The untapped potential of outdoor education

MUSCAT: Formal education systems are expected to contribute to the holistic development of individuals by focusing on physical, psychological, social, emotional and spiritual aspects.

However, many of these systems contribute partially to the development of few facets and many remain untouched and underdeveloped. Underdevelopment of many facets of human personality leads to massive wastage of human potential. This challenge of human development needs to be handled through a combination of formal, non-formal and informal education.

Many of formal education systems heavily rely on curriculumbased classroom teaching and learning. It leaves many areas of personality as underdeveloped. In this scenario, holistic development of individuals is possible through complementary interventions from non-formal and informal education. Outdoor education has huge potential to complement education systems and fill many gaps. English Outdoor Council highlights the role of outdoors as central part of the experience in outdoors learning with potential learning outcomes of enjoyment, confidence and character, health and well-being, social and emotional awareness, environmental awareness, activity skills, personal qualities, skills for life, increased motivation and appetite for learning, and broadened horizons.

To harness complementary benefits of outdoor education, educational institutions have the options to integrate its different elements with their curriculum, co-curricular and extra-curricular areas. Integration of outdoor education with curriculum leads to the higher attainment of learning outcomes while incorporation with co-curricular and extra-curricular areas leads to the development of certain faculties of learners.

Parents can facilitate outdoor learning through guided exposure and experience in outdoors to grow up children. Participation in different types of outdoor events, exhibitions, festivals, volunteering, field visits, travel and tourism offer substantial exposure and experience. Many training courses and events are offered by different entities, which involve outdoors with different objectives of learning, fun, recreation, health and well-being.

Oman has few well-known entities, which are contributing directly and indirectly to outdoor education and experiential learning. Outward Bound Oman provides outdoor education courses to different segments of the population. Entities like Muscat Diving and Adventure Centre, twenty3 extreme and Ecoventure offer outdoor education services and courses. Different tour operators are offering outdoor components in their packages with more focus on different segments of tourism in Oman.

Non-commercial

entities

in Oman are also organising different types of outdoor events to cater to different objectives of these groups. Many of these outdoor events inherently address certain elements of outdoor education. Adventure Oman is such non-commercial entity, which organises regular events of trekking, snorkelling, camping, photography, rock climbing and desert crossing. Adventure Oman offers numerous opportunities to adventure seekers on a non-commercial basis. Other entities/interest groups are like Oman Outdoor Adventure, Find Your Adventure, Oman Youth Adventures, Rove Adventure, Explore and Challenge, which are organising different adventure events to their members.

Outdoor education has significant potential to complement and blend with formal, non-formal and informal paths of education for the human development. It could be incorporated in formal, non-formal and informal education by exercising a certain degree of customisation.

The writer Dr Jyoti Kumar Chandel is the assistant professor of Department of Management at Waljat College of Applied Sciences.