Recognising and exploring action-theories: A reflection-in-action approach to facilitating experiential learning

Outdoor education has typically presented itself as a specific approach to experiential learning. This article proposes that experiential learning can be understood as a process in which learners recognise and develop their action-theory and that the aim of outdoor development programs — whether in mainstream education, corporate training or therapy — is to facilitate this process. After introducing the notion of action-theory, I will present a particular approach to facilitation, which can be understood as a reflection-in-action approach. I conclude by situating this approach in the wider range of facilitation models in the literature on outdoor education and adventure therapy.     

Terry Storry (1950–2004) An obituary

Abstract

From the discussion in parts one and two there are two main points that emerge. The first is that it is difficult to identify from outdoor education literature a philosophical framework on which practice is based. Secondly, the body of outdoor education literature attaches more importance to learning outcomes relating to personal and social education than environmental education. The purpose of part three is to offer a philosophical framework and use it to consider the relationship between outdoor education, environmental education and the related concept of sustainability education. The paper starts out by looking at the development of western thought and how it has promoted the concept of epistemological dualism's. The paper then presents an alternative framework of epistemological diversity including experiential, presentational, propositional and practical ways of knowing that has particular relevance for environmental education and sustainability education. Although the prime focus of this paper is environmental education it also deals explicitly with a philosophical framework which includes experiential learning. Consequently, it has relevance to other claims made of outdoor education in particular personal and social education.     

Qualitative research and making meaning from adventure: A case study of boys' experiences of outdoor education at school

Abstract

This article details the process and analysis of a case study, conducted over a six week period, involving an outdoor education class in an all-boys Catholic, New Zealand secondary school. The questions explored by the case study were the subjective meanings of adventure experiences in outdoor education and the benefits of qualitative research for assessing the value of outdoor education. The methodological techniques used were observation, involving some researcher participation, and in-depth interviewing. Subsequent data analysis was based upon theories of experiential education and adventure education, and concepts of leisure and human agency. The results of the study suggest that the meanings participants make of their experiences, and the value they derive from them, exceed those that may conventionally be sought and measured as an improvement in self-concept. These findings suggest that learning through adventure is potentially valuable as a holistic and life-long form of activity that enhances the capacity to enjoy and engage in living. This is an important extension beyond its often limited and compartmentalised applications, which are rationalised by specific outcome based objectives. A qualitative methodology was indispensable to an inquiry of this kind and warrants further attention in the process of understanding the meanings of adventure and learning.     

Learning and Innovation Competence in Agricultural and Rural Development

Abstract

Purpose: The fields of competence development and capacity development remain isolated in the scholarship of learning and innovation despite the contemporary focus on innovation systems thinking in agricultural and rural development. This article aims to address whether and how crossing the conventional boundaries of these two fields provide new directions for developing learning and innovation competence in international development.

Design/methodology/approach: Using mixed methods research, this article assesses work environments for experiential learning and innovation, and investigates effective ways of enhancing core competence in agricultural research, education, extension and entrepreneurship.

Findings: Findings suggest that while the focus on input and output indicators are relevant for technological innovation competence development, outcome indicators, such as measures of changes in cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning and innovation, would better serve the purpose of developing organisational and institutional learning and innovation competence.

Practical implications: This research concludes that crossing the conventional boundaries of competence development and capacity development serves as a way to renew the role of education within the innovation systems thinking. However, such an attempt to enhance human capabilities and functionings through education should integrate theory-based, competence-based and experiential learning components as a coherent whole.

Originality/value: This article demonstrates the value of crossing the conventional boundaries of the two seemingly unrelated fields—competence development through education and capacity development through extension—to provide new directions to operationalise innovation systems thinking in agricultural education and extension.     

Charles Peirce’s Rhetoric and the Pedagogy of Active Learning

Abstract

Although John Dewey has had the most profound effect on education, less is known about the philosophy of education of the original founder of pragmatism, Charles Peirce Using Peirce’s theory of formal rhetoric, I try to show that Peirce’s philosophy of education, when fully understood, is aligned with Dewey’s pedagogy of experiential learning, and can provide a justification for the promotion of active learning in the classroom. Peirce’s rhetoric, as one part of his logical or semiotic theory, argues that reasoning alone is not sufficient to gain knowledge, but that it must be embedded within a community of inquiry, of a certain sort. Applying this to the classroom, I argue that we, as teachers, should endeavor to create the features of a proper community of inquiry in the classroom, one that emphasizes engagement of the students in doing research rather than passively receiving information about its results.     

