A Pedagogy for a Changing World Simon Beames and Mike Brown Routledge 2016

Those who remain in calm waters will never get strong

 Outdoor Education in NZ is at a cross-roads open to interpretation  “Outdoor Education” is open to interpretation lack ‘formal’ training –  Outdoor Educators often lack ‘formal’ training – this is changing  Limited research  Limited research in NZ to support the content of many programmes International  Founded in International Outdoor programmes and movements  Lack of ‘trickle down’  Lack of ‘trickle down’ of current academic thinking to teachers ‘on the floor’

A new wave? ‘home-grown’ programmes a move towards ‘home-grown’ programmes Sustainability Sustainability in the Outdoor Curriculum culturally responsive pedagogies Increasing need for a culturally responsive pedagogies “place” A move towards an identification with “place” authentically Aotearoa New Zealand Outdoor Education Culture towards an authentically Aotearoa New Zealand Outdoor Education Culture

A Pedagogy for a Changing World Simon Beames and Mike Brown Routledge 2016

Simon Beames  Senior Lecurer Edinburgh University  Senior Lecurer in Outdoor Learning, Edinburgh University  25 years teaching outdoors in North America, Asia, and Europe Outdoor Journeys  developed the Outdoor Journeys programme - a cross-curricular, local outdoor learning initiative Mike Brown  Senior Lecturer, Waikato university  Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Waikato university place-responsive pedagogy  areas of interest relate to place-responsive pedagogy, learning theories in outdoor education and more recently human relationships with sea.

potential benefits outdoor adventure education restricted marginalised meaningful student learning “…the potential benefits of mainstream education and outdoor adventure education have been increasingly restricted and marginalised to a point where neither offers a strong platform for meaningful student learning”

 Massive social change  Massive social change has influenced Education, Teaching and Learning.  Industrial model  Industrial model of education  Economic rationalisation  Economic rationalisation; “McDonaldization” and “Disneyization”  One size fits all  One size fits all model of education

Liquid times  “late modernity”, “post modernity”, “Liquid times”  Fast paced lifestyles,  cosmopolitanism,  global movement,  constantly evolving technology  Diminishing “Grand narrative” risk averse  Insulation from harm; “risk averse” culture  Uncertainty  Complexity  Neoliberalism

creative solutionscomplex problems  The challenge of our era is to find creative solutions to complex problems  How can “adventure” enhance teaching practices?  “Adventurous Learning” is a pedagogy for the modern world.

 The meaning of “adventure” is subjective and fluid, with many definitions  adventure contains a degree of uncertainty and risk  Individual perceptions of adventure  “embodied engagement”  Flow, True adventure  Problematic from an educational perspective

Comfort Zone  “Comfort Zone” Model of personal development  Expert driven  Expert driven – safety management is a key aspect of outdoor experiences. Decontextualised  “Decontextualised activity based” educational experiences (Brown 2007)  Commodified  Commodified activity transfer of learning  Assumed transfer of learning from outdoor contexts into daily life

Four key elements of adventurous learning:  Authenticity  Agency  Uncertainty  Mastery

 John Dewey ( )  prepare students to be active citizens in a democratic society  Interaction  Continuity  Contextualised learning - Real world contexts  Transference?  Place and community  Storied places  Community service

 Learner autonomy  Active participation  Self determination  Intrinsic motivation  Supportive environment  Fostering Relevance  Working towards competence  Ownership and responsibility “The capability of individual human beings to make choices and act on these choices in a way that makes a difference in their lives” (Martin 2004)

 Cornerstone concept in “Adventure”  solution thinking  Experimentation  creativity  Intelligent deliberation  holistic  Cross-fertilisation  Time to deliberate “We must educate young people … to live well in a world that is increasingly uncertain… this needs to be done through approaches to learning that embrace uncertainty ”

multiple courses of action  Allow for multiple courses of action, and no right answer deep reasoning  Complex issues or problems requiring deep reasoning (without overwhelming students)  Time and space  Time and space for intelligent deliberation  Uncertain outcome  Uncertain outcome – for educator and student alike

 Challenge is personal  Influencd by  Background  Experience  Skills  Investment  Draws on existing skills  Appropriate progression “Challenge does not require the learner to accept unpleasant feelings of fear, uncertainty and discomfortand the need for luck”

 Link between intrinsic enjoyment and challenge  Perception of skills and challenge are matched  Requires time to build sufficient skills for challenge  Incremental challenges  Scaffold experience  Learner driven challenge  Flow is difficult to create in the classroom!

 4 dimensions  Use Axis to indicate how well your activity creates ideal learning conditions  Each dimension is a scale  Consider dimensions separately, but also as a whole Adventurous Learning Authenticity Agency Mastery Uncertainty

 Identify where you could introduce Adventurous learning  Plot current activities on the Model  Look at how each dimension could be tweaked  Links with other pedagogies  Place responsiveness  Cultural Responsive  Integrated studies  Inquiry