Outward Bound Hong Kong is a registered charity which aims to change lives through challenge and discovery. A bold ambition, our mission is to create a world with resilient and compassionate citizens.
At Outward Bound we use the term “authentic adventure” to describe the activities we offer to our participants.
The following six elements are a way of describing what we mean by authentic adventure within Outward Bound. The whole adventure is often described as a journey, both physical and metaphorical where participants gain new insights and experiences working with others in a close group in the outdoors with a skilled instructor.
The elements are real and as immersed in the natural environment as possible, giving a high degree of uncertainty and challenge. When combined with the deliberate learning process participant’s development will be at the highest level. Authentic adventure acts as a metaphor for life; participants can reflect on the skills, attitudes and insights that helped them on their Outward Bound journey and how these will help them in the future.
The six elements include Expeditions, Challenging Activities, As Self-reliant As Possible, In the Natural Environment, Being Challenged at the Edge of Your Capabilities, and Progressive. See six elements below:
An expedition might be a whole day or a number of days with bivouacs or wild camps. Expeditions involve a journey either on land or on the water.
The longer time period of an expedition can allow for real consequences and real responsibility. On an expedition opportunities arise to encounter highs and lows; drama as well as tranquility. There will be challenges, along with chances to look back at the journey taken.
A critical element in an Outward Bound experience is engaging with challenging activities in the natural environment.
These can include gorge scrambling, rock climbing, cutter sailing, descending a river or paddling on the sea or lake and ideally are incorporated into the expedition. By adding these challenging activities, we are more likely to take participants to the edge of their capabilities, creating new experiences from which they can learn.
Self-reliance is about encouraging participants to take responsibility for themselves and each other. They will take responsibility throughout their experience, in activities, life at Outward Bound and participating in reviews. Self- reliance can be related to small tasks, such as tying boot laces and adjusting backpack straps or larger tasks such as the complexity of leading a group through the mountains. Experiencing self-reliance can support a sense of self-efficacy in participants.
In our context, adventuring in the natural environment is about spending time in challenging outdoor places – lakes, rivers, sea and mountains. We aim to provide opportunities for participants to feel immersed in the natural environment, this can involve jumping into a lake, camping on a mountainside, walking through snow, looking down onto a cloud inversion or participating in a solo. We believe by doing this, participants can discover new things about themselves and new perspectives on the world around them
This is about facing challenges at or near the edge of your capabilities but without exceeding your limits. Everyone has different levels of experience, skill and confidence. Participants have different levels of fitness and different comfort zone thresholds. Outward Bound instructors consider the individual and aim to lead adventures at a level which will be challenging, sometimes very challenging but not overwhelming. When the level is just right participants see themselves in a new light which is engaging, motivating and instructive about who they are and what they are capable of.
Outward Bound courses are progressive. Taking participants from whichever starting point they are at before the course towards new places relevant for them. At the beginning of a course the instructor will lead and the participants follow; as the program develops the instructor will then always be looking for opportunities to pass the responsibility to participants, where this is appropriate. Outward Bound courses are much more than a combination of stand-alone activities – they progressively open up new experiences, demand new skills and unveil new awareness.
These are the six key features that participants will see and experience, and an instructor will deliver. They apply to all Outward Bound programs.
They are written below at the base level. Instructors, through experience and continual professional development, will be working to raise their standards of delivery in each of these core areas.
See six key features below:
A clear plan for the course will exist as a tool for:
The method of recording is left up to the instructor. Critical to the success of the course is that the context, learning aims or outcomes will be shared with participants in order to:
Engaging with participants and building rapport is an early and vital ingredient needed to develop people because:
Rapport could be described as the instructor being on the same wavelength as the group or particular group members. It is often generated by treating participants as individuals, taking an interest in them, noticing things, remembering things, referring back to things and having the odd joke or sharing a story with them.
Instructors may carefully reveal things about themselves that can help establish rapport and build trust - for example identifying commonalities that they share with participants.
Many instructors will be ‘instinctively’ good at building rapport with particular types of groups or individuals, but the real skill lies in being able to do this with all groups and participants.
Appropriate theoretical models will be used to help participants make sense of the experience of their course and recognise potential personal learning.
When used well they:
Assist with learning.
Reinforce any points identified in discussion, reflection and group review.
Assist in making sense or relating the learning points to other situations or experience.
Assist with progression, reminders, action planning and transfer of learning.
Whilst instructors work with small groups, learning at Outward Bound is focused on the individual. Participants start at different places and have different personal experiences. The learning is individual and the aim is for everyone to take something away with them.
Instructors look for challenges to be pitched at an appropriate level for each individual so as to increase engagement.
There is an expectation that instructors will:
Instructors should look to:
The aim is to encourage participants to reflect on the adventure and environmental experiences of the course and to consider their feelings and emotions towards self, others and the environment and to link back to the learning objectives. These processes are integral to the course and happen on a continual basis.
Engaging with participants and building rapport is an early and vital ingredient needed to develop people because:
Appropriate approaches include:
Transfer of learning and linking back /forward to the course or session aims is a core part of delivery. This process will be present right from the start of the course and is central to the use of the Outward Bound experiential learning method.
The transfer of learning and personal action planning at the end of courses are important methods of encouraging the ongoing application of the key personal learning of the course to participants’ own lives.
The course only has relevance beyond the new experiences undertaken, if applied and built upon, so the values and associated behaviours become habits.
Action plans help in this reinforcement of learning. They are also tangible evidence of good intentions that can be helpful for other stakeholders such as teachers, training or line managers, and parents.
It is expected that all participants will leave with a tangible action plan, this action plan should:
We consciously include strands of environmental learning into our programs. This complements our work to help participants understand more about themselves, how they work with others and fit into their wider environment.
This explicit intent is supported by our approach to achieving our learning through authentic adventure where participants are immersed in the natural environment. Without contact with the environment we are not Outward Bound.
This strand of our work is particularly important because:
When delivering “the environment” we will take the steps set out in the flow below. This will be done in an inclusive way that threads and weaves its way throughout the course, so that we can; immerse people into our environment, increase their knowledge, challenge their values and behaviours, and transfer those lessons into their lives and their own environment.
Through journeying and activity, we will immerse and establish sensory connections with the environment and our participants.
We will increase our participants knowledge through experiences, explanations and questioning.
Through debate and reflection, we will encourage participants to explore their own personal values and
behaviours.
We will help participants to identify opportunities in
their regular lives, where they can apply their new values and behaviours.
Each Outward Bound course is an adventure of discovery and give people the skills of leadership for others at schools and in the workplace.
