Outdoor Education in the Schools : What can it achieve ?

Although outdoor education has become firmly established in many school curriculums, it remains unclear what this has achieved. This paper reviews the current state of research on a wide range of school outdoor education programs. The surprising lack of good quality studies prompted this paper to emphasize a rationale for research and evaluation and to provide strategies for implementing more systematic study of outdoor education programs. Introduction The original aim of this paper was to answer some fundamental questions, including: • What outcomes do students achieve through outdoor education programs? • Do the outcomes justify the program costs (compared to the outcomes achieved by other educational approaches)? • What are the critical factors which determine outcomes for individual students? • How have outdoor educators applied research and evaluation to the ongoing improvement and development of outdoor education programs for school students? Unfortunately, there is a surprising paucity in the quality and variety of research and evaluation studies in this field. There are some notable exceptions, however these studies do not constitute a sufficient body of knowledge from which to answer the questions posed. Consequently, the focus of this paper is: • to provide an overview of the claims, aims, and evaluation practices used by outdoor education programs with school students; • to present the research trends and highlight some relevant studies which point towards the positive and negative potentials of outdoor education for school students, and • to discuss some strategies for, and benefits of, overcoming the barriers to research and evaluation in outdoor education. Claims, Aims, and Evaluation Practices There is no shortage of literature that makes substantial claims for the educational achievements of experiential outdoor programs in schools (e.g. Keighley, 1985a,b; Mitchell, 1992; Payne, 1993; Royce, 1987; Thomson, 1990). These claims range from the global and comprehensive, for example “that outdoor education is a panacea for ills which pervade our contemporary educational and societal systems” (Gray & Perusco, 1993, p.20), to extensive lists of specific physical, social, intellectual, and psychological outcomes. For some people the value of outdoor education programs is self-evident and they require no further justification or proof. This position tends to be held by outdoor instructors and enthusiasts. For others, a systematic and rigorous approach is required to understand the processes and outcomes of outdoor education. This position tends to be taken by funding agencies, researchers, academics, some school principals, and a minority of outdoor educators. Clearly, it is also the point of view expressed in this paper. In attempting to review the evaluation literature, it is important to establish a picture of the range of aims for outdoor education programs with school students. McRae (1990b) conducted a survey of outdoor educators in twenty-five schools in the Australian Capital Territory, reporting on their assumptions about outdoor education and the objectives of their programs. He ranked and categorized the stated objectives of the outdoor education programs (see Table 1). Three out of every five programs had objectives relating to the enhancement of personal qualities and capacities and of relations with other persons. Followup interviews with the survey informants suggested that personal and social objectives were intended even when they were not stated in curriculum documents. It was thought that many outdoor education teachers considered that “it was not necessary to state the obvious” (McRae, 1990b, p.25). JTN 10/96 SCHOOL5X.DOC 2 Table 1. Categories and Rankings of Broad Objectives