Adventure learning is not just something for children or young people, but for everyone, whatever their age. But what does adventure learning mean? Put simply, it means learning through having an adventure.
So then, what is an adventure? The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘adventure’ as ‘a chance occurrence or event, an accident; to risk oneself; to venture’. Adventure learning concerns itself with the latter of these: ‘to risk oneself, to venture’. Adventure can be considered as an undertaking possibly involving danger and unknown risks. To encounter danger means to expose oneself to the possibility of injury, pain, harm or loss; unknown risk means the nature of the danger is unidentified and the extent is undetermined. So, danger relates to the size of the possible harm (which may or may not be physical) and risk is the probability of that harm happening. These two are variables, shaped by your own perceptions, which may or may not be accurate, but are very real to you. Adventure is therefore created through your mental image of what may happen to you if you try this venture and how likely it is that your envisaged consequence(s) may occur. Some people enjoy the thrill of possible harm and actively seek to maximise both danger and risk; others seek to minimise them. Most of us exist somewhere along a middle route, pushing the boundaries of our existence a certain extent every now and again, but not too much.
Adventure is a hugely broad term that does not necessarily mean swinging off a high peak in a remote mountain range or trekking through a faraway jungle, an adventure is relative to your life, where and how you exist every day. Simply stepping outside of your ‘everyday’ is an adventure, trying something new or engaging with new people; any new experience involves risking the danger of not working out, of not wanting to repeat it, which makes it an adventure.
Quite often, the way that people come to be introduced to adventurous activities is through an adventure programme, one or more structured sessions that enable them to learn how to do an activity, and perhaps getting an accreditation or qualification from it. Because of this, adventure learning is often called outdoor education, an active rather than a passive process of learning that requires active engagement from the learners as well as the instructors, linked to use of all five senses within an experience to heighten learning and its retention. There are a number of elements of which an adventure learning programme is composed:
- Physical environment: people respond differently when they are away from their usual environment; they feel less sure of themselves, more nervous in what they are doing, making them more receptive and responsive, they become more willing to try unfamiliar things. This adds to the sense of danger and risk, but also makes their sense of achievement that much greater. When adventure learning programmes are used to tackle group behaviour issues, taking characters into unfamiliar surroundings is a great ‘leveller’, as people no longer have the same power over others or over the domain; people from closed communities such as housing estates can be ‘big fish in a small pond’ when on their own ‘turf’, but in a new environment they become as exposed as all other group members. The increased receptivity can bring transformative changes not possible when working on ‘home ground’.
- Activities: rather than the activities themselves, it is the qualities of activities that bring about outcomes; the combination of challenge, skill acquisition and success leads to personal growth, rather than doing the activity in isolation. Challenges should be holistic and delivered in incremental stages of difficulty, so as not to overwhelm people early on but allow them to develop and learn as they proceed. While the ultimate goal is success, some failure may be positive in terms of personal and group development; anyone who finds the exercise too easy or too difficult is likely to derive little from it. Participants can learn as much from failure as from success, if they are appropriately supported to understand it. It is also important to remember that the activity becomes secondary in an adventure learning programme. It is less important that you can paddle correctly or tie a figure-of-eight knot every time; what matters is that you learn, progressively if possible, that you understand the concepts being taught and that you develop interpersonal and intrapersonal skills (that is, learning to get along with others as well as understanding yourself and how you appear to others).
- The group: several characteristics of the group contribute to its outcomes. Size can be critical; if a group is too big, it can struggle to function well, but if it is too small then the inherent characteristics of group members may not be allowed to emerge. The gender mix and age mix of the group can play a strong role in performance, as can whether the group members come from the same place and whether they have a positive relationship away from the adventure learning session. The extent to which group members reciprocate is important, how much they work together as a group, rather than a bunch of individuals.
- Instructors: the presentation, manner, attitude and behaviour of the instructor have a powerful influence on the way in which the group performs, interacts and achieves its goals, as the members take their lead from the instructor. If the instructor presents themself as a calm, cool character, with a sense of fun and a genuine interest in how the group performs, there will be different outcomes than if the instructor appears as a ‘tough he-man’ to whom the group members cannot relate. Empathy is critical: the extent to which the instructor can understand what the participant feels or thinks, whether the instructor can ‘stand in their shoes’.
- The participant: each person exists with a particular background (their narrative) that defines their outlook, expectations and willingness to contribute to the group and to the adventure learning session. This influences group response and therefore performance, enhanced or diminished by existing perceptions, group relations, past experiences and instinctive response (‘first impressions’) to the instructor.