Outdoor training

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As outdoor training or outdoor training within the business administration , sociology , pedagogy and psychology led training in nature on the basis of action orientation and experiential referred. As with any form of training in non-technical competencies ( soft skills ) , the aim of outdoor training is to modify the behavior of the participants and to practice and stable internalization of the new behavior .

Areas of application

Outdoor training is mainly used in the following fields of competence and behavior development:

history

The origins of outdoor training lie in the military sector. They are used there with the beginning of a systematic selection of officers to strengthen the non-technical, "soft competencies" and as a method for personnel selection.

Until 1945

In the 1920s, outdoor training was used as part of the “psychotechnical aptitude tests” when selecting officer candidates for the Reichswehr . This form of testing was later used by the Wehrmacht . In addition to the sports test, it was the so-called command series of the performance limits . Physical work had to be carried out such as building a bridge over a river with the help of a rope or climbing a climbing wall. The aim of the exercises was to train and assess dexterity, body control, endurance, energy, commitment, ingenuity and a sense of community (teamwork). Each examinee was temporarily employed as a leader of a group in order to be able to assess not only the community behavior but also disposition skills, overview and assertiveness . Such methods were far superior to officer selection procedures in other armed forces.

In the 1940s , Kurt Hahn played an important role in the development of outdoor training for children and adolescents as well as for young people with behavioral problems, as a co-founder of experiential education and therapy. The principle of the Salem laws of giving children the opportunity to discover their individual passions and talents for themselves is an important principle of all outdoor training to this day.

1945 to 2000

The concept of action-oriented learning goes back to the British Reginald Revans ( action learning ) . The participants work together on a specific project, try out solutions and at the same time reflect on their own learning and development process. This concept spread from Great Britain to the European continent in the 1960s .

The first outdoor training sessions were held in Germany in the early 1980s. However, it was not until the mid-1990s that management consultant Mario Kölblinger and former decathlete Kurt Bendlin , who worked in training and further education at Nixdorf Computer AG from 1979 to 1990, made the outdoor training more popular with high-profile manager training courses in Germany .

Recent development and future prospects

In the economic crisis from 2001 onwards , triggered by the events of September 11, the demand for measures for management and personnel development and for outdoor training fell rapidly. Many courses and high ropes courses were deserted, torn down or opened for individual participants who were more interested in physical fitness .

The current situation is characterized by strong differentiation. In the youth work , in company training and in the field of talent management , outdoor training has meanwhile a permanent place. Management training courses are increasingly no longer carried out in rope courses, but in the form of expeditions . The declining growth of the sales markets leads to an increasing demand for outdoor customer incentives with the aim of customer loyalty , demographic change and the shortage of skilled workers in individual regions and industries lead to outdoor employee incentives with the aim of employee loyalty .

Forms of outdoor training

Outdoor training can be divided into three groups based on the two criteria civilization distance and nature induction: Residentials, Survivals and Expeditions. They also differ in the overriding task that creates the context of the individual tasks.

Residential

Residentials take place close to civilization and mostly in the immediate vicinity of a seminar hotel. Outdoor modules are games and tasks that can be performed anywhere using simple materials. In most cases, the required devices, however, are permanently installed and a leading over several stations in the form of courses arranged. The most common residential courses are rope courses : high rope courses and low rope courses . The group goes from one station to the other and receives tasks and instructions from the outdoor trainer .

Since the tasks are thought up by people and could appear unnatural and constructed, the participants are often presented with a fantasy story as a superordinate task. This gives the course itself and the individual tasks at the stations a context. Due to their advantages through high acceptance - with overnight stays and meals in the hotel, a fixed schedule and agenda with a free evening that is available for personal use, the option to switch between indoor learning and outdoor training, in addition to lower costs for the company - residentials are the most popular form of outdoor training. In many cases, these short training courses are also carried out as incentives .

Survival

Survival training provides for survival in a place close to civilization as a superordinate task. The knowledge and skills imparted serve as a medium. In most cases, the participants are only allowed to take a few or no aids or provisions with them.

In contrast to the residentials, the trainer does not set any tasks, these arise solely from the situation and from nature's needs for water, food, fire and bivouac . Examples of individual tasks to be mastered are procuring food , obtaining drinking water , protecting against rain and cold or setting up a bivouac with natural resources.

expedition

Expeditions as development training are remote from civilization and the most expensive form of outdoor training. The overriding task can be the completion of a route from a starting point to a destination . Many of the individual and group tasks are not constructed by the outdoor trainer, but result from everyday necessities in the wilderness , but serve to manifest the participants as a person and their interaction within the group. This includes, for example, crossing a body of water with a self-built rope bridge or raft , determining the appropriate path to the destination or behavior in the event of a change in the weather, but primarily dealing with each other and behavior within the group.

Most outdoor training expeditions last three days to a week or two. A 360 ° feedback can lead to difficult and intensified reactions of the participants in an expedition as outdoor training. Therefore, popular areas for outdoor training are natural areas closer to civilization with low population density, such as Scandinavia , the north of Scotland or the Alps . Participants spend the night in tents , rarely in huts . This form of experiential education is based on the concept of Kurt Hahn , the effectiveness of which also depends on the quality of the experience of the activities. Hahn started expeditions in Gordonstoun in 1941 as a form of education for children and young people.

