Beyond learning by doing: an exploration of critical incidents in outdoor leadership education
Date
2015-08-03Abstract
This paper argues that outdoor leader education and training is characterized by the
development of procedural skills at the expense of crucial but usually ignored nontechnical
skills (e.g. contextualized decision-making and reflection). This risks
producing practitioners with a potentially unsophisticated awareness of the holistic
outdoor environment impeding the development of links between theory and practice.
This paper analyses the application of critical incident theory to a study of
undergraduates in a UK outdoor leadership degree programme in order to examine
the processes of developing non-technical reflective skills in the students. The study
examines a range of critical incidents in a purposive homogeneous sample of
students who were asked to identify and reflect on critical incidents in practice
settings of their own choice. These settings spanned from the United Kingdom to
remote locations overseas. Qualitative data analysis was carried out using interpretative
phenomenological analysis. The findings indicated that outdoor leadership
programmes need to develop a broader and holistic skills base rather than concentrate
on primarily physical and technical skills. A focus on the critical incident method
early in education has the potential to equip practitioners with the holistic and
complex set of skills required in the contemporary outdoor workplace.
Keywords: context; critical incident; outdoors; reflection
Description
Research paper The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
Citation : Hickman, M., and Stokes, P. (2016) Beyond learning by doing: an exploration of critical incidents in outdoor leadership education. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 16 (1), pp. 63-77
Research Institute : Centre for Enterprise and Innovation (CEI)
Peer Reviewed : Yes