Since Outward Bound was founded in 1941, outdoor and adventure facilitators have been telling the world that outdoor education has many benefits and can be instrumental in helping personal growth amongst participants. The product of experiential education through outdoor adventure programs can be found in three forms. It can be cognitive, which is simply the learning of facts. It can also be physical where the participants are acquiring new hard skills and it has the potential to be affective which incorporates emotional and social development (Priest & Gass, 2005).
I strongly believe in outdoor education and its ability to help participants with personal growth, both interpersonally and intrapersonally, otherwise I would not be doing the job I am doing. However, I also believe that one of the main issues in outdoor education today is the lack of reliability and validity in those studies which suggest all of these positive outcomes. Are they truly objective and are the researchers measuring what they are intending to without bias or desire for positive findings. A few examples would be as follows… Vogl and Vogl (1974), Iida (1975), Shore (1977) and Ewert (1983) looked at the potential effects of outdoor education. It was thought that there were many problems with these studies, particularly involving the methodology. Some of the highlighted issues were small samples, few comparative methods, little statistical analysis and other unsophisticated research designs (Ewart, 1983).
Finally, another major issue which I believe exists is that of transfer – let’s say that as more studies are carried out on outdoor education in the future and positive findings are produced, what is to say that the participants can take what they have learned and bring it with them into real life situations. Is any personal growth which is measured only valid at that given time or does it have long term effects. How do we measure that?
In my job, the young people who go through our system remain on the program for as long as they need/want to (up to the age of 25) so we have the luxury of time. It is difficult to know how much impact a week, or even a one day outdoor program, will have on a participant, especially in the long term. Many outdoor providers already do gather information on their programs using feedback forms or satisfaction surveys etc; however it seems to me that this is somewhat informal and most likely unreliable.
I believe that outdoor education has a very positive effect on personal growth, in particular with young people, as I have seen transformations with my own eyes – sometimes in a very short space of time. All we need is a valid, reliable, objective method which accurately measures the programs’ effects on the soft skills of participants – easier said than done?!
Ewert, A. (1983). Outdoor adventure and self-concept: A research analysis University of Oregon
Iida, M (1975) Adventure Oriented Programs: A review of research National Research Workshop: Pennsylvania State University
Priest, S & Gass, M (2005) California School of Professional Psychology: Handbook of Juvenile Forensic Psychology John Wiley & Sons
Shore, A (1977) Outward Bound: A reference volume New York
Vogl, R & Vogl, S (1974) Outdoor education and its contributors to environmental quality: A research analysis National Educational Laboratory Publishers, Inc
I agree that outdoor programmes are benifical, I am a product of an outdoor programme. One five day programme at the age of thriteen was enough to start my journey in the outdoor field. Along the way I have met, spoken and discussed the effects of such courses.
ReplyDeleteThe anecdotal responses do suggest that one day, five days or a lifetime of such endevers can make a difference yet no one could measure what effect the experience has had.
People arent graded with A-E or 1st class-3rd when attending an adventure programme much of the evidence is informal through feedback sheets, conversations and observations of students as they return to the class or the home. This information is invaluable but how do we as practitioners make sense of such data? Is it valid?
I for one agree there are many positive aspects to adventure courses and some benefits are not noticeable until later in a persons development. Having worked for 6 years with emotional and behviour client base using outdoor adventure as a medium to elicit a change or reflection on how we behave. I saw many young people miss out on the opportunity to make a change, to choose right from wrong. Yet many years after a phone call or letter saying sorry and thanking staff for their help, and how tehy wish they could do it all over.
Their is no way to measure accurately how one person feels against another is there? how can we say this course willl change you by 3.5% yet the next person by 4.8%?
Maybe these experiences are fun, chances to learn and offer great understanding about our self. Do we not need to be in a position to fully understand it or be willing to undersatndthe effects before they can be accepted?
I think you have hit the nail on the head, research in our area is problemmatical for all the reasons you have highlighted. so what is the way forward. Accept what we believe in ignorance or try to make the most of the research opportunities that do exist accepting that there are limitations. There are real problems imposing 'big' research ideals on the Outdoor Sector, we do not have the required large numbers for control groups etc. Do you feel we need to move away from our ideals towards a more appropriate reality stance?
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