Requirements for outdoor trainers

Expeditions as the highest form of outdoor training place high demands on the trainer due to the extreme environmental influences in terms of planning the tasks in order to influence realizable learning goals and thus place high demands on his mental flexibility and a feeling for transferable situations. He accompanies the group in coping with the tasks and, through the use of metaphors and targeted, question-based reflection, has to ensure the transfer of the behavioral and coping strategies recognized as successful. In addition, a high level of knowledge and ability in the field of outdoors is required. For this reason, these outdoor trainings, which are strongly influenced by nature, are often carried out by teams of trainers with a focus on technical outdoor skills as well as the required methodological skills in accompanying personal and team development processes.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Großer: Outdoor for Indoors: With hard methods to soft goals. 2nd Edition. ZIEL Verlag, Augsburg 2003, ISBN 3-934214-90-8 .
  2. ↑ Stefan König, Andrea König: Outdoor team training. From a group to a high-performance team. 2nd Edition. ZIEL Verlag, Augsburg 2003, ISBN 3-937210-10-5 .
  3. ^ Dietrich Buchner (ed.): Outdoor training. How managers and teams cross borders. Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 1996, ISBN 3-409-18888-6 .
  4. ↑ Günter Amesberger: Personal development through outdoor activities? Studies on personality development and coping with reality among socially disadvantaged people. Afra Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1994, ISBN 3-923217-57-9 .
  5. ↑ Monika Flückiger-Schüepp: The wilderness in me. With drug addicts in the forests of Canada. Dr. Sandmann-Verlag, Alling 1998, ISBN 3-934214-28-2 .
  6. ↑ Peter Hofstätter u. a .: German Wehrmacht Psychology 1914–1945. Munich 1985, p. 11 ff.
  7. ↑ Peter Hofstätter u. a .: German Wehrmacht Psychology 1914–1945. Munich 1985, p. 236 ff. See also: Foreign Military Studies. Historical Division, HQ Europe, US Army, Europe, Personnel Administration Part V, 1948
  8. ↑ Target question: Psychological selection methods in the armies of foreign countries. In: Soldatentum, 5th year, Berlin 1938 - cited. n. Hofstätter
  9. ↑ Torsten Fischer, Jörg Ziegenspeck: Handbuch Erlebnispädagogik. From the origins to the present. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2000, ISBN 3-7815-0998-2 .
  10. ↑ Michael Lausberg : Children should discover themselves. Kurt Hahn's experiential education. Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8288-9204-0 .
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Müller: Outdoor training for specialists and executives . VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken 2002, ISBN 978-3-8311-3589-9
  12. ↑ Kurt Bendlin: Fitness for Managers. The gentle method for endurance, health and mental freshness. ECON, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-612-21084-X .
  13. ^ Mario Kölblinger: Outdoor Seminars: Blood, Sweat and Training. ManagerSeminars No. 20, July 1995.
  14. ↑ Tobias Wiethoff: Manager fun: Between tight rope dancing and children's birthday parties . In: Der Spiegel. November 8, 2002.
  15. ↑ Mario Kölblinger: The overestimated effect of high ropes courses in management training . In: Schad, Niko; Michl, Werner (ed.): Outdoor training. Personnel and organizational development between flipchart and mountain rope. 2nd Edition. Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-497-01689-6 .
  16. ^ Gunther Wolf: Indoor Outdoor Management Development . Boulder, Colorado, USA 1981.
  17. ↑ http://giss.org.uk/index.php?page=adventure
  18. ↑ Alex Ferstl, Peter Schettgen, Martin Scholz (eds.): The benefit of the aftertaste. New ways of securing transfer in action and experience-oriented learning projects. Ziel Verlag, Augsburg 2004, ISBN 3-937210-13-X .

literature

  • Dietrich Buchner (ed.): Outdoor training. How managers and teams cross borders. Gabler Verlag , Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-409-18888-6 .
  • Sabine Häcker: Event Marketing and Adventure Education. VDM , Saarbrücken 2006, ISBN 3-86550-916-9 .
  • Michael Großer: Outdoor for Indoors: Using hard methods to achieve soft goals. 2., 2003, ISBN 978-3934214903 .
  • Bernd Heckmair: 20 experience-oriented learning projects. Scenarios for trainings, seminars and workshops. 3., Beltz Verlag, Weinheim / Basel 2008, ISBN 978-3-407-36456-2 .
  • Hans-Peter Hufenus: Handbook for Outdoor Guides: Theory and practice of outdoor management. 3., Ziel Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-940562-32-6 .
  • Uwe Markus: The limit value principle: performance-oriented outdoor training for managers. Weißensee Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89998-121-6 .
  • Wolfgang Philipp Müller : Outdoor training for specialists and executives. VDM, Saarbrücken 2002, ISBN 3-8311-3589-4 .
  • Wolfgang Philipp Müller: Theory of Outdoor Training: In the interaction of business administration, education and psychology. VDM, 2010, ISBN 978-3-639-31523-3 .
  • Hans-Georg Renner, Jochen Strassmann (ed.): The outdoor seminar in operational practice. Windmühle, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-922789-86-2 .
  • Niko Schad, Werner Michl: Outdoor training. Personnel and organizational development between flipchart and mountain rope. 2., Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-497-01689-6 .
  • Tom Senninger: Leading adventures, learning in adventures. 5., Ökotopia Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-931902-53-6 .
  • Maria-Theresa Vogel: Outdoor training in comparison. Experiential educational measures in adult education. VDM, Saarbrücken 2005, ISBN 3-86550-121-4 .
  • Andrea Zuffelato, Astrid Habiba Kreszmeier: Theory and practice of experiential education from a systemic perspective. Ziel-Verlag, Augsburg 2005, ISBN 3-937210-97-0 .