According to John Dewey (1938), we learn by doing, accompanied by reflection and understanding. Learning by doing, but also learning by thinking, are the bases of active learning. As Marta Nussbaum (2010) points out, this notion of learning is consistent with the idea of a complex and interdependent world, in which it is necessary to be activated and to understand how the world works in order to be able to orient oneself consciously and to act as global citizens.

Experience plays a fundamental role in the cognitive process because of the contact between theoretical and practical moments: gaining experiences takes the form of constructing, meaning to one’s “being with the world”, responding to the human being’s need to find meaning and significance to what he or she experiences.

This conception of experience is the basis of experiential learning theory, which was devised at the beginning of the 20th century thanks to the progressive contribution of numerous scholars. In 1984, David Kolb elaborated his experiential learning/training model in the context of vocational training, based precisely on this idea of training understood as the acquisition of learning from interaction with the environment. It assumes that learning is circular, and in order to achieve the learning objectives, it is necessary for the trainer/teacher to follow a rhythm, according to which they organize and deliver the learning activity aimed at achieving the training objectives. This circular method is formed by the phases of experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting.

In recent years, numerous nature-based project initiatives (including large-scale activities in natural settings) have been tried out, especially aimed at children: awareness meetings, training initiatives for teachers and trainers, as well as real educational proposals (see, kindergartens in the forest and schools in nature) are now even more frequent after the pandemic. With all its limitations, the pandemic gave rise to a new need to reconnect with a sensory and outdoor space.

Internationally, outdoor education is defined as a way of doing education that brings together educational theories and practices characterized by the centrality of recognizing the outdoor environment as a privileged place of education. Outdoor education, therefore, does not necessarily just prescribe activities to be carried out in outdoor environments but also highlights the equal importance of both indoor and outdoor spaces.

The 2020 pandemic was an opportunity to move in the direction of outdoor education primarily as a strategy to contain contagion. But for outdoor education to be transformed from a passing fad to a pedagogical horizon to be maintained in the long term, it is necessary for these practices to be shared, recognizing their high educational value.

The term outdoor, according to Anglo-Saxon culture, refers not only to going out to the external environment, but, in a broader sense, to how such going out activates the consciousness that opens to experiences and perceptions that are not the usual ones. Out (of the) door, then, crossing the “threshold”, stepping outside, creates the conditions for a new relationship between self and the world.

This is the authentic meaning of the pedagogy of outdoor education, which is not only reducible to being outdoors in its didactic or playful dimension, but rather conceiving a pedagogy of perception where the most interesting path is the one inside the individual: they are living different experiences, unexpectedly putting their own adaptive capacities into action in a way that is sometimes surprising on the part of the subject; they refine their perceptual capacities in relation to themself, to others, and to the environment they live in, and they do so precisely because they authorize themself to cross a threshold of the unusual place. We can also call this place the zone of risk (Galiazzo, 2017).

It then becomes significant to ask: How familiar is the adult with the idea of leaving their safe zone and entering the risk zone? To stay in fragility, precariousness and loss of control? And how can we urge each subject to venture into the zone of risk, which so closely resembles Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development?

The environment can become the zone in which to experience formative moments that get us out of the safe zone, out of the known to venture into unexplored places and confront the unexpected, the new.

The contexts in which outdoor training for adults can take place vary depending on the objectives of the activities: they can be projects aimed at social-educational inclusion and rehabilitation, therapy, recreation and leisure, or outdoor training projects – projects aimed at individuals or groups in corporate training, individual or group training or continuous education. These ideas all focus on team building and effective leadership, the development of communication skills and emotional intelligence, and self-empowerment.

Outdoor training involves a series of training activities that are carried out in the open air to develop certain behaviours in participants, under the guidance of a specially qualified trainer.

The learning process that takes place in a natural context includes different dimensions:

1. the active involvement of the subject in discovering and finding solutions;
2. the bringing into play of the subject’s relational and communication skills as a member of a group;
3. a working methodology that distinguishes different learning phases that respect Kolb’s experiential learning cycle and alternate moments of activity with moments of passivity (action-analysis of results);
4. the facilitation of a trainer who prepares the climate for the group to feel comfortable in carrying out the experience and making it transferable.

Outdoor experiential training accelerates the learning process because it brings together the cognitive, emotional and physical components that are not always stimulated in the same way in a classroom; in particular, the physical, bodily dimension is almost absent in the classroom, but remains an accelerator of learning processes. And it is in the adventure that the bodily dimension of learning is expressed, which allows one to activate one’s subjective perception and mobilise all one’s available resources and energies to face the real problems that the activity poses.

During an outdoor training experience, individuals, pairs, subgroups or groups are given a physical task that involves overcoming some obstacle. Experiences are constructed from a series of 'rough techniques' such as, for example, bivouacking, walking, descending a wall, base camp construction, caving, fording, orienteering, Tibetan bridge, raft, climbing a wall; participants are given some information on how to carry out the task and there is a progression of difficulty.

Participants are also encouraged to be present in themselves during the proposed challenges, to be there physically, emotionally and cognitively, and to observe themselves as they act and the behaviour of others. This is especially crucial in view of the review phase, often referred to as debriefing: during this phase, participants are invited to analyse the events that occurred and their relative experiences, comparing mutual perceptions and reworking a broader and more complex interpretation. This phase mirrors the reflective observation present in Kolb’s experiential learning cycle model, a phase in which the participant reflects on their experiences and observe them from a variety of perspectives after having been fully involved in the activity (action). It allows participants to expound on their own feelings, emotions and thoughts, and provide their own feedback with respect to the observed behaviour of their colleagues.

Feedback has a twofold value: on the one hand, it allows one to provide in a sincere, honest and non-judgmental way one's own point of view on a colleague’s situation and behaviour to support them in understanding all the different perceptions that a behaviour may produce; on the other hand, it trains the ability to listen to a point of view different from one's own, to welcome it, to deepen it without taking it personally.

This exchange of feedback develops effectiveness-oriented communication and interpersonal skills, which can also be transferred to one's own organisation so that an open, continuous and non-judgmental comparison can be oriented towards mutual improvement.

The third moment consists of the extraction of mental models, presented and discussed by the trainer: starting from the observations and re-elaborations of the participants’ behaviour and their comparison with situations experienced at work, they extract more general considerations, concretis them and condense them into an orientative model for the future, a scheme that is a useful tool to guide people's behaviour. This moment corresponds to the abstract conceptualisation of Kolb’s model and is a significant phase of learning from experience, as it offers the opportunity to draw out a learning potential from every life situation through reflection, re-elaboration, the ability to communicate with others, and to listen to their point of view.

Outdoor training thus becomes not only an experience in problem solving, self-empowerment, and team building, but also reveals itself as a metacognition methodology, to teach people to learn from their own experience and develop greater awareness of their own learning styles and preferred ways of acquiring skills.

Personal and professional growth always requires accepting the risk of trying new things. Learning more effective behaviour means changing oneself; in order to change, one must be able to pass through situations of uncertainty, risk, and dissonance (challenge zone) for some time, at least until the next safe harbour.

References

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education. New York, NY: Kappa Delta Pi.
Galiazzo, M. (2017). Giochi per adulti in natura. Teoria. Roma: Aracne editrice.
Kolb, D.A.  (1984). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Nussbaum, M.C. (2010). Not for Profit. Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.