|
The four research studies collectively build a vital foundation and research infrastructure for OEG to position itself as a leading contributor of outdoor education research, provide OEG with efficient, valid, day-to-day research systems which allow meaningful feedback to students, parents, teachers, schools, and OEG program staff.
Revision of the OEG Educational Framework
In 2003-2004 OEG developed a curriculum document (the Educational Outcomes Framework, subsequently the Educational Framework) to clearly articulate to its client schools and the broader community what types of personal, social and environmental objectives its outdoor education programs aimed to achieve and which were desirable goals from the point of view of OEG's client schools. The original Educational Outcome Framework described 23 objectives each with 5 developmental stages. This draft framework was submitted to the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) for critical review in 2005 as part of the current study Following the ACER review, OEG in conjunction with University of Canberra (UC), conducted a comprehensive revision of the Educational Framework (EF) which included:
- Reducing the number of factors from 23 to 20;
- Adding constructs focusing on OEG's core curriculum foci of Respect and Responsibility within the domains of Self, Others, and the Natural World;
- Development of definitions for each factor;
- Generation of draft measurement items for each factor to create a pilot EF Measurement Tool;
- Reducing the number of stages for each factor from 5 to 3 (development of these stages is still in progress and requires additional validation).
Pilot Study of EF Measurement Tool
The pilot EF Measurement Tool is being administered as an online survey to approximately 1000 students from a representative range of OEG clients schools and participants in order to examine and refine:
- The purported factor structure of the EF
- The psychometrics of the individual items
- The overall reliability and validity of the EF measurement instrument
- The usability of the online system
The data is being examined using factor analysis and the psychometric results are being incorporated into an EF instrument manual.
The pilot study has helped to establish and inform the validity of the final EF measurement instrument so that it can be used with confidence use in ongoing program evaluation and research studies and so that the results emanating from research studies will stand up to academic peer review.
Web-based Program Evaluation Tool
The web based research tool provides the ability to create automatically generated reports, including:
- Individual reports
- Group reports
- Program reports
- School reports
- Staff reports
The reports can be utilised by client schools to provide formal feedback to the school community to help report transparently on the effectiveness of the outdoor education programs in which their students participate.
The web-based tool has been built and is currently undergoing beta testing and trialling prior to being formally launched for school programs in Semester 2, 2006.
It is important that the outdoor profession develop a sound understanding of the existing research literature on the effectiveness of outdoor education programs. This literature review has summarised what is known about the effects of outdoor education programs, with a particular focus on Outdoor Education Group (OEG) programs and similar journey-based outdoor education programs with school students in Australia.
The body of research literature on the longitudinal effects of outdoor education programs around the world amounts to several hundred studies. There is a need to look more closely at specific outcomes of specific programs and, in the process, to also seek a better understanding of causative processes.
A systematic program study into the processes and outcomes of OEG's and related programs would help to fill some notable gaps in the international and Australian outdoor education literature, and in turn enhance OEG's capacity to maximise student learning outcomes above industry norms.
The literature review has been distributed to the following universities for peer review: University of Ballarat, Monash University, Latrobe University and The Australian Catholic University.
The goal of Study 3 is to develop a research design and plan for data collection (using the EF web-based measured tool) which will enable the outdoor industry to answer key questions about the longitudinal and comparative effects of its programs. The design involved selecting a subset of organisational programs for more extensive data collection (on all EF factors) over a longer time period (2006-2010). The idea behind the design of this study is that it will provide a framework for efficient, strategic data collection using the existing web-based EF system which will enable OEG and the outdoor industry to answer key questions about the longitudinal benefits of its programs.
Data collection for the full design and plan for the longitidunal and comparative study will begin in Semester 2, 2006.
A proposal for a series of quantitative and qualitative studies have been developed to enhance knowledge about the effects of, and causative processes involved in, journey-based outdoor education programs with school students.
These studies aim to better understand:
a) The range of outdoor education programs for school students in Australia.
b) The personal, social, and environmental effects of journey-based outdoor education programs with school students in Australia.
c) The effects of different types of outdoor education programs compared to other intervention formats which aim to enhance adolescents' well-being.
A grant application has been approved by the University of Canberra to write a grant application for an Australian Research Council Industry Linkage grant to support in conducting these studies. For OEG related studies go to bibliography
|
