What is Outdoor Environmental Education in Australia?

1. OEEDU5001 Concepts in
Outdoor Education
Week one

2. Details - Theory
1 hr lecture
in which we investigate the concepts and
ideas
(Lectures on Tuesdays between 11:30am - 12:30pm)
1-1.5 hrs tutorial
in which we explore and discuss the
readings YOU have done.
(not week 4)

3. Details - Practical
River journey
4 days – March 27- 30
(Thursday – Sunday)

4. Outdoor Enviro Education?
A bit of a misnomer? I will tend to use OE
interchangeably with OEE as they will
become the same.
ACHPER misuses OE when they mean
outdoor recreation or outdoor pursuits.

5. Assessment
• Online test
30%
• River knowing assignment
30 % due 1st May (in class)
• Philosophy paper
40%
TBA
due 9th – 20th June
S/U for prac and attendance

6. Readings?
• There are readings to do
most weeks.
• Available now on Moodle
– or in hard copy.
• If you don’t read you will
MISS vital content and the
class will be boring…

7. Readings?
• Five specific tutorials will
discuss YOUR questions
from the readings.
–
(Wks 5,6,8,9 & 10) (questions are fine anytime though!)
• Tutorials should be
interactive and interesting
–
we share the responsibility to make them so.

8. So what is outdoor
education anyway?

9. Course goals
Clarify personal ideologies with
respect to both the environment &
education

10. Course goals
Explore ideas and practices of OE

11. Course goals
You need to be clear in your
reasons for teaching OEE and how
it sits in schooling

12. Course goals
Philosophy will/should be dynamic
Pub chat to job interview to a school or National curriculum?

13. Course goals
• Clarify personal ideologies with respect to
both the environment & education
• Explore ideas and practices of OE
• Need to be clear in your reasons for
teaching OEE and how it sits in schooling
• Philosophy will/should be dynamic
– Pub chat to job interview to a school or National curriculum?

14. Content, Process, CONTEXT
and Outcomes in OEE
Four main components of curriculum.

15. Four main components of
curriculum
Content
Process
Context
= what is taught.
= how it is taught.
= the circumstances in
which it is taught.
Outcomes = what is learned.

16. Process
Processes of learning
= methods
– the how of teaching.
OE often thought of and written
about as experiential learning.
(especially in Nth America).

17. Most common model of
process in OE is the
experiential learning cycle
(David Kolb 1984)

19. Process
Contested? Simplistic? Linked to
learning styles? Time frames?
Processes can be applied to a
very wide range of outcomes.

20. Context
Outdoor education
can deliberately
change context – the
settings in which
teaching and learning
occur.
(It might be the only thing it does!)

21. Context
Deliberately
constructing alternate
worlds (what?)
Enabling critical
reflection (why critical?)
Looking back…

23. Outcomes?
…are what students come
away learning – understanding,
doing, feeling…
(Sometimes “outcome” is used to describe aims or
goals. Eg. On the VCE OES design)

24. In OE, outcomes have been
traditionally described as
being:
• about the self;
• about the community or others and;
• about the natural world or nature.
(technical outdoor skills)
(promote, enhance academic learning. USA, NZ EOTC.)

25. What outcomes do you hold
to be most important for you
at this point?

26. Content?
…is the material that you might
teach or introduce to
students… the subject matter

27. Content??
• …write an example of
specific content you think
OK for OE in, say, a year
10 OE class.
• Check it with a mate to
ensure it is content, not a
process or outcome.
– Emphasis? Taken for granted assumptions?
• POST!

28. The
u rn e y
v er Jo
Ri
Removal from institutional
settings which have hidden
agendas contrary to messages
we wish to convey.
Looking back
Developing a community – care,
mutual trust & respect.
Setting a context

29. The
u rn e y
v er Jo
Ri
Developing connections with
place HNR
Explore alternate ways of seeing
and knowing about nature?
Links to everyday?