Youthful endeavours of climbing trees (or lampposts), building swings over rivers and introductions to abseiling and kayaking through scouts, led to more and more adventurous exploits outdoors. My first introduction to Outdoor pursuits (education today) was a school visit aged 14 to the Local Outdoor Centre. This was a defining trip that enabled a realisation of what can be achieved and gave me an insight into the direction I wanted to go.
With little understanding of the impact this trip would have and what exactly was entailed I signed up. This was my first real insight to outdoor activities that offered challenges and left me possibly very tainted in positivity, one moment that still remains is jumping into a deep cold plunge pool at the end of a fantastic gorge walk. This course gave me the real first opportunity to partake in further adventure activities and increase personal knowledge of the outdoor environment.
Personal development
Attending courses at the local outdoor centre provided me with a platform of skills and understanding of outdoor activities. Learning new skills within a group setting provided an opportunity of developing group awareness and dynamics whilst being part of the group itself. This experience enabled me to develop relevant skills and contacts to become an assistant leader on courses and this is where I really found a personal achievement.
The trainee post led to becoming a fulltime facilitator of outdoor education, the road to becoming a qualified facilitator was long and required better understanding of personal ability and skill acquisition. However the development of social awareness understanding groups and individuals became more important to becoming a quality facilitator.
Quality requires a good understanding of relationships, leadership and goal setting. The ability to work with groups and individuals with different needs to develop a programme that will support learning and achievement throughout the entire session. Further awareness of learning styles and methods of teaching that can be adapted to maximise the use of the environment to provide a course that offers a balance of risk and competence offering peak adventure to enable everyone to achieve their target goals.
Justin I like the balance of your arguements, personal and academic. You have recognised the need to treat individuals as individuals and that I one size fits all approach does not work. There has been a definite move to level six work here. Well done keep up this insightful approach.
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