Outdoor and Adventurous Activities in Undergraduate Physical Education Teacher Education at Chichester Institute

The School of Physical Education at Chichester Institute (England) has developed an outdoor and adventurous activities (OAA) program that trains teachers to optimize the full potential of the outdoors as classroom. The philosophy underpinning the OAA program challenges the traditional view that exposure to adventure necessarily results in desirable personal growth. Students critically examine images and romantic notions of outdoor adventure. Physical education students enter the Institute with differing experiences of the outdoors, and all take a foundation module in OAA that includes both theoretical and practical work, as well as an outdoor residential week. In the third year, all physical education students follow a professional course focused on the teaching of OAA in the schools. Other program elements include school experience; two independent research projects; and experience in the main activity options (climbing, sailing, canoeing, or orienteering). Students are encouraged to pursue national governing body awards in the activities at the performance or instructor level. Students develop an understanding that personal growth is not guaranteed through adventurous experience, but may be a product of a planned experience that includes opportunities for reviewing and reflection, an emphasis on group work and problem solving, uncertainty of outcome, and acceptable levels of psychological and physical risk. Related pedagogical skills for delivering OAA in the schools are discussed. (SV)