Twenty-sixth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

This paper which has evolved out of a much larger doctoral thesis, explores the value of placing the learner at the heart of their own learning, whilst using the primacy of learning in through and about movement as a pedagogical approach. This approach is examined in the context of Outdoor Adventurous Activities at a residential outdoors centre in a secluded hamlet in the Brecon Forest, Mid - Wales in the United Kingdom. The notion of the learner as having a key role to play in their own learning Fielding (2004, 2008), is not a new pedagogical approach, but rather, it is argued, we are seeing the concept re-emerging as a way of addressing the tired and dated ideas that learners are often blank slates or empty vessels, should be seen and not heard and learn best through transmitting knowledge through sitting in rows in windowless lecture theatres, Costas (2015). My paper argues that effective teaching and learning has to start with where the learners are at, not with where the teacher or lecturer is at. In order to do this the learner has to be central to the intended learning outcomes and fully engaged with their own learning, and to have an understanding of why they are doing it. This paper examines this process and relationship through working with four groups, of first year Bachelor of Education students at a University on the outskirts of London in the United Kingdom.