City Slickers: Let the cattle speak for themselves.
Ray Woodcock
City Slickers, the classic movie starring Billy Crystal, portrays a man who rediscovers a part of himself during a two-week cattle drive adventure in the rugged American West. His rediscovery arises from the challenge itself, with minimal psychologically oriented discussion or “processing”. The belief that such a thing can happen – that, indeed such self-driven discovery may be superior to an excessively verbalized experience – echoes the famous objection of Outward Bound leader, Rusty Baille, who said, “Let the mountains speak for themselves”. Citing aspects of City Slickers for illustration, this article questions the efficacy and propriety of certain forms of adventure therapy processing, and offers cautionary notes on attempts to reduce great adventure experiences to words. Topics addressed include the principle of parsimony, the meaning of experiences, learning from experience, processing, training for processing, and the feasibility of relevant research in outdoor education.

The nature and scope of outdoor education in New Zealand school.
Dr Robyn Zink, Monash University & Dr Michael Boyes, University of Otago
This paper reports on a study conducted in 2002 and 2003 investigating the nature and scope of outdoor education in New Zealand primary and secondary school. The aim of the study was to gather data on teachers’ practices in outdoor education in New Zealand, the beliefs and values that shape those practices, some of the barriers teachers faced teaching in the outdoors and resources that they felt would support them in their teaching. Findings suggest that teachers use the outdoors to support teaching across the while curriculum, but the types of activities undertaken and the reasons for using the outdoors to enhance learning varied across the primary and secondary sectors. The learning outcomes that respondents considered most important were primarily around personal and social development. The study highlights that there is considerable ambiguity in terminology and understanding around teaching and learning in the outdoors that merits further investigation.

Influences on a modern outdoor education organisation's philosophy.
Dr Peter Barnes, University of Strathclyde
The Philosophical influence Model presented in this paper is suggested as helping to understand the varying, and often dichotomous, philosophical influences on the operation of a modern outdoor education organisation. The model is not held to be definitive or conclusive, but rather it serves to set the scene for a discussion on changes within the outdoor education field and organisations within it. The model demonstrates that while an outdoor education organisation may have a strong core philosophy this interacts with a number of other significant influences, both internal and external. These influences mat be largely limited to the organisation itself and include such aspects as the philosophy engendered by new incoming staff and the culture which has developed within an organisation. Alternatively, influences may be external to the organisation, including factors such as the changing nature and culture of a wider society and the client demands that these changes engender.
The critical element for any outdoor education organisation is the extent to which it is driven by external factors, for example by reacting to client demands, or chooses to remain focused on its traditional core philosophy. It is evident that many organisations today face a difficult compromise situation: They struggle to maintain a culture and identity which remains true to their own beliefs/ values and at the same time accommodate increasing pressures from a wider society. This struggle and conflict within outdoor education organisations can be seen as symptomatic of a wider issue within outdoor education as a pedagogical field in that traditional values and working practices are increasingly coming up against a modern societal pre-occupation with risk-avoidance, consumerism and instant gratification.

Some outdoor educators' experiences of outdoor education.
Terry Gunn, Latrobe University and Newcomb Secondary College
The phenomenological study presented in this paper attempts to determine, from outdoor educators, what it meant for them to be teaching outdoor education in Victorian secondary school during 2004. In 1999, Lugg and Martin surveyed Victorian secondary school to determine the types of outdoor education programs being run, the objectives of these programs, who was teaching them, the work conditions of the outdoor education staff and issues those staff faced. In this paper, connections of disconnections are drawn between the backdrop provided by Lugg and Martin’s survey and the lived experience of some outdoor education teachers.

An outdoor education body of knowledge.
Chris Bucknell & Andrew Mannion, Whitefriars College, Victoria

Links between kayaking, fear, confidence and competence: Factors affecting women's participation in paddling in a tertiary outdoor education course.
Peter Dingle & Dr Jackie Kiewa
Our research explored why some females were expressing anger, frustration and lack of connectedness when learning paddling in a university unit called “River Environments”. Out review of the literature on motivation therapy suggested that we need to teach females differently, simply because they often learn differently than males. We attempted to determine if there was a connection between boat design and feelings of paddling satisfaction, but we discovered a range of deeper issues. We discovered that fear, particularly social fear, is a powerful inhibitor of risk taking and learning, that it affects confidence and hence competence, and that this was more noticeable in female paddlers. We also concluded that females may require different learning experiences and instruction to optimize their learning outcomes; a path that reflects a more gradual and repetitive sequence with considerable intuitive instructions; and gender-specific groups. We also discovered that the student’s attitude and the environment are clearly important, but that the paddling instructor can be a far more critical motivating influence to confidence, competence and satisfaction outcomes, particularly with females.

Knowing our Place: A perspective on the contribution of outdoor education and its relationship with the outdoor recreation industry.
Mark Dingle

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