Bringing the Learning Home: Transfer Mechanisms in the School Environment

Key takeaways / Summary

The study identified several key mechanisms that help with this transfer of learning.

1. Supportive School Culture: A growth-oriented environment encouraged students to apply and develop their new skills. Students felt comfortable applying the new skills as they felt they had value.

2. Shared Narrative: Creating a shared positive narrative of the experience among students and staff helps reinforce the value of their programme and encourages students to apply the skills. This narrative was reinforced formally through school bulletins, and informally through conversations with staff and peers.

3. Opportunities to Practice: Opportunities to practice their new skills in school, such as group work and extracurriculars, is crucial and allowed students to see value in the learning and integrate them more effectively.

4. Improved Staff-Student Relationships: Experiences from the outdoor education programmes helped teachers understand students better, leading to more meaningful interactions and tailored support for learning. The improved relationships helped staff direct students to opportunities to practice.

5. Integration into Lessons: Incorporation of elements of the programme into classroom lessons, such as reflective writing on the experience, case studies and examples from the programme location and similar learning themes as encountered on the programme. This helped students feel the experience had more value, and connected their experience to academic content.

   
   

In summary, a supportive school environment that actively shows it values the experience and provides multiple opportunities for learners to practice the new skills and perspectives is crucial for helping students value the experience and therefore transfer their learning from outdoor education programme back into their personal lives.

Full Paper

Note, this study was part of a work-based research project for a Masters degree and has been through an ethics approval process, however it has not been peer-reviewed for publication.

Abstract

This research study conducted in an international school in Hong Kong sought to identify the mechanisms in a school environment that would help secondary school students to transfer and apply their learning from an outdoor adventure education programme back into their school and personal lives.

Using focus groups the study investigated the Year 7 and Year 9 student's experiences at 1-week and 1-month after the outdoor adventure education programme. The study identifies positive transfer mechanisms, such as a growth-oriented school culture, shared narratives, opportunities to practice, peer and staff support and integration to lessons which collectively contributed to creating a positive transfer environment for students. The study also supports the suggestion that schools are well-placed to assist in the continuity of learning from outdoor adventure education programmes due to cohorts returning together and their ability to influence the system-wide atmosphere of the school environment.

Literature Review

Within Hong Kong, it is common for international secondary schools to arrange a 5-day outdoor adventure education experience for their students, with most students attending an off-campus course at least once each year (Beames and Brown, 2005).  For the student, the suggested benefits of attending a programme include improved inter- and intrapersonal skills (Hattie et al, 1997; Beames et al, 2020), deeper appreciation of the natural environment (Nazir and Pedretti, 2016) and real-life experience of the academic concepts that are taught in the classroom. For the school, the shared experience can develop a sense of community, improve student’s attitudes to learning and build healthy relationships between students and staff (Richmond et al, 2018).  The real value of the adventure education programme comes though when the learner is able to transfer their learning from the programme environment back into different facets of their lives (Priest and Gass, 2005). Whether this happens and to what extent is quite contested (Brown, 2010), with critics (Brown, 2010; Beames and Brown, 2016) arguing that without continued support, once students return to their home environment they struggle to make the generalisations needed to transfer their learning. They see this as a weakness in many outdoor adventure education programmes. 

As a result of this and due to the complexities of measuring the transfer of outcomes (Lobato, 2006), some scholars (Sibthorp, 2003; Leberman and Martin, 2004; Gass and Priest, 2006; Sibthorp et al, 2011; Furman and Sibthorp, 2013) instead choose to focus on identifying which mechanisms support learner transfer. The majority of research on this topic has been within the human resource management field (Baldwin and Ford, 1988; Burke and Hutchinson, 2007) with considerably less within outdoor education. The research conducted on outdoor education programmes has tended to focus on the areas that are easily accessed or controlled by researchers (Sibthorp et al, 2011), such as the programme design and delivery (Gass and Priest, 2006; Sibthorp, 2003; Sibthorp et al, 2011) or the characteristics of the learner and instructors (Bobilya et al, 2014).  Sibthorp et al (2011) states that the holistic, system-wide atmosphere of the transfer climate plays a large factor in encouraging or discouraging learning to continue. Nonetheless, there has been less research conducted in the application/transfer environment (Leberman and Martin, 2004; Cooley et al, 2015;) despite the human resource management literature stating it as a key area for transfer. 

