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Johan Hovelynck
‚Adventure Education‘: 10 years after the storm
Current developments and bearings for practice
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Adventure Education:
10 years after the storm
Situating adventure education
The wake of the ‘adventure boom’
Program environment
Activities
Participants
Staffing and Facilitation
Bearings for practice?
Adventure education: what’s in a name?
Recreation Purpose: recreation, leisure
Program design: based primarily on fun, ‘kicks’ and relaxation time => entertainment.
Staff role: ‘animator’.
Instruction: ~ ‘education’ Purpose: learning about the environment and/or the activity
Program design: based primarily on predefined learning materials / curriculum => ‘didactic’.
Staff role: instructor
Facilitation: ~ ‘experiential education’ Purpose: learning about personal and group behavior.
Program design: ‘emergent’: based primarily on experiences during the program.
Staff role: facilitator.
Account of a caving activity in which a participant
group was to find their way out of a cave. Given the
15-meter rappel they did just before this task, it was
impossible for them to return the way they had come.
Managing the group dynamics during their problem-
solving and decision-making process, the group
managed to reach its objective – the exit.
A look at practice:
the story of a program…
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Adventure Education: facilitating learning through adventure activities
Preliminary conclusion:
Adventure education ≠ activity + reflection:
facilitation does not consist of leading a
debrief after the activity is over
Facilitation starts with a perspective on
inter-action and learning
Making my case concrete:
this Adventure Education activity & approach
became impossible with the ‘adventure boom’
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
The ‚adventure boom‘ and its wake:
Exploring some consequences of the popularization of adventure sports
The ‘adventure boom’:
the popularization of outdoor sports
Adventure as leisure
Not new, yet boost in late 80’ies, mid-90’ies,
depending on country and region
Function of developments with regard to
Leisure time
Technology & equipment
Education
Urbanization
Media
… &
(Vanreusel, 1993)
Commercialization
The adventure boom:
observations / trends in the field
Participants
Influx of corporate &
special target groups
Prior ‘exposure’ to
activities
Activities
Break-through of ‘initiative
games’ & ‘props’
Increased variety in
outdoor activities
Safety regulation,
certification & accreditation
Environment
Impact on environment and
rural communities
Access restriction &
regulation
Man-made outdoor
environments
Staff and programming
Blurring of approaches
‘Professionalization’
Adventure Education
studies
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Participants
Influx of corporate and special target groups
Prior ‘exposure’ to activities
Activities
Break-through of ‘initiative games’ & ‘props’
Increased variety in outdoor activities
Safety regulation, certification and accreditation
Environment
Impact on environment and rural communities
Access restrictions and regulation
Man-made outdoor environments
Staff and programming
Blurring of approaches
Breakthrough of action + reflection model
‘Adventure Education’ studies
The adventure boom:
observation in the field
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Shifts in
participant profile
Shift in program goals:
general specific
Shift in participant
experience, expectations
& modes of reflection
Shifts in physical &
medical condition
Shifts in quality
standards
…
Increased prior exposure
How important is it that
activities are ‘new’?
Pressure for ‘challenge’…
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Activities
Break-through of ‘dynamics’ / ‘initiative games’
Focus on ‘props’
Increased variety in outdoor activities
Single-activity programs
Regulation re consumer safety
Certification and accreditation
Environment
Impact on environment and rural communities
Access issues
Man-made outdoor environments
Regulation re environmental protection
Staff and programming
Blurring of approaches
Breakthrough of action + reflection model
‘Adventure Education’ studies
The adventure boom:
observation in the field
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
‘Adventure’ activities?
Breakthrough of ‘dynamics’ / ‘initiative games’
Importance of ‘props’
Introduction of ‘dynamic props’ in
traditional outdoor activities
Increased variety of outdoor activities
Single-activity programs
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Activities in ‘stretch zone’?
Ambivalence towards risk:
embracing eliminating
experience as ‘commodity’?
Liability and insurance:
is ‘risk’ affordable?