Environmental Studies at Chicago Colleges

Abstract

A new definition of outdoor education founded upon six major points is presented. Outdoor education: (1) is a method for learning; (2) is experiential; (3) takes place primarily in the outdoors; (4) requires use of all senses and domains; (5) is based upon interdisciplinary curriculum matter; and (6) is a matter of relationships involving people and natural resources. The metaphorical model of a tree describes two approaches to outdoor education. Adventure education relates to interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. Environmental education concentrates on ecosystemic and ekistic relationships. The author maintains that both approaches, properly integrated, achieve objectives for all four relationships, and, in the process, create a truly functional outdoor education experience.     

On the Un-becoming of Measurement in Education

Abstract

Education in democratic South Africa has been saddled with the extraordinary task of sanitising a once dehumanising and splintered education system into a singular narrative of social justice and creative, problem-solving individuals. This extraordinary effort has witnessed a pendulum swing from the openness of outcomes-based education, to a less flexible National Curriculum Statement, and recently, to what has been criticised as a too restrictive Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). In its narrow focus on ‘assessment for learning’, CAPS appears to be trapped in a particular understanding of teaching and learning that can be understood only in terms of measurement, thereby discounting education as happening outside that which can be measured. In this article, I contend, firstly, that while education is not averse to measurement, it cannot be allowed to dominate the educative process. Instead, it is possible to reconcile measurement, as expressed through a ‘language of needs’ with a language of ‘coming into presence’, which recognises that learners enter the education arena with their own ideas of what is known and yet to be known. Secondly, I argue, that if a post-apartheid education system hopes to re-humanise its citizens and society, then this will only be possible through cultivating a curriculum, which is understood as a process of socially just encounters—one which is always in becoming, and therefore not necessarily measurable.     

Learning Experientially through Case Studies? A Conceptual Analysis

In this conceptual article three points are made. First, reasons are offered for why experiential learning approaches are often implemented incompletely in higher education teaching. Secondly, it is argued that the case studies approach to teaching in higher education, if properly facilitated, is an effective way to provide students with the opportunity to become involved in all four phases of Kolb's experiential learning cycle. Thirdly, drawing on previous studies, it is proposed that experiential learning is likely to foster students' learning on a higher-order level, such as their critical thinking ability and propensity for self-direction in learning. The article concludes with suggestions for research to be done by those who teach in institutions of higher education to corroborate the arguments presented.     

The contribution of reflective learning to experiential learning in business education

Abstract

Experiential learning theory states that reflection is just as important to learning as action. However, business educators often overlook reflection in their experiential learning activities, especially when it’s understood as a dialogue process. Drawing on reflective learning theory, we explored the case of an undergraduate business programme that has been combining experiential learning with three different reflective learning mechanisms for the past ten years. Results show that: (1) reflective dialogue is central for ensuring that impressions from experience translate into better-defined learning outcomes, (2) this dialogue process greatly benefits from a closely guided process, and (3) different reflection mechanisms contribute differently to the learning process. Considering how fast experiential learning has popularised in business schools, this study alerts educators to the importance of combining their experiential learning activities with a guided process of reflection. Otherwise, educators risk students extracting meagre, wrong or misleading impressions from their experience.     

A Path Worth Taking: The Development of Social Justice in Outdoor Experiential Education

This article examines the influences promoting social justice in the field of outdoor experiential education. The philosophical foundations of outdoor adventure including the work of John Dewey and Kurt Hahn are considered in light of social justice education. The historical evolution of social justice activism within the professional community is analyzed. Other influential trends including the development of outdoor programs sensitive to social justice concerns, the cross fertilization from other related fields, and the demographic and economic imperatives to transform the field are described. The methodological fit between outdoor experiential education and social justice education is the final influence presented. The article concludes that potentials for social justice education within the outdoor experiential education field create an imperative for inclusion.     