Research from outdoor education on the transfer environment has primarily been on school or university cohorts, rather than individual participants leaving a programme. This is likely due to the relative ease of data collection from a complete cohort. Additionally schools and universities are in a unique position to utilise outdoor adventure education programmes as they have more control over the transfer environment (Richmond et al, 2018).  Within this environment, Cooley et al (2015) suggests that opportunities to practice new skills, informal prompting from staff to reflect, mentoring and additional training assisted university students to apply their learning from an outdoor adventure education programme. Richmond et al (2018) adds to this by highlighting the importance of the overall school culture in utilising the “new and transformed relationships and shared narratives” (Richmond et al, 2018 pp.45) that come back from camp.  They also suggest that a school culture that embraces personal growth and challenge, and complements the learning aims of the outdoor adventure education experience is crucial for transfer. Alongside this, other mechanisms include lesson integration, reinforcement, opportunities to practice, sharing of the experience, peer and staff support and incorporating elements of the outdoor adventure education programme back into learners lives, such as a sense of novelty or to unplug from daily life.  These school-based mechanisms are similar to those found in the human resource management field, however within the research from schools, more importance seems to have been given to the overall growth-oriented culture in comparison to the human resource management literature where it seems to be mentioned less often.

Considering the costs and time involved with attending an outdoor adventure education programme, it would seem worthwhile for schools and outdoor adventure education programmes to better understand the strategies they can employ post-programme to better aid students in transitioning their learning back to broader contexts.   

Aims of the research

• To identify mechanisms within the school environment that help students to transfer and apply learning from an outdoor adventure education programme. 

Methodology

Using a phronetic iterative approach, this research study used the current literature as a lens to look at the data. It is an abductive approach though, in that it isn’t fixed to a hypothesis and is open to emergent understanding as the data is analysed (Tracy, 2019). As much of the current literature comes from the human resource management sector and involves adults rather than children, this approach is appropriate as we would expect the findings to be different but nonetheless it is helpful to still base the study on it.

Research Population

• Male and female, Year 7 (10-11yr old) and Year 9 (13-14yr old) students;

• Hong Kong international school students from an expatriate or HK Chinese background that participated in a 5-day outdoor adventure education programme.

Sampling Approach

Class tutors were asked to put forward students that:

1. participated in the outdoor adventure education programme, 

2. they feel are keen to share and 

3. are able to articulate their experiences clearly. 

From this pool, a mix of genders will be selected to be representative of the sample population (Cohen et al, 2011).

Methods of Data Collection

• 2 groups; 1 group of Year 7 students (10-11yr olds) and 1 group of Year 9 students (13-14yr olds), 4 participants in each group

• Held at 1-week and 4-weeks after the programme,

Morgan (1998, in Cohen et al 2011) advises multiple focus groups of at least four participants to help create the dynamics for discussion and for the triangulation of data.  Students were asked to discuss their experience since returning from the outdoor adventure education programme with specific consideration to the research topic.  After initial discussion, written prompts based on transfer mechanisms were introduced to generate further discussion.

Methods of Data Analysis

Primarily deductive thematic analysis will be applied. The audio recordings will be transcribed, read and reread with analytical memos being taken during this process. Mechanisms within the current literature will be used to guide coding and categorisation, however the researcher will remain open to situations where new codes and themes would be more appropriate. The analytical memos and themes that emerge will be used to guide questioning in the second round of focus groups.

Limitations

The specific context of the research school and the fact that students attended different outdoor adventure education programmes with a range of learning outcomes should be taken into consideration when regarding the generalisabilty of the findings. While some transfer mechanisms may be common throughout the literature, they are not necessarily universal and remain highly contextual to the educational settings (Furman & Sibthorp, 2013).

Findings

From the focus groups, a few themes began to emerge which will be discussed below. The mechanisms that emerged were seen as factors that either encouraged further use of learning or aided deeper reflection and sense-making. These mechanisms have reciprocal relationships, without one necessarily having more importance than another.  As Sibthorp et al (2011) highlights, it seems to be the holistic, system-wide atmosphere of the transfer environment which is important in promoting further use of the new skills and perspectives.  

Growth-oriented culture and shared narrative

Through the optimistic responses of the students it seems the school has a culture that embraces personal growth and challenge.  This meant that students were open to exploring their new skills and developing the new relationships made on camp without the need for many interventions from staff. For the most part, they felt that the outdoor adventure education experiences were well aligned with the culture of the school. This had a reciprocal relationship in that it firstly introduced newer students to the outdoor learning culture of the school and created a sense of belonging and identity. The student then wanting to embrace this looks for opportunities to incorporate the new skills into their daily life.

