Reflective Practitioner Blog 3

Looking at the data set given, I have noticed a few aspects of the study and data that may hinder or affect the credibility of the data.

One thing I noticed the study itself, the context of it to be exact, it talks about the hydration with regards to weight and gender. This alone doesn't give readers the information about the background and aspects of the study, one example would be the type of activity that the participants will be going through and such. Like any other study, a control group would be good to have to compare between results and data.

Another component I noticed is the sample size between the two genders, there is more females and males which in return may affect the results of the study as if the data is used without trimming down equally may result in biasness of the study towards females hence an inaccurate result.

Concentrating more on the table itself, it would be good to have a title to tell readers on the content itself, unit of measurement would do good in comparing of data, use of proper words instead abbreviations would aid in the analysis of the data. As it is more multiple subjects, it would be good to have a case id for each case so that the researcher can identify certain cases.Looking at the data and quick analysis done by using line graphs, I noticed a trend between the differences in the color of the urine with regards to the weight.  Its seems that for the males, as the time goes from the beginning and end of the activity there is a corresponding trend between the weight lost in coherence with the urine color, for instance, male subject 5 has a difference of urine color of -4 which in turns reflect a lost of 3.35, this surely shows the relationship between these two variables.

Reflective Practitioner Blog 2

Blog 2

Based on the situation given, I would further refine the study topic to “a study on the positive effects of a 5 day intervention program conducted in comparison with 5 one day intervention programs for business employees conducted either in a residential center or hotel setting”.

I think for me, the research methodology I would use will be questionnaire surveys using Likert scale as the mode of measurement. With the domains from Team Development Inventory(TDI), I will create a number of questions that can quantify the various domains of the TDI. The domains of the TDI range from participation, collaboration, flexibility, sensitivity, risk taking, commitment, facilitation and openness. A number of questions will be a dedicated at measuring each single domain as to find out the value per subject, this will more leaning towards a quantitative approach on this topic. The domain on the whether the hotel or residential center will be put into the questionnaire so as to be able to answer that research aspect.

The reliability of this research though able to be replicated in similar outdoor context but it may be on a notion that the results is influenced by peoples definition and view of each question which in return may influence the results of each domain.

The validity wise, to reduce the threats, it would be that the both programs have the same activities in coherence with the same objectives set out with different in the timeline which is a 5 days straight program versus a 5 one day program. Another would the participants are from one organization but into mixed groups of people, this would good if these people don’t come from the same department so as to maintain and reduce influence of peers towards the program.

A few demographic information I would put in would be the gender, position in organization and department. This would aid in reducing threats to the external validity as the general domains will able the methodology to be used with other organizations in regards to this study. 

Reflection Practitioner Blog 1

I take part in adventure activities because i feel the need to push myself beyond my personal limits i possess

to learn, unlearn and relearn.. To go beyond what physical or mental limits to achieve a greater success and probably share my experience and knowledge so that others will benefit in one way or another.

Others should take part in adventure because it is value adding and gives the kind of experiences classrooms and the concrete jungle can't. A chance to break the monotony of things around them and to challenge the mind and body in overcoming tasks and activities far beyond  bustling cities and tar roads.

My Personal Philosophy:

Every outdoor experience be it positive or negative should be an educating and learning opportunity to learn and improve oneself in many aspects the classroom can't.

Blog 4

Soft Skills Facilitation

Blog 4

Aizat Abu Bakar

Measurement of learning in the outdoors I believe must be comprehensive and at the same time tangible enough for the facilitator or educator in charge to deem that learning has occurred. Neil, Marsh and Richards (Neil, et al., 2001)view on the Life Effective Questionnaires(LEQ) talks on limitations of such measurement tools from studies that it was not meant to measure changes but rather on personal views on that certain portion or question. Another was the flexibility of the tool as to cater a wide variety of participants and to maximize effective of the information sought out. A shorter questionnaire may be able to maximize such a situation but it may not cover enough due to its length. Another point mentioned in the article would the relevance to program objectives, some programs may be focused to one objective but measurement tools look at a bigger and broader picture of outcomes.

After reading and analyzing the various measurement tools, I realized they were mostly originated from psychology based, behavior based or cognitive based questionnaires adopted and used in the outdoor context. This is something I sole support but it may be able to measure the practical and learning aspect of outdoor and adventure.

