Outward Bound - Course Specifics

Course Specifics

Outward Bound courses follow a kind of recipe or formula, termed the Outward Bound Process Model which is well described by Walsh and Golins (1976) as:

1. Taking a ready, motivated learner
2. into a prescribed, unfamiliar physical environment,
3. along with a small group of people
4. who are faced with a series of incremental, inter-related problem-solving tasks
5. which creates in the individual a state of dissonance requiring adaptive coping and
6. leads to a sense of mastery or competence when equilibrium is managed.
7. The cumulative effect of these experiences leads to a reorganisation of the self-conceptions and information the learner holds about him/herself.
8. The learner will then continue to be positively oriented to further learning and development experiences (transfer).

In a typical class, participants are divided into small patrols (or groups) under the guidance of one or more instructors. The first few days at a base camp are spent training for the Outdoor recreation activities that the course will contain and in the philosophy of Outward Bound. After initial confidence-building challenges, the group heads off on an expedition. As the group develops the capacity to do so, the instructors ask the group to make its own decisions.