“Like the Year Sevens are just getting more used to [research school] after transferring from primary, and I think the [outdoor adventure education programme] helped me get used to [research school] a lot because we basically had a week of what [research school] likes to do, which is being outdoors.” Year 7 student

“For me, the school atmosphere is a big part of everything ‘cause when the school is kind, I suppose, we ought to just support each other, like, support students, support adults too and adults also support us.” Year 9 student

“Year 7 student: I think that [the outdoor adventure education programme] is part of the school culture. It's not like most schools where you just sit in the classroom and learn. You actually get out and this [research school], is very much like outdoor place. 

Interviewer: So how does that encourage the learning to come back from [the outdoor adventure education programme]?

Year 7 student: I somehow feel more comfortable in nature like outdoors because it's like, I don't know, a year ago, I’d be like eww. Now, I feel more comfortable.”

Upon returning from the outdoor adventure education programme, there seemed to be a shared narrative emerging amongst the students, their peers and staff. This narrative was overall positive to the experience and suggested a school culture that embraces outdoor learning. This seemed to have a number of benefits to transferring their learning. It created something in common between staff and students and was used as a conversation starter for many weeks after.  The students mentioned a general atmosphere of connection, with younger students feeling more comfortable to engage with new peers and a Year 9 student saying…

“…[I] feel much more connected with people I didn’t go on the experience with. I still feel like I am more connected with them because... I'm not sure.”. 

This ultimately helped to prolong the positive feeling towards the experience and keep it in the forefront of student’s minds.  In comparison to an open-enrolment outdoor adventure education programme, where students may return to the transfer environment on their own, school cohorts return together. This allows for this shared narrative to develop and continuity in learning between the learning spaces (Richmond et al, 2018). The narrative was echoed through formal channels such as the school bulletin and informally, through conversations with staff and peers. This may have helped the students feel the experience was valued by others and worth applying, which both scholars in human resource management (Burke and Hutchins, 2007) and outdoor education (Furman & Sibthorp, 2013) suggest are important factors for transfer.  

“Year 7 student:  They said that one day I shall cook for them, because I’m such an amazing cook. So they actually said that. So I find that really positive. 

Interviewer: And what was the other...you made another point as well? 

Year 7 student: Oh, yeah. They said I survived [the outdoor adventure education programme]. Because on the day before, on the school day before [the outdoor adventure education programme] I said I was really worried about camp and I’ll get homesick.  But then I got past it. And yeah, they [teachers] said I survived it.”

While the shared narrative can reinforce positive behaviour, it conversely can also have a negative effect if students feel that it doesn’t match with reality. Some students found it disheartening that although the school’s narrative is that it values outdoor learning, they felt that upon returning they actually had few opportunities to go outside and practice the new outdoor skills learnt. This is an important consideration as students should be able to see the learning they’ve had as relevant to their futures (Baldwin and Ford, 1988; Sibthorp et al, 2011) and believe the school ‘walks the talk’.

“Everything around us is very green and scenery and stuff. Probably, like, an activity going outside, once in a while…like going outside and hiking…because I don’t want my skills to be rusty after a while. So, maybe let us go and try something, learn more and build up more skills. And maybe that would be better.” Year 9 student

Opportunities to practice

Similar to other research (Russ-Eft, 2002; Cooley et al, 2015; Richmond et al, 2018), the opportunity to practice the new skills and test new perspectives were one of the foremost mechanisms for students to continue on the learning from the outdoor adventure education programme.  Despite many saying they have not done so yet, they also implicitly described times when they applied the new interpersonal skills learnt during the outdoor adventure education experience, such as in maintaining new relationships. 

“…sometimes the teachers will put us into groups.  I suppose I wasn’t so upset when I wasn’t paired with one of my friends.” Year 7 student

All the students seemed optimistic that opportunities to practice were available and would be useful to them. For example, students felt that by having a range of menu choices in the canteen they can implement new healthy-eating habits, through group work they were developing their interpersonal skills and by being on a small school grounds they maintained the relationships they made on camp. Excursions requiring students to travel on public transport further developed independence, and revisiting natural environments allowed them to practice outdoor skills and continue nurturing pro-environmental behaviour. Many of these opportunities to practice come from the general school environment (e.g. extra-curricular activities and having choices in canteen menus) and the school’s approaches to learning (e.g. use of outdoor education, independent travel to excursions and groupwork) with some students also finding opportunities to apply their learning independently at home. While having access to a range of opportunities is important, aspects of the school culture such as a growth-mindset culture and a supportive community, seem to be key in motivating students to take those opportunities.  

