Ein Angebot des Stiftungsvereins
Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Erlebnispädagogik | GFE
Internet: www.erlebnistage.de
E-Mail: info@erlebnistage.de
About experiential outdoor education
Features, context, effects, practice
Popularity. The ideas and programs around experiential education have seen a huge surge since the 1980s; its goals and practices are disseminated by several magazines, an own trade show, numerous conventions and a vast body of literature. In general, the term experiential (outdoor) education (EE) is associated with the following: Hiking education, outdoor education, outdoor training, adventure education, action-focused education, experiential learning, survival training, wilderness experience, outdoor development, experience eduction, challenge programs, Outward Bound education, learning by doing, adventure programming etc.
Features. All approaches share three common elements: individual personal experience within the framework of group-related activities in natural (sometimes extreme) environments (outdoor) that can only be produced under specific circumstances. The deep experiences obtained in such an “experiential” way promote the ability and skills of youth and adults to reflect current behaviour (e.g. social competence, initiative, perseverance, creativity), to try out new behaviour patterns and to transfer them into everyday life; personality building through EE is the hallmark of virtually all short-term (courses, trainings) and long-term offers (individual case support, facility care).
Context. Based on the ideas of Rousseau, Thoreau, Dewey and the New Education movement, Kurt Hahn (1886-1974, founder of the German boarding school Salem) designed the so-called Outward Bound elements. These included physical training (fitness), emergency service (sympathy), project (meticulous work, care) and expedition (initiative, perseverance) that still today form the core framework of experiential education courses. There are various reasons for the recent boom in EE: traditional classroom learning is being replaced by action-focused concepts (projects, guidelines, games), experiential orientation and outdoor orientation. Besides that, they are represented in many aspects of life (experience society), e.g. increasing environmental awareness, increase of holistic approaches in educational work (head, heart, hand), adopting the so-called New Games in sport and to some extent the sometimes spectacular events and activities (e.g. rafting) during manager trainings.
Effects. The effects of typical courses and stays have been evaluated in the US, the UK and also in Germany on many occasions, and there is no longer any doubt about the fundamental success of EE; this is explained through the following models: learning through success (feedback in the framework of reflection), active help with problem coping (by the teamer), reinforcing identity by deep experiences, learning by the model, increasing self-effectiveness by mastery effects, acting consciously in view of goals and agreements. Currently there is a discussion as to what extent transfer effects could be increased even further beyond using various reflection models, by means of so-called metaphoric learning (example: We –the group– are all sitting in one boat!). In some parts, EE is being criticised from an environmental (nature is used merely as a tool), educational (exaggerated actionism, excessive focus on masculine ideals such as hero, adventure) and financial point of view.
Practice. Preferred activities within EE include: Sailing (in particular cutter sailing), canoeing, trekking and hiking expeditions, climbing, abseiling and belaying, ski touring, caving, rafting, as well as many so-called initiatives and problem-solving games (such as spider’s web, the wall, acid pond, trust fall, human knot, etc.). Virtually all courses (usually over a duration of 1 week) are structured in introduction, planning, implementation, exercise and transfer reflection. Beyond the extracurricular activity with youths, EE ideas can also be found in health care education (self and body experience), in environmental education (excursions on foot/bike), in personal developmentment work (experiencing own competences and developmental areas); in family education (experiencing together), in foreign-language education, in cultural education (tracing historic and literary trails), as well as in training courses for trainers (We want to become a team!), by now also preferred in (school in-house) teacher training (We and our school!), in manager training courses (“outdoors”) and in recent years also in therapy programs.