Mcdonald’s (Mcdonald, 1997) view using accounts or “stories” as evidence of the learning aspect of outdoor education is something I am solely in favor of. My take on this view is the authenticity of the account as it is first hand and based on the participant himself or herself. But there is one component that questions the credibility and the basis account, it could be an account based on actual theories or thinking models and on the downside, it could be baseless accounts that don’t relate to learning, learning can’t be that simple without basis or such.

Whereas for Nichol (Nichols, 200),he mention on using research or tools to measure learning is something I advocate too, this in a way adds value and sense to the accounts or reflecting method view of Mcdonald (Mcdonald, 1997). Research I believe gives meaning and sense to learning outcomes for the participant to link back to real life and value add it.

My take on these two school of thoughts is basically, reflective accounts should work hand in hand with research or qualitative questionnaires to be able to measure learning in the outdoors. The account of the trainer and the participant can be the primary evidence of personal growth while measurement tools such as the LEQ can be the supporting data the trainer needs to confirm the growth.

References

Mcdonald, P., 1997. Climbing lessons: Inside outdoor education. Northland: Pete Mcdonald.

Neil, J. T., Richard, G. E. & Marsh, H. W., 2001. The Life Effectiveness Questionnaire Development and Psychometrics, Sydney: University of Western Sydney.

Nichols, G., 200. Risk And Adventure Education. Journal Of Risk Research, 3(2), pp. 121-134.

 

Blog 3

Soft Skills Facilitation Blog 3

Aizat Abu Bakar

Self-Concept

Self-concept is rooted to one’s development and establishment personally, defined by Rosenberg (Rosenberg, 1989) as an individual’s thought and affection, with assumption of oneself as an object. Bracken (Bracken, 1992) Multidimensional Self-Concept Model displays six domains of self-concept ranging from social up to physical self-concepts. Self-concept can be affected by three main ways: feedback through personal experience, through interactions with others and exposure to success and failures. (O'Connell, 2009).

Hattie (Hattie, et al., 1997) mentioned that the outcomes of adventure programs including self-concept alongside leadership, academic, personality, interpersonal and adventuresomeness followed by its own individual sub-domains. The main domains of self-concept that were greatly impacted were independence, confidence, self-efficacy and self-understanding (Hattie, et al., 1997). Parle (Parle, 1986 cited in Hattie, et al., 1997) mentions that the Outward Bound programs have positive effects of adolescent participant’s self-confidence and their ability to act successfully in a range of challenging activities.

The overall view of self-concept as a major outcome in adventure programs are becoming more refined with the understanding of the multidimensional aspect of self-concept with relations to an individual’s development in other areas (Hattie, et al., 1997). Bracken  (Bracken, 1992)suggests that behaviors linked to adventure programs will be able to influence self-concept and vice-versa, hence integrating into one’s overall behavioral pattern.

Used as an idiom or synonym for self-concept, self-esteem is about how we feel about self-evaluation, be it negative or positive (Sanderson, 2010). It also reveals a person’s overall assessment of their own worth and encompasses of beliefs and emotions (Mruk, 2006).

James (James, 1890/1983) came up with a formula on development of self-esteem which is self-esteem equals to success divided by pretensions. Pretensions being one’s claim to be important or impressive. Self-esteem is created as one reflects on one’s behavior with relations to their own and other expectations, one key note is that two people can have the same success but could develop self-esteem differently because they or people in their environments have different levels of expectations. 

The hierarchy of self-esteem puts global self-esteem which is generally how people feel about themselves with the domains which are the competencies which people based their self-esteem on while sub-domains are the more refined aspects of the domains (Fox & Corbin, 1989).

The intervention in which is talked about is more towards targeting a certain domain which a present is more leaning towards, tapping on to it raise or modify global self- esteem, as it can in return, influence other aspects such as self-concept.

My view of self-concept and esteem is that it linked to one another and can affect each other. Here in my workplace, the usage of such concept is practice via presentations in which fellow classmates will get to observe the failures and success of their peers, feedback from facilitators and interactions with their peers be it in a classroom or outdoor context.

References

Bracken, B. A., 1992. Multidimensional Self Concept Scale: Examiner's manual. Austin(TX): Pro-Ed.

Fox, K. R. & Corbin, C. B., 1989. The Physical Self Perception Profile: Development and Preliminary Validation. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Volume 11, pp. 408-430.