Regulation:
Legislation and ‘norms’
Certification & accreditation
(e.g. Baker & Simon, 2002)
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Safety management
in adventure activities
Private
‘Institutional’
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Governed by different bodies, e.g.:
Insured by different policies…
private ‘institutional’
United Kingdom
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Department for Education and Skills
Belgium Regional Ministry of
Culture, Sports and Youth Federal Department for Economy, SME & Energy
Finland Ministry of Education Ministry of Trade
and Industry
Safety management
in adventure activities
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Safety management
in ‘institutional’ adventure activities
Individual instructors
Provider as organization
Self- regulation
Legal requirement
Example: France (Brevet d’Etat)
Examples: United States (AEE)
Belgium (BFNO) Netherlands (VeBON)
Example: United Kingdom (AALA) Belgium (Leisure events)
Example: United Kingdom (NGB’s)
(Hovelynck & Andriessen, 2003)
Environment
Impact on environment and rural communities
Access issues
Man-made outdoor environments
Regulation re environmental protection
Staff and programming
Blurring of approaches
‘Professionalization’
Breakthrough of action + reflection model
‘Adventure Education’ studies
The adventure boom:
observation in the field
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Pressure on natural environment
littering, compaction, erosion,
damage to fauna and flora…
Pressure on rural communities
Environmental overload?
noise, local
norms, damage
to harvest
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Increase of regulation
Stricter enforcement of existing regulation
Purchase of activity sites
Fencing & closing of
Rock sites
Caves
Forests
…
Access issues
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
…
Rivers & lakes
Paid access
Access issues
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Climbing
Paddling
Caving
…
Man-made outdoor environments
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Ropes course as example:
from small-scale educational endeavor to
multi-billion Euro business…
Man-made outdoor environments
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Johan Hovelynck - Programmaopbouw - Postgraduaat Adventure Education
Beneficial physiological effects
when humans encounter,
observe or otherwise positively
interact with animals, plants,
landscapes or wilderness
(Friedmann et al., 1983a;
Friedmann et al., 1983b; Parsons,
1991; Ulrich, et al., 1991b; Rohde
& Kendle, 1994; Beck & Katcher,
1996; Frumkin, 2001)
Natural environments foster
recovery from mental fatigue and
are restorative
(Furnass, 1979; Kaplan & Kaplan,
1989; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1990;
Hartig et al., 1991; Kaplan, 1995)
Methods of nature-based therapy
(wilderness, horticultural and
animal-assisted…) have success
healing patients who did not
respond to previous treatment
(Levinson, 1969; Katcher & Beck,
1983; Beck et al., 1986; Lewis,
1996; Crisp & O'Donnell, 1998;
Russell et al., 1999; Fawcett &
Gullone, 2001; Pryor, 2003)
The majority of places that
people consider favourite or
restorative are natural places,
and being in these places is
recuperative
(Parsons, 1991; Kaplan & Kaplan,
1989; Rohde & Kendle, 1994;
Korpela & Hartig, 1996; Herzog et
al., 1997; Newell, 1997; Herzog et
al., 2000)
The role of ‘nature’ (Maller et al, 2005)
The role of ‘nature’ People have a more positive
outlook on life and higher life
satisfaction when in proximity to
nature (particularly in urban
areas)
(Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989;
Kaplan, 1992a; Lewis, 1996;
Leather et al., 1998; Kuo, 2001;
Kuo and Sullivan, 2001)
Exposure to natural
environments enhances the
ability to cope with and recover
from stress, and recover from
illness and injury
(Ulrich, 1984; Parsons, 1991;
Ulrich et al., 1991b)
Observing nature can restore
concentration and improve
productivity
(Tennessen and Cimprich, 1995;
Leather et al., 1998; Taylor et al.,
2001)
Having nature in close proximity
is important to people regardless
of whether they are regular
‘users’ of it
(Kaplan and Kaplan 1989; Cordell
et al., 1998)
(Maller et al, 2005)
The adventure boom:
observation in the field
Staff and programming
Newcomers driven by a market opportunity
Blurring of program purpose
Breakthrough of action + reflection model
‘Professionalization’
‘Adventure Education’ studies
How to maintain a space for
‘process-experiential’ adventure education
in an increasingly ‘procedurized’ context?
