Behavior and Group Management in Outdoor Adventure Education

Theory, research and practice

Alan Ewert, Curt Davidson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317388456
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Educazione fisica

Outdoor adventure activities are becoming an increasingly popular part of physical education programs. The physical risks of these activities are often foremost in the minds of both instructors and participants, yet it is managing group behavior which can prove to be the most difficult. This is the first book for students and practitioners to address this essential aspect of outdoor adventure education (OAE).

Outlining key evidence-based training practices, this book explains how to interact with groups ranging from adolescents to military veterans within a variety of outdoor adventure education contexts. It provides practical advice on how to promote positive behavior, while also offering guidance on how to mitigate negative behavior and manage a variety of challenging behavioral issues. With ten chapters full of real world examples from rock climbing to wilderness trekking, it provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the complexities of behavioral group management (BGM) in theory and practice.

This book is vital reading for students training to be outdoor physical education instructors and for practitioners looking to enhance their group management skills.

1
OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK

Need for the book

Who is this book intended for?

Gaps in our knowledge

The focus of the book

How the book is structured

As you read this, a broad range of individuals is engaged in some form of an Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) experience. These experiences involve a wide range of activities including backpacking, rock climbing, mountaineering, white-water boating, or enjoying a restorative experience in an outdoor setting. Many of these experiences are offered through systematically organized programs. These programs have gained in popularity among a wide spectrum of users. For example, it has been estimated that in 2013, there were over 200,000 students attending Outward Bound worldwide, 4,000 students taking a NOLS course, and over 18,000 students engaged in some type of OAE college program. In addition, the American Camp Association estimated that there were over 40 million children and adults who attended camp last year. OAE programs are characterized as experiences that occur primarily in outdoor settings in which participants are often members of a small group and are faced with a variety of challenging tasks such as rock climbing, wilderness trekking, or white-water boating and from which they experience emotional, cognitive, social, and physical growth and development.

In another example, the Outdoor Source Book (Bunyan, 2011; IOL, 1998) reports that there are over 1,500 centers providing outdoor adventure experiences in the United Kingdom. This is in addition to the many other “providers” of adventure experiences. Numerous “Gateway” cities and towns have developed with a strong focus on providing for and marketing to the adventure experience. Examples of these locations include: Banff and Jasper; Alberta; Canada; Talkeetna; Alaska; Queenstown; Jackson Hole; Wyoming; New Zealand; Zurmat; Switzerland; and Glasbury, south Wales. These and numerous other locations speak to the degree and manner that outdoor adventure activities have permeated contemporary society.

While there are many motives for engaging in these programs, it is obvious that the field is oftentimes utilized to help teach life skills, pro-social behavior, and desirable character traits. Additionally, parents will often enroll their kids in OAE to “fix their problems” or to experiment with how the student performs without their current medication dosage. The average instructor and program is grossly ill equipped to manage these issues and student types with current levels of knowledge and training. This is evident from the increase in early dismissals and student expulsions from all types of programs.

Of paramount importance to many of these OAE programs is having a staff that can successfully integrate both behavioral and group management skills and techniques while working with the individual student and group members. In addition, OAE programs are often designed to facilitate group management and foster a successful experience for both students and groups of OAE programs. While, historically, a great deal of programmatic effort has been placed on the physical aspects of risk management in OAE, much less attention has been allocated to the various components of managing behaviors of the individual and group. Said otherwise, programs have made great training efforts to keep the client from falling off the cliff but much less attention to keeping that person safe emotionally and within a supportive group atmosphere.

For example, a breakdown of Outward Bound staff training indicted that only six hours were spent on behavior management and 12 spent on rock climbing site setup despite there being more behavior management incidents than rock climbing incidents (Davidson and Ottley, 2014). This imbalance of physical versus behavioral training effort toward staff development is reflected in the growing body of literature focused on physical risk management, with much less visibility for managing individual and group behaviors. This is not to say that programs believe issues related to behavior and group management are unimportant; what is lacking is a concerted effort to train staff in managing these types of issues and events. In addition, there is a growing need for evidence-based training practices specifically focused on issues of behavior and group management within an OAE framework. Thus, there is an unmet need in the OAE field for a book that focuses on various techniques, existing evidence, and intervention strategies related to educating staff on behavioral and group management issues.

Need for the book

Several trends are converging that speak to the need for a book on behavior and group management (BGM). First and foremost is the growing recognition ofthe prevalence of behavior and group issues concomitant with OAE programs and experiences. As previously alluded to, while the physical challenges are often first and foremost in the minds of both the staff and students, it is the behavioral and group issues that are often the most problematic. In a recent study, Davidson and Ottley (2014) found that issues requiring Wilderness First Responder training only accounted for 11 percent of the total number of reported incidents, while those issues involving behaviors or group issues accounted for double that number of incidents (22 percent). Thus, issues in OAE programs tend to be more behavioral and group management rather than physical or medical. This emerging trend speaks directly to the need for a book to be utilized as a training resource for program developers and staff trainers.

FIGURE 1.1 OAE students on a winter backpacking course (photo: Ellen Henderson)

Related to the behavioral versus physical aspects of course or program incidents is the growing need for staff adequately trained in managing group and behavioral issues. Currently, there are few OAE-related books relevant to the topic. Training resources that do exist are primarily found in individual program staff manuals, oftentimes with significant gaps of information missing. Additionally, there is a relatively small body of academic and scholarly literature available but because of the lack of a book specifically addressing these issues, this availability is primarily restricted to academic journals and is inaccessible to practitioners.

A third trend that is converging in the direction of a need for a specific book is the widespread audience that is involved in behavioral and group management issues. While specific audiences will be covered in the following section, the range of behavioral and group management issues transcends a broad range of professional, academic, and practice-based groups. Simply put, we believe that behavioral and group management issues are increasingly important in both OAE programs and in society, in general. As such, it is important for those in the OAE field to become more conversant and attentive to these types of challenges and issues.

Who is this book intended for?

This book will resonate with a number of audiences, both within and outside of the OAE field. These audiences include: upper division undergraduate university, college, and community college students; university graduate students; program design specialists; scholars in OAE and related fields such as environmental education; field staff; academicians and researchers probably primarily in the OAE field; people seeking alternative behavioral and group management strategies/interventions; student services personnel; camp administrators and staff; managers of volunteer and semi-volunteer organizations (e.g. Peace Corp, SCA), recreation and park staff; adventure education leaders; environmental educators; etc. Finally, beyond the United States and Canada, there is a significant international audience, with numerous OAE programs in places such as Mexico, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey, and Europe.

From this book, readers can expect to take away a number of theoretical and practical aspects, including the following:

1 A better understanding of what is meant and involved with behavioral and group management (BGM) issues within an OAE setting.

2 The underlying theories and constructs that can be helpful for staff and other individuals in dealing with BGM issues.

3 Specific techniques and procedures useful in OAE/BGM settings and with certain populations.

4 Issues relative to medications that are often used in OAE/BGM programs for specific behavioral applications.

5 How can specific issues such as rule violation be dealt with?

6 Other resources and literature that can be helpful in the OAE/BGM situation.

Gaps in our knowledge

Research in OAE was first compiled through Shore’s (1977) work. In this effort, he described over 70 studies and papers that pertained to research efforts done on Outward Bound or similar types of OAE programs. From this and subsequent works (Ewe...