Pedagogic affect and its politics: learning to affect and be affected in education

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the critical contribution that affects as bodily capacities to act, engage and connect can make to children’s learning in museums and schools. Drawing chiefly on empirical material collected over the course of visits by school children to Museums Victoria, Australia, and bringing a sociomaterial sensibility to bear, I trace the movements of these children through exhibition spaces and show pedagogic affect at work. I argue that children’s learning can usefully be understood in ways that go beyond social constructivism which underwrites museum learning and school education yet tends to neglect the role of affectivity and material agency in learning, as well as relations of power. As the empirical material shows, the politics of affective practice involve the co-constitution of bodies, spaces and objects in ways that actively intervene in established relations of power. I conclude by calling for a renewed engagement with the affective in education.     

Radical adult education and learning

How can we speak about radical education in these seemingly unpropitious times? I explore this question first by examining aspects of our radical heritage (self-directed learning, facilitation, democratic pedagogy, learning in hegemonic struggle, learning in social action, critical pedagogy) and then by discussing what radical learning and education mean now, in an era of capitalist triumphalism. I outline a method which helps practitioners to investigae and act on what people are actuallly learning and teaching each other in different sites—educational instititions, workplace families, communities, the mass media and social movements. Culture is ordinary: that is where we must start. (Williams, 1958a)     

Developing knowledge intensive ideas in engineering education: the application of camp methodology

Background: Globalization, technological advancement, environmental problems, etc. challenge organizations not just to consider cost-effectiveness, but also to develop new ideas in order to build competitive advantages. Hence, methods to deliberately enhance creativity and facilitate its processes of development must also play a central role in engineering education. However, so far the engineering education literature provides little attention to the important discussion of how to develop knowledge intensive ideas based on creativity methods and concepts.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to investigate how to design creative camps from which knowledge intensive ideas can unfold.

Design/method/sample: A framework on integration of creativity and knowledge intensity is first developed, and then tested through the planning, execution and evaluation of a specialized creativity camp with focus on supply chain management. Detailed documentation of the learning processes of the participating 49 engineering and business students is developed through repeated interviews during the process as well as a survey.

Results: The research illustrates the process of development of ideas, and how the participants through interdisciplinary collaboration, cognitive flexibility and joint ownership develop highly innovative and knowledge-intensive ideas, with direct relevance for the four companies whose problems they address.

Conclusions: The article demonstrates how the creativity camp methodology holds the potential of combining advanced academic knowledge and creativity, to produce knowledge intensive ideas, when the design is based on ideas of experiential learning as well as creativity principles. This makes the method a highly relevant learning approach for engineering students in the search for skills to both develop and implement innovative ideas.     

Paradoxical tensions in creating a teaching and learning space within a graduate education course on spirituality

Much has been written recently about inclusive learning environments in higher education. Most of this writing has unproblematically assumed a simple link between inclusion and access to institutions. In this paper I suggest that inclusive learning environments need to be reconceptualised as contexts within which a 'democratisation of knowledge' occurs. I draw upon my experience as a tutor on a professional development course for university lecturers to explore this reconceptualisation, looking in particular at issues to do with experiential knowledge, gender and sexuality.     

The Use of an Industrial Simulation in Initial Teacher Education: an exercise in reflective learning

Abstract

The schools‐industry movement advocates the development of greater industrial awareness in pupils through experiential learning methods. It follows that student teachers need to be prepared for this work in a similar way. Such experiential work, to be effective, needs to be reflective. The use of such ‘reflective practice’ is an important strategy in teacher education in its own right This paper explores these ideas in the context of an industrial simulation run in school, by students in Initial Teacher Training, involving local industrialists. Such an activity can play a valuable part in preparing such students for initiatives such as TVEI, and can enhance their personal and professional development. However, when several agencies are combining on a single project, they approach the activity with differing objectives. These need to be recognised in the planning, so that valid compromises can be achieved.     

Learning ‘Peace Talk’ in Northern Ireland: Peer Mediation and Some Conceptual Issues Concerning Experiential Social Education

Experiential learning is often seen as a central component of social education and pastoral programmes such as peer mediation; but the precise nature of experience as an educational, social and pedagogic/cultural process in schools is complex. This paper uses the notion of experiential learning to explore the impact of a peer mediation programme in a transforming integrated school in Northern Ireland. The programme was intended to mainstream the involvement of pupils in the process of creating a more integrated school ethos and was implemented by youth workers working as members of the school staff.