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
‘Team building’: doing activities together?
‘Incentive’: reward for a job well done?
‘Boot camp’: corrective, alternative sentences
…
Blurring of program purpose
Offer often function of the means available
more than the needs of customer & participants!
Experiential training and education:
personal and relational development
therapeutic
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
If experiential training is action + reflection…
… then facilitator = sports instructor + psychologist?
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
“Professionalization”
Voices of center directors all over Europe:
“we get more and more degrees and
certificates, yet less and less experience…”
Problematic: professionalism is mostly
judged by the ‘positivist’ standards that
experiential educators question, such as:
SMART program goals purpose
Knowledge as general theory contextual
Transfer continuous learning process
focus on method rather than the quality of
relation that fosters learning and development
(Hovelynck, 2003)
Account of a rappel activity in which a team of work
colleagues designed and set up the rappel system
themselves, without prior technical instruction. After
getting over their initial disbelief, the group accepted
the task, which they accomplished within a few hours.
Besides a sense of accomplishment and a renewed
closeness, the experience brought a sense of wonder
about the dynamics of planning and implementation.
Or rather, as one of them said, about the dynamics of
“planning and re-planning while putting the plan into
practice…
A look at practice:
the story of a program…
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Facilitating learning and development
through adventure activities
structure roles
rules procedure
activity goal
technique
(inter)action ‘drivers’: action theory
behavior
Experiential learning occurs when people recognize their action-theory
and develop, if they wish, additional or alternative action-theory.
Bearings for practice: outdoor experiential education
Sustaining Adventure Education’s
unique proposition
Bearings for facilitating experiential learning through adventure activities
Focusing on people and what drives them:
assumptions, metaphors, themes…;
Creating situations in which participants
can explore this ‘action theory’:
Recognizing: “I experienced this before…”
Acknowledging: “What’s my role in this?”
Reconnoitering: “What are other options?”
Facilitating the(ir) inquiry…
… is a continuous process, not bound
by a line between activity and debriefing!
Bearings for practice?
Participants & customers
Being clear who you’re working for…
Clarifying boundaries:
Alignment of purpose:
see ‘the story of a program’!
Role clarification
…
Verifying that relevant
stakeholders are present
…
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Bearings for practice?
Activities & environment
Is ‘adventure’ a suitable platform / support?
Program purpose
Participant profile
…
Considering the benefits of natural
man-made environments
Considering impact benefits to
natural and social environment
…
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Bearings for practice?
Activities & environment
The learning opportunities in adventure
activities aren’t worth (serious) accidents
The decisive factors in program safety
management play at the level of the
organization…
…
Individual instructors
Provider as organization
Self- regulation
Legal requirement
Bearings for practice?
Staff & facilitation
Studies that combine ‘exposure’ and
personal / relational development with
insight in underlying concepts
Certification as an indication of learning,
not a required and sufficient proof of
competence
…
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
Bearings for practice?
Staff & facilitation
procedure
activity (inter)action
Creating conditions for experiencing & learning
Activities that call for ‘actorship’
Flexible program structure
Workable time frame
Focus on experiencing and learning
If looking for ‘tools’,
realize that focused glasses
are the most important one!
Facilitating a moment-by-moment process
‘emergent’ or ‘organic’ program design
… Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano
“Learning is the human activity which least needs manipulation by others.
Most learning is rather the result of unhampered participation
in a meaningful setting.”
(Illich, 1972, 65)
“The question a teacher must ask about teaching
is not ‘what can they do with it?’ but rather ‘what will it do to them?’ ”
(Holmes, 1975, 32)
Johan Hovelynck – Seikkailukasvatuspäivät 2012 – Metsäkartano