Hattie, J., Neil, J. T., Richards, G. E. & Marsh, H. W., 1997. Adventure Education and Outward Bound:Out-of-Class Experiences That Make a Lasting Difference. Review of Educational Research, 67(1), pp. 43-87.

James, W., 1890/1983. The Principles of Psychology. Cambridge: MA:Havard University Press.

Mruk, C. J., 2006. Self-Esteem Research, Theory, and Practice: Toward a Positive Psychology of Self-Esteem. 3rd ed. New York: Springer Publishing Company.

O'Connell, T., 2009. Self-Concept and Adventure Education:A Study of Adolescents Engaged in Outdoor Adventure Activities. New York: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG.

Rosenberg, M., 1989. Self-Concept Research:A Historical Overview. Social Forces, September, 68(1), pp. 34-44.

Sanderson, C. A., 2010. Social Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Recommended reading:

O'Connell, T., 2009. Self-Concept and Adventure Education:A Study of Adolescents Engaged in Outdoor Adventure Activities. New York: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG.

Soft Skills Facilitation Blog 2

Soft Skills Facilitation Blog 2

By Md Aizat

Experiential Learning

 Experiential learning is something outdoor educators use extensively in the outdoors, but do we know what they meant by experiential learning? Experiential come from the word experience, James Neil (Neil, 2006)defined experience as a nature of events of which someone or something has gone through, something in the past that has happened and experiential learning (Neil, 2005) as learning by your own and learning through structured experiential programs and activities.

Experiential education as mentioned by Neil (Neil, 2004) is based on experiential learning and is on a few basis: students are actively involved in their learning or activity, educators operate on a mindset that educational goals can be met by letting the natural cause of learning, in this case experience to take place and facilitate the learning and can be applied to a wide variety of disciplines or topics.

The point of the students getting involved in the learning process is about getting the student to have first-hand experience on a certain topic, for example, traditional teaching with talking about how hard is it to kayak in the sea in classroom while an experiential educator would bring that same student out to the sea to kayak and let the student experience it first-hand and created a theory or concept regarding the topic, hence making the teacher involvement here minimal and letting the student do the learning on his or her own. This same point was further supported by Berry (Berry & Hodgson, 2011) that the learner is placed at the center of the experience, making the value of new knowledge, skills or understanding more obvious and immediate benefits to the learner.

The Model

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (Kolb, 1984 cited in Berry & Hodgson,2011) talks about a learning cycle that starts off with concrete experience following by reflective observations followed by abstract conceptualization , active experimentation and the cycle restarts. Kolb Cycle (Kolb, 1984 cited in Berry & Hodgson,2011) explains that the cycle can being at any phase and the cycle should be viewed as a spiral with each stage building up for the other, hence recurring. It has been without it’s critiques, some as mentioned by Smith (Smith, 2010) such as the model doesn’t give much attention towards the reflection process, the model doesn’t account much on different cultural experiences. The four stages gave birth to four learning styles (Honey & Mumford,1986 cited in Berry & Hodgson,2011) which is the pragmatist whose the problem solver, activist who enjoys doing, theorist who takes ideas and forms theories and the reflectors who prefer to observe and collect facts before reaching a conclusion.

Application & Conclusion

However, Neil (Neil, 2004) listed down all the benefits of experiential learning ranging from equality, developing relationships quickly, meta learning, encourage risk taking, diversity of strengths and many more. Experiential learning with reference from my work place has a lot to play a part on the students learning as the experiential model is able to provide that spiral of learning and at the same time able to cater to a broad range of learning styles. For me I believe outdoor education is best supplemented by experiential learning as a mean for learners to maximise from outdoor activities. Studies have shown that experiential learning gives a more impactful learning and gets the student to direct his or her own learning with the right guidance from facilitators.

References

Berry, M. & Hodgson, C., 2011. Adventure Education: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.

Neil, J., 2004. What is Experiential Education?. [Online]
Available at: http://wilderdom.com/experiential/ExperientialWhatIs.html
[Accessed 6 December 2013].

Neil, J., 2005. What is Experiential Learning?. [Online]
Available at: http://wilderdom.com/experiential/ExperientialLearningWhatIs.html
[Accessed 6 December 2013].

Neil, J., 2006. Experiential Learning & Experiential Education: Philosophy, theory, practice & resources. [Online]
Available at: http://wilderdom.com/experiential/
[Accessed 6 December 2013].

