Personal Philosophy

Having worked with children and adults of various ages and backgrounds in many different settings such as that of outdoor centres and schools, both abroad and in the UK has given me first hand experience of facilitation and allowed me to create my personal philosophy on the use of soft skills.

Based on my own personal experiences and from what I have witnessed first hand in the sector I believe that using adventure as a medium can promote and foster personal growth and development. This however I believe to be small part of the puzzle, and that by merely taking part in adventurous activities and reflecting upon them does not instantly change a persons entire outlook on life due to a successful week long program at a outdoor centre.

My own personal experience has shown me that it is the instructor that denotes as just to how applicable the use of soft skills are with their own specific group of individuals. And that all individuals have the ability to push themselves and make gains in their own personal growth prior to participating in a course at a adventure centre. The adventures activities are merely used and facilitated by the instructor’s to elicit these responses and build upon what is already present within that individual, and it is the instructor’s use and personal leadership styles and experiences that cement this process.  Hopkins (1982) found that the “positive effect of the adventure experience on the growth of self-concept” could be negated by the influence of a “competitive, confrontational and unsympathetic” instructor.

Hopkins finding were reflected in that of an outdoor centre in which I worked where a large element of the client base was that of Polynesian schools who were predominately from farming or lower social backgrounds. Used to working with their families from an early age in various forms of labour many of these groups required a very specific type of facilitation. However instructors not recognising this found these groups challenging difficult and in some cases were unable to facilitate activities let alone being able to tie in a particular life lesson that would improve them as individuals for the day’s events.

Figure 1.A Kura Kaupapa Māori school group from the Northland area of the north Island in NZ taking on the high ropes course very successfully    

However despite these observations I also became aware that despite not understanding why they had participated in the activities or what it had been in aid of many of these students still showed a significant rise in confidence or their own personal self-esteem. Fox (1998) ‘Self-esteem is generally viewed as a global and relatively stable evaluative construct reflecting the degree to which an individual feels positive about him or herself.’

Barrett and Greenaway (1995) used the ‘dynamic adventure environment’ model to illustrate what it is that they think enhancing self-esteem is. They argue that the combination of physical exercise, fear and the support of both the group and instructor, all act upon increasing self-esteem as they adapt to the unaccustomed, dynamic adventure environment.  This model supports my observations of how many of the groups coming through despite having very little soft skill application from their instructors during the week still achieved many of its desired outcomes such as an increase in self-esteem.

Figure 2. Barrett and Greenway (1995) Dynamic Adventure Environment model,  with input factors in order of importance based on my own personal experience    

So while I don’t fully endorse the belief that a week long program at a adventure centre can improve upon a person’s personal growth and development I do consider it to be a valuable learning experience and potentially the gains can be great, but expecting a child to do a week long program and be a changed person from there on out is quite an optimistic ideal .  

Barret, J., Greenaway, R. (1995) Why adventure? The role and value of outdoor adventure in young people’s personal and social development. Coventry: Foundation for Outdoor Adventure. 

Fox, K.R. (1998) Advances in the measurement of the physical self. In:Advances in Sport and Exercise Psychology Measurement, (edited by J. Duda .), pp.295-310. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Turesky, E, & Gallagher, D 2011, 'Know thyself: Coaching for leadership using Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory',Coaching Psychologist, 7, 1, pp. 5-14,

Bandura, A. (1982). Self-efficacy: towards a unifying theory of behavioural change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 

191–215.