential Education
Experiential education can be a powerful contributor to learning in a variety of ways; however this requires careful structuring of the academic and experiential learning program (ALP & ELP). Various researchers of applied experiential education (Roorda, et.al 2011; Moore, 2010; Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006 & Loynes, 1998) have expressed concerns that poorly integrated programs, which are not closely linked with the academic curriculum limits student growth; even though they may help students develop in other ways, potentially leading to a mismatch between stated goals of programs and the actual outcomes.
Moore (2010) suggests that an effective ELP must include:
- Experiences that are related clearly to the academic goals of the course or program
- Attention paid to preparing students for both the practical and theoretical challenges of the activity
- Well-developed assessments that provide evidence of achievement of academic objectives
- Educators who understand the individual learning goals for the student and provides immediate and concise feedback
- Continuous well-structured reflection opportunities for students to help them link experience and learning throughout the course of the term.
Progressing to the second main feature of experiential learning is the requirement of active reflection; Paisley, Furman, Sibthorp, & Gookin (2008) suggest that the most critical factor for achieving powerful learning outcomes from experiential learning programs is the inclusion of interactive opportunities for feedback and reflection. The main aim of these reflection sessions is to turn physical activity into learning experience through challenging, continuous and contextualised reflection sessions.
The reflection cycle most evident in experiential education was developed by Kolb (1984); It is a useful choice because it is simple and intuitive making it easy for students to use as a facilitation tool with their self-reflection. The main idea of the model is that students are required to link concrete experience and the abstract idea reflection; ultimately cycling back into future action. Therefore repeatedly thinking about experience and moderating their actions, students are encouraged to take a metacognitive stance towards their work in the field and to continuously practice transferring learning to action and action to learning.
Outdoor education as Movement Meaning
Movement meaning in education is a large aspect of experiential education, for if you cannot make sence of the physical nature of an experience you are less inclined to make sence of it at a pyschologial level. A key academics of movement in education are Arnold (1979) and Brown (2008) who each write extensively on the value of meaning making in movement education, (in which Brown (2008) bases his work around Arnold’s meaning making) have identified three catagories of movement meaning, promordial, contextual and existiential meaning. Arnold (1979, pp.26) defines primordial meanings as “those meanings which are basic and underlying to our everyday existance as movers…. those experiences which are brought to a new level of consciousness by receiving attention and which in themselves become meaningful
In short primordial meanings refer to movements which are good in themselves (ie, walking for health but also walking as an end to itself) The second classification is contextual meanings, that being meanings placed on a certain movement in a specialised context which make up the experience, such as a drive in golf or a lay up in basketball. and finally existiential meanings transend the movements in the physical sense, where the movements define the individuals place in the wider world.
In summary experiential education and meaning making in outdoor education can be considered as a way students can learn about themselves, which in turn can be redirected to be applied to higher education studies and practices or a greater understanding of their function in wider society.
Outdoor Education as Exposure to Wilderness
Elaborating on the idea that wilderness is ‘out there’ Hawthorn (2002) suggests that the general view of the western world is that ‘wilderness’ is separate from humanity, progressing to suggest wilderness parks as ‘wilderness theme parks’ where wilderness can be encountered safely, but providing the intended thrill. This raises a critical idea, that wilderness is the construction of people who potentially are disconnected from the place they inhabit.
Mulligan(2003) moves to suggest that the we have lost our connection with the land, as we ‘dwell above, and not in, the land’ that we impose many layers between us and the land, be that the rubber in our shoes, the gravel roads or our planted gardens, suggesting that technocentrism takes priority over authentic experience. Blades (2005) suggests that taking this ‘foot-to-ground’ approach (merely exposing ourselves to the environment) allows the places to travel through the observer by storytelling rather than the observer traveling through the space. Outdoor education in a sense can be viewed as a deliberate and methodical program to reconnect ourselves into the surrounding natural environment.
Conclusion
Outdoor education as a whole is a sound and worthwhile pursuit for individuals to grow and develop on the fringes of the mainstream curriculum, with strong ties into the other two members of the health and physical education domain of VELS. As mentioned above, outdoor education shares many attributes with can be associated with physical education, however the main attribute of outdoor education as a discipline is the power as a tool for social reconstruction, to be experiential and critical consumers of recreation outside of the structured programs during their schooling.
References
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