The paper begins with a review of the theoretical basis of experience as educational. This is followed by an interpretative review of the results of a survey of pupils' attitudes to peer mediation and semi-structured interviews with pupils and school and project staff about their perception of the impact of the programme on ideas of social learning. One issue is the extent to which developing pupils' capacity for interactive dialogue can be seen as an experiential process, like learning a foreign language – hence ‘peace talk’. Another is the process by which the perception of peer mediation training as ‘experiential’ constituted an enabling ‘pedagogic discourse’ which legitimized the programme for teachers and affirmed its beneficial impact on pupils.     

You are never alone: understanding the educational potential of an ‘urban solo’ in promoting place-responsiveness

Abstract

Solos have a long history in outdoor learning (education) for their use in ‘wilderness’ settings. They have been theorised in experiential education literature and through phenomenological concepts where dwelling and solitude provide unstructured time for individual reflection. Place-Based Education provides opportunities for educators to develop place-responsive practices in areas local to where people live, work and study. This paper reports on an exploratory investigation into a Masters-level course. Students were required to undertake an ‘urban solo’ in a familiar place and consider how ontological disruption might be nurtured in city-based locations. Six students participated in semi-structured interviews which were then analysed thematically using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Findings revealed that their solo experiences had had a profound and unexpected effect on all students. These changes seemed to occur as the result of an ontological shift in the students from being passive receptors of stimuli to engaging more actively with their surroundings. We concluded that, because of its simplicity and close proximity to school grounds, the urban solo is one way for teachers to overcome the barriers they consistently report to outdoor learning. We recommend that future studies draw further on urban theorists to develop more city-based, place-responsive practices.     

Entering the Fray: The role of outdoor education in providing nature-based experiences that matter

Abstract

This article draws on different bodies of knowledge in order to review the potential role of outdoor education in providing nature-based experiences that might contribute to sustainable living A pragmatic perspective is adopted to critique what outdoor education is,and then what it might be. Phenomenology is used to challenge the belief that there is a causal relationship between activities and learning outcomes but foremost to consider what it is to be in nature in the first place. Aspects of both realism and social constructionism are presented as essential to environmental philosophy and the concomitant, but contested, relationship between people and planet. Through these multiple realities the moral significance of nature emerges not only as a theoretical consideration but as a practical one too. In this way I challenge dualisms that provide stumbling blocks to practice and celebrate instead pluralistic thinking where starting points are based on real-life work settings where theory and practice can emerge together through place-specific solutions.     

A critique of neo-Hahnian outdoor education theory. Part two: “The fundamental attribution error” in contemporary outdoor education discourse

Abstract

In the first of a two part series of articles I argued that “character building” in outdoor adventure education (OAE) is a flawed concept. This, the second article, examines the persistence of the idea of character building in OAE in the face of strong evidence that outdoor experiences cannot change personal traits. I examine how the “fundamental attribution error” can explain the paradox of (a) a shortage of evidence that adventure education “works” and (b) a widespread belief that it does “work”. I review the place of character building in research, and develop a critical reading of a representative adventure education text. I show how unchallenged dispositionist assumptions emerge in neo-Hahnian discourse. I explain how discarding the intuitively appealing but fallacious foundations of neo-Hahnism can clear the way for situationist approaches to outdoor education that bring much needed sensitivity to cultural, regional, historical, and social contexts.     

Developing sustainability-literate citizens through outdoor learning: possibilities for outdoor education in Higher Education

UNESCO's challenge to Higher Education institutions to provide educational leadership in sustainable development, provides an impetus to develop innovative, interdisciplinary curricula and pedagogy. Whereas Higher Education curricula in sustainability and sustainable development have tended to come from the environmental sciences, recent studies have highlighted the need for more holistic, experiential, interdisciplinary approaches. As a pedagogical approach, outdoor learning may have something to offer since it lends itself to holistic and experiential learning and enables integration of knowledge and skills from a range of discipline areas. Outdoor and environmental education research suggests that educational experiences in outdoor settings can be significant in developing environmental sensitivity and knowledge. Such knowledge and attitudes are components of ecological literacy and, more recently, sustainability literacy. This paper considers how outdoor experiential pedagogy might contribute to the current sustainability education agenda. It focuses on Higher Education since this sector has the obligation and the capability of instigating a 'ripple' effect' in developing sustainability-literate citizens. It discusses possibilities and issues arising from a review of outdoor, environmental and sustainability education literature, particularly, but not exclusively, from the UK. The paper is a precursor to an empirical study into how outdoor learning might contribute to the development of sustainability-literate graduates.