Improved Staff-Student Relationships

Students commented on improved relationships with the staff that had accompanied them on the programme. They felt that these staff members now saw them more fully and beyond simply on an academic level. This was reflected in more frequent, informal and in-depth conversations upon return from the programme. Students felt that this clearer picture of themselves would help staff to teach them better. 

“I think because, especially with these experiences, the teachers know us a bit better. So I think it also helps… the teachers can understand their learning styles better and make the actual school, in school classroom learning experience a lot better and easier for them” Year 9 student

It is also possible that this more-rounded awareness of the student’s character and interests could assist staff in directing students to further opportunities to apply their learning, help with reflection and further reinforce lessons from the outdoor adventure education programme. Improved student and staff relationships is commonly mentioned as an outcome of outdoor adventure education programme participation (Richmond et al 2018; Cincera et al, 2021), however less often as a transfer mechanism.

Reinforcement and Integration to Lessons

Richmond et al (2018) commented that a positive mechanism for transfer was through lesson integration, however this wasn’t clear whether it was the integration of the lessons learnt during the outdoor adventure education programme integrated into school life, or the use of the outdoor adventure education experience in actual lessons. Staff in Year 7 integrated the experience into their lessons, either academically through place-based lessons linking topics with the outdoor adventure education programme location or through reflective exercises in English and Spanish (e.g. write a poem about your outdoor adventure education experience).  This may have helped students with processing the experience, with creating links between the two learning environments (Hager and Hodkinson, 2009), with feeling that the experience had added utility within the classroom (Burke and Hutchins, 2007), as well as providing more opportunities to apply their learning. Saying this, students needed prompting to mention it, which could suggest they felt it was less important in comparison to the social interactions and opportunities to practice outside of the classroom which were mentioned more freely.  With the older students, lesson integration did not happen as much and students commented that general conversation about the experience ‘fizzled out’ after about a week.  This might be from teachers having less flexibility to incorporate the outdoor adventure education experience into their normal curriculum compared to the more open Year 7 curriculum.  Another possibility highlighted by Cincera et al (2021) is that teachers may be unclear of the outdoor adventure education content and learning intentions or feel sceptical towards the effectiveness of the programme, so therefore cannot or do not plan for follow-up lessons. This in turn may be unintentionally fulfilling any low expectations of the learning effectiveness (Cincera et al, 2021). Overall though Year 9 students did not see this as a loss as the seemingly growth-oriented culture of the school and informal discussions with peers and tutors helped them to reflect on their experience. One student lamented that there hadn’t been any formal opportunity in class to share or reflect on the experience. This student felt this could have been a valuable progress check and celebration of their personal development.

 “I think either way, it was a very useful experience because we learnt a whole bunch of physical skills and some mental skills too. We also built bonds. Bringing it back into lessons could work, but the way it is done now is also quite good. But I also think it would also be good if it could be maintained throughout the year. So something we keep looking back to, you know. Like looking back on the things we’ve done, on the skills we’ve learnt…” Year 9 student

This formal chance to share experiences with others may be something for staff to consider. Leberman and Martin (2004) noted that students having had time and space away from the programme were more likely to have deeper reflections and make sense of their experience.  From the human resource management field, Cromwell and Kolb (2004) add that trainees were better able to make sense of an experience at around one year afterwards. In this period, the participant could have had more situations to apply the skills learnt. At one month, there seemed to be an element of sense-making from the students when they had the chance to compare experiences.

“Year 9 student: Maybe because it's like, we have different experiences. They had camping and we were just 5 days straightforward hike. 

Year 9 student: Yeah, as we were camping I think we needed more [food]. We had all the time we needed. So some days we even took like an hour to prepare the food, but I think it's worth it to not just eat granola bars and stuff, because we have to spend nights and days and all that kayaking.” Discussion at 4-weeks post programme

Conclusion

Within this study, students found it easy to discuss the benefits of the outdoor adventure education programme, yet difficult to identify the factors that helped them use those benefits. For them, the transfer mechanisms were subtle and woven into the culture of the school making them hard to stand out. To some extent, they become more identifiable when you imagine the effects on a student if a school didn’t have them. A lone student returning to an environment with a vastly contrasting set of values to the outdoor adventure education experience they just had. With nobody to bask in the shared experience with, few people to offer support or mentorship and fewer opportunities to apply the new leadership skills or perspective, as one research participant put it, it is likely the skills will grow rusty and ultimately be put aside. When so much planning goes into the outdoor learning programme itself, it is important for educators to remember that the learning experience does not simply finish when the participant finishes the programme.  Support and scaffolding in the transfer environment can help integrate the valuable experience into themselves.

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