Smith, M. K., 2010. David A. Kolb on experiential learning.. [Online]
Available at: http://infed.org/mobi/david-a-kolb-on-experiential-learning/
[Accessed 6 December 2013].

For futher reading

Student Learning in Outdoor Education: A Case Study From the National Outdoor Leadership School: http://www.health.utah.edu/prt/nols/paisleyjee.pdf

   

Soft Skills Facilitation Blog 1

Md Aizat Bin Abu Bakar

BA Adventure Faciliation & Education

The comfort zone model in a nutshell is based on the belief that people will overcome their hesitancy and grow when put in a stressful situation or when called to rise up to the challenge. The stressful and challenging situation is where students or participants are encouraged to “stretch” themselves and look beyond their fears and without going into the panic zone or misadventure.

This article showcase the other responses that might be experienced by an individual when challenged to overcome a certain activity, some can come in the form of the physiology and psychological aspect as increase in the heart rate, the feeling of fear or excitement. But on top of all these, Brown (Brown, 2008) speaks about what is exactly is the comfort zone, do we know if it’s going to grow or will not grow at all and whether there can be one “universal” zonal model for across the masses. One’s comfort zone varies from one individual to another but what is the definition of comfort zone, Alasdair White (White, 2008) mentioned in is his book , From Comfort Zone to Performance Management that the comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk (White, 2008).

With all these said, Brown (Brown, 2008) drives a point out that there is no such comfort zone theory and the whole theory is based on cognitive development (Piaget, 1977) and cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) by Piaget and Festinger respectively.  Piaget (Piaget, 1977) talks about the creating a state of  balance as a driving force to integrate new experiences into old ones and modify or update current beliefs or behaviours with these new experiences. Brown raises a point that such theory will depend on whether the experiences is up to the person’s desires and needs, whether is it too unusual or far from the normality of activities of an individual. Thus, these experience might be identified as irrelevant and impossible to integrate and such.  

Festinger (Festinger, 1957) in other hand talks about cognitive dissonance, where the reality of things like actions is in conflict with one’s belief or in other words creating an imbalance of thoughts, disequilibrium. Creating a state of dissonance between one’s initial understandings of what they are doing versus what is the main objective to be learned or executed.  

Brown (Brown, 2008) brings out a point where he questions on the linkage students have between their success in the outdoors or in outdoor challenges with any other aspects of life. Leberman & Martin(Leberman & Martin,2003 cited in Brown,2008) did mentioned that activities that pushed students or participants may or may not incur any peak learning .

On the above stated model, my take on this article is that Brown (Brown, 2008) has a point to point out that learning doesn’t need to be stress related or in a rather challenged and risky situation. But also, there needs to be a certain ‘stretch’ to happen in order for things to grow or develop. Like in body building in context, there needs to be a level of stress on the muscle in order for it to recover and grow, thus the same for learning and the usage of the comfort zone model. Alasdair (White, 2008) mentioned in his book that anxiety can improve and increase performance until optimum level of arousal has been attained but he too mention that too much anxiety will cause the performance in this learning to deteriorate (White, 2008). There needs to be a way to gauge to what certain is it deemed too much or too little anxiety for a participant where learning is achieved or not.  Both Piaget (Piaget, 1977) and Festinger (Festinger, 1957) have their points on the cognitive dissonance and development, my take on this is that the comfort zone model is actually a manifestation of these two theories. The model, I feel it should be used solely as to create a mental picture for the participant gauge on what they are about to perform then in which cognitive dissonance and development can take place.

In accordance to the workplace, I feel that the comfort zone model can be maximised by using it to front load students on the activities they are about to undertake as to prepare them mentally. Giving them enough information to create a appropriate level of anxiety but still keep it engaging enough for them to learn and take in the experience. Using it as a metaphor rather than a theory.

One reading I will recommend would be Alasdair White (White, 2008) From Comfort Zone to Performance Management where the author focuses on the using the comfort zone model to illustrate performance, how the comfort zone model can be used to improve performance.

 

Works Cited

Brown, M., 2008. The Comfort Zone: Reflection on A Taken For Granted Model. Ki Waho-Into The Outdoors.

Festinger, L., 1957. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. California: Standford University Press.

Piaget, J., 1977. The development of thought: equilibration of cognitive structures. New York: Viking Press.

White, A., 2008. From Comfort Zone to Performance Management. Belgium: White & Maclean.