About
Simon Beames and Mike Brown introduce themselves and Adventurous Learning
Why Adventurous Learning?
Both of us come from practitioner backgrounds (e.g., working with school and university groups, sail training, Outward Bound), as well as being active researchers and tertiary teachers. In careers that span three decades — in Southeast Asia, North America, Australia/New Zealand, the UK and Scandinavia — we have witnessed how many educational programs (both indoor and outdoor) have become overly predictable, commercialized and devoid of opportunities for learners to gain useful skills, take responsibility for their learning, and make meaningful connections to their everyday lives.
Unfortunately, it appears that many educational experiences touted as ‘adventure’ are going the same way as much mainstream education: rigid, predetermined learning outcomes ‘squeezed’ into a short timeframe. The push for standardized testing regimes and school rankings has meant that many educators are stuck between a rock and a hard place. In the worst examples of conventional indoor teaching and residential outdoor centre provision, similarities can be seen.
First, students are too often engaged in ‘busy work’, that is highly prescriptive (i.e., with little uncertainty) and which usually ignores students’ specific histories and needs. Neither the teachers, nor the students, are permitted to have strong voices regarding what was learned or how it is learned (i.e., little agency and autonomy). Further, too many sessions are contextually removed from learners’ lived experiences of the world, where there are real, concrete problems to tackle.
Next, educational sessions are reduced to being contrived activities (i.e., minimal authenticity) that lack relevance in the everyday lives of learners. Finally, the array of learning activities on offer rarely provides opportunities to develop adequate depth of knowledge, skill, or judgment through experience, practice and mentoring (i.e., minimal mastery).
Of course, not all educational endeavours exhibit these pitfalls. We have observed excellent teachers conducting place-responsive, journey-style programs that do engage with learners in ways that incorporate aspects of adventure. In conversations with them we have found a desire to ground their practice within a strong theoretical framework. Our hope is that Adventurous Learning will help to provide a useful guide to aid these educators.
We believe that learning through appropriate adventure is something that all teachers and instructors can facilitate — whether they are teaching nursery school, working at a summer camp, or delivering a university geology course. Our hope is that the principles of Adventurous Learning will be adopted (or adapted) in ways that meet the needs of educators and students, so that learning is relevant, empowering, and prepares young people to live in a constantly changing world.
You can purchase Adventurous Learning from your local bookstore or at these links:
Simon Beames
Simon Beames is Professor of Outdoor Studies at the Norwegian School of Sports Science. While at the University of Edinburgh from 2005 to 2019, Simon created Outdoor Journeys, which is a pupil-driven approach to facilitating place-responsive, cross-curricular outdoor learning.
Before getting into academia, 20 years ago, Simon worked for 10 years as an outdoor instructor with young people, most of which was expedition-based. His university studies include a Bachelor of Physical Education at McMaster University, a Master of Science in Experiential Education at Minnesota State University, and a PhD on Overseas Youth Expeditions at the University of Chichester.
Simon has published five books: Understanding Educational Expeditions, Learning Outside the Classroom, Outdoor Adventure and Social Theory, Adventurous Learning, and Adventure & Society. He still loves teaching outdoors in wild and remote settings, as well as in nearby urban ones.
Mike Brown
Mike Brown is Associate Professor of Outdoor Learning at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). He has held academic positions at the University of Waikato (NZ) and Monash University (Australia).
He is the co-author of A Pedagogy of Place (2011) with Brian Wattchow and has co-edited Seascapes: Shaped by the Sea (2015) with Barbara Humberstone and Living with the Sea: Knowledge, Awareness and Action (2019) with Kimberley Peters. He has held instructor/facilitator roles in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
He has a long standing interest in marine based education. He contributes to a number of outdoor providers in various roles, from a volunteer helper to Board member.
