Outdoor Education Fosters Personal Growth, Connections to Behavior Less Clear

It's well established in the literature that outdoor adventure education programs such as those provided by Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) can help foster personal growth. Specifically, outcomes such as increased self-awareness and self-confidence, leadership development, and increased respect for others have been studied and documented. The authors of this paper argue that many aspects of personal growth overlap with some of the predictors for environmentally responsible behavior (including environmental sensitivity and empowerment), and so personal growth is an important dimension to consider when thinking about the longer-term implications of outdoor education for environmental behavior.

In this paper, the authors use transformative learning theory to examine the role of outdoor adventure education in fostering personal growth and environmental behavior. They cite researcher Mezirow's definition of transformative learning as “the process by which we transform our taken-for-granted frames of reference . . . to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change, and reflective . . . .” The authors explain that this transformation is often preceded by a “disorienting dilemma,” which causes a person to undergo a process of critical self-reflection, social interaction, planning for action, and building competence.

To examine participants' experiences and outcomes, the authors interviewed 23 former outdoor adventure program participants, who were aged 15 to 24 years and had participated in a range of programs that lasted from 16 to 78 days. Participants were either interviewed retrospectively, having participated in their program 1 to 5 years before; reflectively, directly after a kayaking course; or were interviewed before and after a course. Most of the participants were selected based on convenience. Some were recruited through Cornell Outdoor Education, suggesting that they have maintained a continued interest in outdoor experiences. Another group was selected from a trip led by one of the paper's authors, and were specifically selected because they were “individuals who had been particularly reflective about their experience during the trip.” The authors acknowledge that the participants in their study are not representative of all outdoor education participants, but nevertheless believe that this is an appropriate sample for the qualitative interview methods they employ.

The authors found that, as expected, the participants revealed that the courses they participated in had contributed to personal growth. Four elements emerged as important contributors to personal growth: living in pristine nature, experiencing a different lifestyle, being part of the course community, and dealing with the intensity and challenges of the course. Living in pristine nature seemed to contribute to psychological well being, connection to nature, and awe and inspiration. Participants also described how the process of breaking from “normal life,” experiencing a new lifestyle during the course, and returning home contributed to personal growth through experiencing a different lifestyle. Participants also described how the close-knit, supportive course community supported their growth, and how the challenges of the course led to engagement and empowerment.

According to the authors, many of these important course aspects--including especially breaking from normal routines, living in new social contexts, and course challenges--represent disorienting dilemmas for participants. And the process of learning new skills in order to meet the challenges of the course align with the transformative learning theory principles of building competence and self-confidence. The authors note that, “Courses also integrated other elements of transformative learning including opportunities for self-examination, reflection, social interaction, and mastering challenges.”

In terms of changing behaviors, participants largely talked about how the course fostered personal growth, and how some aspects of that growth in turn led to a commitment to conserve nature. For example, participants who develop awe and inspiration for nature and feelings of empowerment could direct those feelings toward more pro-environmental behaviors. But the authors did not report any specific links to behavior changes. They do, however, suggest strategies to link experiences on the course with their behaviors after they return. Some of the strategies they suggest include: creating post-course communities of practice to extend the social learning of the course, relating environmental behaviors learned on the course (such as Leave No Trace practices around camp) to behaviors in “real life,” and more approaches such as those offered at NOLS base, which showcases solar panels and composting toilets, and Outward Bound, which includes community service activities on many trips.

In the end, the authors conclude that “Transformative learning theories provide insight into how [outdoor adventure education] might further contribute to the instrumental goals of environmental education while retaining its personal growth outcomes, through connecting on-course experiences to learning, action, and community post-course.”