OUTDOOR EDUCATION: ITS RELATIONSHIPS TO OUTDOOR EDUCATION

2018

This article explores some of the benefits of outdoor education and examines some of the historical approaches taken to outdoor education, with an emphasis on current trends in the field. Specifically, fostering environmental stewardship through connections to the outdoors, incorporating Indigenous perspectives into practice, and place-based education are discussed. Natural links between these trends are explored, and areas of possible tension between these approaches are examined. The value of outdoor education lies in the multitude of benefits it provides to those who participate. Outdoor education has historically been adventure-based education, with a focus on individual health and personal growth through camping and survival skills. However, recent trends in outdoor education are shifting the focus away from individual health and wellness goals to fostering environmental stewardship through connections to the outdoors. Another current trend is incorporating Indigenous perspecti...

Education Sciences, 2020

Popular demand for school-based outdoor learning is growing throughout the world, but there is relatively little use of international comparisons to inform the development and support of this growth. Motivations for providing outdoor learning may vary within and across countries/areas. Through understanding how different purposes are being approached internationally, we can learn how outdoor learning might best be supported to achieve particular outcomes. Eighty expert commentators on outdoor learning from 19 countries/areas responded to a short online survey about motivations for and practices in school-based outdoor learning, based on their experience working in this field. The survey was designed using a conceptual framework of student outcomes from outdoor learning, derived from policy analysis and five major reviews of the field. The three most frequently reported forms of outdoor learning practiced in schools were field studies, early years outdoor activities, and outdoor and adventure education. Among identified purposes for outdoor learning provision within schooling, supporting environmental awareness and action and pupil health and well-being were the most common. Some alignment of forms of outdoor learning and specific outcomes are discussed and implications for future policy, practice, and research considered.

2001

Abstract This paper describes and critiques the development of outdoor education (OE) programs in Australia. It is argued that attention should be paid to a country's history, geography and culture when investigating the application of outdoor education programs. Australia has a highly urbanized Western culture which has been heavily influenced by nineteenth century British colonialism and twentieth century American culture.

Paper presented at the 2nd International Cooloqium On Tourism And Leisure, 4-7 Mei 2004, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

While many outdoor educators are confident their residential outdoor education (ROE) programs improve participants’ environmental attitudes, research findings are inconclusive. This study seeks to examine the effects of a Malaysian university ROE camp on environmental attitudes. A pre and post test approach with non equivalent control group design was utilized among 176 first year undergraduate students. A modified version of CHEAKS and open ended questionnaire were used to gather data from pre and post-tests. Results from ANCOVA procedures suggested that the camp had positively improved the experimental group’s environmental attitudes. Issues of bridging ROE learning outcomes into daily practices are addressed, and a framework for future practice and research is suggested.

2017

One of the most important objectives of nowadays education is to develop useful members of the society. This is only valid if the individual is socially and psychologically developed. How can this be possible? Well, the answer is in the organization of activities in which pupils can practice group cohesion, cooperation, respect, self-esteem, self-discipline and the care for others and their well-being. Outdoor activities can be the perfect answer for this social need. During this study, we try to present the most important social and psychological aspects of outdoor learning and examples of how it can be put into practice.

Outdoor education has a long and well documented history in Great Britain which is regularly linked to Hahn, Gordonstoun School, and the Outward Bound movement. A kayaking tragedy in 1993 resulted in the introduction of new legislation through Parliament. This has led to major changes in outdoor education in Great Britain and extensive debates, which are only partially documented. This paper outlines some of these changes and offers readers references that direct them to more detailed information. In addition, some of the resulting trends and debates that have emerged in the aftermath of the tragedy are provided. The paper concludes by considering some implications for outdoor education as a profession and argues that outdoor educators in Great Britain ought to consider the value of becoming a profession before striving to become one. Finally, some suggestions are made as to why these reflections on' turbulent times' might be relevant to the field of outdoor education in Australia and other countries.

Routledge International Handbook of Outdoor Studies, 2015

Young people are growing up in a society faced by increasing environmental concerns. Globally resources are being used up at an escalating rate. Habitats are changing, rainforests diminishing, deserts expanding, tens of species are lost each day, while the human population increases by more than a million each week. A far-reaching report on the state of the world's wildlife states that the Living Planet Index, which measures more than 10,000 representative populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, has declined by 52 per cent since 1970 (WWF, 2014). Most people in the industrialised world are removed from the land and the rhythms of nature. Many Westernised people exist in an insulated, cossetted world protected from the vagaries of the outdoors. The dominant belief is that technology and commercialisation can solve these global concerns. However, the fragility of our Western political and economic system became all too apparent in 2008 with the failure of the banking system, which has led to rising unemployment, increasing poverty and inequality in many countries. The subsequent insecurity became the breeding ground for an ill-founded fear of threats from mass immigration and terrorism, which in turn may persuade many people to give up their human rights and possibly become more open to manipulation from central governments. Poverty, homelessness, malnutrition and environmental degradation are all symptoms of an economic and political system rooted in competition, commercialisation and growth. Today's rapid consumption of resources is undermining the environmental resource base. It is exacerbating inequalities and the dynamics of the consumption-poverty-inequality-environment nexus are accelerating (United Nations, 1998). The question for outdoor educators and policy makers is should practice in outdoor education accept and reflect these values or should it provide the space to question dominant oppressive ideologies? Positioning outdoor education This debate over the role of education in either supporting the existing structures and values in society or challenging them is long standing (Huckle & Sterling, 1996). In rapidly changing lives many young people will work at jobs that may not yet exist and there is an ever greater need for a more

Nicol, R., Higgins, P., Ross, H., & Mannion, G. (2007) Outdoor Education in Scotland: A summary of recent research. Report Commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage.

support for outdoor education is growing in Scotland and the UK. In 2005 the Minister for Education in Scotland initiated and funded a two-year development programme called 'Outdoor Connections' 3 . The focus of this programme is to 'make connections across current and emerging outdoor education priorities and policies, programmes and people; and to develop and distribute resources which will continue to improve the quality of outdoor learning'.

2017

The study was aimed at analyzing the effect of Outdoor Education on the students’ objectives and responsibilities through experential learning in outbond activities in the wild. The method was experimental design using Randomized Pretest Posttest Comparison Group Design. The instrument in this research was done by giving questionnaire about the objective aspect and responsibility to both groups at the beginning and end of the research, to get the information and data that clearly used likert scale (Sudjana, 1998) and give the treatment of Outdoor Education to the experimental group in the form of Outbound with games in the wild. From the t test analysis, it was discovered that Outdoor Education significantly affect students’ objectives and responsibilities. The result revealed that Outdoor Education with outbond activities in the wild is recommended to be used as a way of improvong students’ objectives and responsibilities.