As someone who worked for years for Outward Bound I'd like to point out that in some unconventional places you will find research on Outward Bound's impact (or lack there of in some cases). Simon Priest has a lot of unpublished research (was on his website at any rate for a while, his methods appear to pass muster, much of the research out there is not very strong methodolically) on use of Outward Bound (which that community abreviates as OB) with executives, others have published stuff using populations of k-12 schools, adjudicated youth... It falls under what is sometimes otherwise called, in those circles, adventure education or experiential education. The Journal of Experiential Education publishes some of this stuff (is peer reviewed but beware they also publish a lot of other things that those of us in Management would not consider 'credible').
Part of how these activities get used is that the activity is context in which the target behavior is examined. This is what I think is useful in teaching, especially organizational behavior, to undergrads with minimla work expereince and to grad students who need to get shaken out of a box so to speak to look at things from a less jaded or limited point of view.
I use little snipits all the time when I teach. For example I was doing a unit on communication and was irritated at the extent of the use of instant messaging, e-baying, web surfing in class and so rigged the exercise to deal with mulit-tasking (in addition to my other points). Now doing experiential activities in a classroom with nailed down MBA style lecture hall desks and chairs is a challenge. Fortuantely there is enough room up front. I split the class (of close to 60) into 3 groups. A smaller group, a really big one, and another smaller group. The biggest group did the telephone game in the traditional style. One smaller group did the telephone game with the ability to send a message back to the beginning for clarificiation, and the last group did the telephone game in traditional style AND had to hold hands and send hand squeezes both drirections around the circle. THis last group focused on the spoken message and bagged the hand squeeze pattern because they could no
t keep both going well (thus my multitaskng point with leanding questions about multitasking going on in the classroom). There is nothing sacred about how I designed this - I chnaged the rules to suit the lessons I hoped would be learned. It is the facilitation of the discussion that adds the most value to what you do with this kind of stuff. The activity just provides the context for the discussion.
The same day (2 hour class)I also did another short exercise (point of this one is we have to agree on the same communication meaning or there is confusion and we have to somehow determine how to come to a decision; problem with assuming and not checking for agreement...and what ever misc lessons that came up from the course of doing the exercise - asking point blank - 'so why did I have you do this activity?" always gets some interesting and sometimes unexpected answers). Line up without speaking, drawing in the air, on the board or on paper the letters or numbers in order of your birthday (month and day). People generally used two systems to communicate - indicate month then day with fingers or make the month on one hand and day on the other. Nice confusion. Anyway they also needed to decide, somehow (still no talking) that they were in the correct order. Oh, and this year because we had someone blind in the class I handed out 4 blindfolds in addition (used that as a jumpi
ng off point to communication in a language that is not your first language as well as the original point I was trying to make). Anyway since it was early in the class these exercises also helped students get to know each other (eg ice breakers) as well as make some lesson points. At some point the entire thing gets pulled into the content and I explicitly tie it together by either asking questions, lecture or both
I sometimes have students use these in class exercises as the basis for 500 word memos (and yes I count). Paragraph one: describe one concept from book (makes sure book is at least looked at with undergrads) that applies; paragraph two - how did it play out in the exercise, paragraph three - how might it apply in the "real world" (useful when teaching org beh to students with little to no work experience). I also tell them that this is good practice in getting a point across concisely, a useful business skill if you want your boss to read your ideas and yes grammer counts.
The activities don't have to be rock climbing or a ropes/shallenge course to make the point. The experiential element of an activity involves students in a way that lecture/discussion often doesn't (and it is hard to be doing e-mail when, for example, actively building a tower made of uncooked spaghetti and gumdrops), gives a context to talk about real behavior and then be able to actively link the behavior to the class concepts. Even when unexpected things happen (and they do, expecially if you play with on the spot redesigning an activity to take advantage of a teachable moment) the post activity discussion is where much of the learning articulated. If you ask good qeustions, take advantage of/build on what students bring up, even a disaster can usually be salvaged and turned into something where they learn something useful.
Carolyn
U of Idaho
Dept of Management.
----- Original Message -----
From: Asha Bhandarkar <
ashab@MDI.AC.IN>
Date: Monday, April 3, 2006 9:31 pm
Subject: Re: Outbound as a Pedagogical Tool
> Hi!
>
> You may be more familiar with the term Outward Bound - this is a
> parallel movement (has borrowed a lot from the Experiential Learning
> domain) and involves use of physical activity along with other
> aspects-
> one obvious example is the use of river rafting or mountain climbing;
> behaviors observed in such conditions are then processed from the
> pointof view of self, team and leadership.
> The above examples are rather challenging activities - there are
> howevermany simpler activities which involve the full human being
> and through
> that process result in more efficient learning and behavior change-
> they
> challenge the total person.
>
> You may like to see the website of Outward-bound International for
> moredetails.
>
> I have been using some of the activities over the last few years
> with my
> students in the Business School and am now planning to research the
> impact- would be eager to hear more
>
> In case you need more information do let me know.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Asha
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
BOBPIKECTT@AOL.COM [
BOBPIKECTT@AOL.COM]
> Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 5:32 PM
> To:
MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Outbound as a Pedagogical Tool
>
> I am not familiar with outbound, but would like information.
>
> One suggestion -- instead of thinking of icebreakers, think of
> openers.Icebreakers do break the ice, but unless they connect to
> content some
> people see them as a waste of time. An opener will do three
> things --
>
> 1. Breaks preoccupation through involvement so the learner is
> ready to
> engage and is mentally and physically present.
>
> 2. Facilitates networking so that participants learn to see each other
> as people and resources. This also reduces tension and when tension
> goes up, retention goes down.
>
> 3. Is relevant to the content -- it makes a learning point so it
> is not
> viewed as a waste of time.
>
> For example: I'm teaching that leadership is influence -- and
> that when
> I attempt to influence the thinking and behavior of another I am
> leading. So I ask participants to list people that have had the
> greatest impact or influence on their lives. Then I ask them to
> work in
> groups of five to compare their responses -- were there
> similarities in
> the list? What were they? Then this is shared with the larger group
> and posted on chart paper. Finally I ask them to share how these
> variouspeople influenced them and come up with a list of methods.
> These are
> also shared. I now have plenty of material from their own experiences
> to drive home key learning points. At the same time I have used a
> powerful opening that breaks preoccupation, facilitates
> networking, and
> is relevant to the content.
>
> Bob Pike CSP, CPAE - Speaker's Hall of Fame
> Chairman/CEO The Bob Pike Group
> Founder/Editor - The Creative Training Techniques newsletter
> Chairman of the Executive Board - Center for Faithwalk Leadership
>
> Visit our website at
www.BobPikeGroup.com
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