Outdoor Education Also a way to work with Group Development? : Scouting and School in Sweden

• Main Author: Nilsson, Mickaela
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation 2007
• Subjects: Scouting; outdoor education; school; leadership; group development; Aesthetic subjects; Estetiska ämnen
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-16642

I will present some voices from the fields of scouting as well as from outdoor focused schools and tell about their feelings for outdoor education and how they think it can be useful to help children develop a sense of belonging in a group. With a hermeneutic perspective on research I have aimed to show that there is a difference in how teachers and scout leaders look upon the effective use of outdoor education and how they use it both as an instrument for learning and as a tool for group development. I have been looking upon the questions with a holistic point of view and with progressive thoughts of education on my mind. I visited and participated in three school groups and three scout groups during some hours. The children were in the year span of 3 – 11 years. I interviewed the four teachers that works with outdoor education in different forms and five leaders active in three different scout groups/scout organisations. My pre knowledge and my preconceived notions has been my platform in this research. This research is a bit to small to prove anything but I state that my research show that there is benefits to gain from using the outdoors in a higher degree in learning situations. Also group development through leadership could give large benefits in Swedish schools if there is a conscious awareness about cooperative learning and leadership skills.