Tag Archives: Learning

The blind leading the blind

Initially I did think of it as the blind leading the blind. Every person being totally new to Singapore and attempting to lead our peers steadily through an environment we’d never be able to visit before.

After having a little more time to reflect on my facilitation day as well as other groups’ facilitation day in Singapore, I’ve felt more positive about the experiences, and have been able to view them in a more constructive way. Yes, I can still see many ways in which our facilitation could’ve gone better, however after speaking with other groups it has reassured me a little; knowing they faced similar obstacles, perhaps to a lesser extent.

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Are we there yet?

The reason as to why I have chosen this heading for this particular blog is because throughout the days in Singapore this question was running through my head at some points in the trip. It was a very jam packed, full on days that 23 individuals were involved in. There was a lot of ‘go go go!’ and it was sometimes hard to really soak up the place we were in, without feeling rushed.

During the preparation stage of the trip to Singapore, we were all randomly put into groups of about four members, which became our facilitation groups. I was lucky enough to work alongside Kelly, Georgie and Mooey. Upon reflecting my own experience of the day, I expressed in my facilitation blog that I learnt quite a lot about myself as an individual.

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Outdoor Education In Singapore….How Is It Looking So Far?

Outdoor education….in Singapore?

I must admit that Singapore was not the first place that came to my mind when my university lecturers were talking about the possibility of an international outdoor education trip. With Singapore being such a small and urbanised country, I was puzzled as I thought about what outdoor education would look like, and the ways in which it would be conducted.

As much as this was puzzling in the weeks leading up to the trip, it was also intriguing and I was eager to learn and discover just how Singapore had included in outdoor education into their mainly urban society, and, after spending just 2 weeks in this wonderful country, I now know the answer to that question…

So what does outdoor education actually look like in Singapore?

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Staring into the mirror

Facilitation is a skill that can be trained through experience, reflection, and planning. The Experiential Learning Cycle proposed by Kolb (1984) can be used to assess and evaluate my performance and time as a facilitator in Singapore.

(Please click here for the planned itinerary to gain a rough idea of the activities and places we visited on our facilitation day)

The Experiential Learning Cycle proposed by Kolb (1984)

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Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success!

Over my time here spent in Singapore, I can’t help but notice how much new knowledge, relationships and connections I have gained over such a short amount of time.

I have meet new people, visited different places, gained a wealth of knowledge about myself, others, nature and the culture of Singapore. But none of this could of happened without the support and guidance of others. How I see it is that when you gather a groups of people from around the world who both share such passion for the Outdoor Environment and the Outdoor Education outcomes, something magical happens. We begin to grow and flourish our ideas together to make something wonderful happen.

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Who I Am…

I have it inside, I know that I do, all that I am is gonna break through.
‘Who I am’
~ Natasha Bedingfield ~

There are many areas of learning that are encompassed within Outdoor Education, but the one area that I think is the least obvious is the learning about oneself. I feel that this is one of the most influential learning areas that Outdoor Education explores as it contributes to making us who we are.

Challenges, struggles, achievement and excitement are all part of being an outdoor edder. These experiences occur on a regular basis throughout the activities that we do and are instrumental in building and establishing ones’ sense of self. Singapore has been no different for me, there have been struggles with the heat, challenges in maintaining emotions and morale, achievement in completing a challenge ropes course for the first time and excitement at flying across a tree top canopy on a zip line.

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‘Team work divides the task and multiplies the success’

This heading best relates to how my facilitation group and I reflected about how successful we were during our facilitation day to the Singapore Botanical Gardens and the Night Safari P1030453-min

Planning

Right from the start we were a solid unit, the delegation of tasks were efficient and easy. However as the preparation time of the trip began to run out, it was evident that the end of semester work and commitments had caught up to us all.

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Two ears, one mouth

“God gave us two ears & one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak.”

This is a quote I have heard and describes my time in Singapore travelling over the past two weeks. The world I have grown up in is different to what I have experienced here I Singapore. My upbringing, background and values impact on outlooks in life. Gaining an understanding of this different culture is imperative to the relationships I have built with Singaporeans whilst here.

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Bike Ride Day #2

What does 1/2 day bike riding look like in less than 1 minute? You just witnessed it.

This video is a time-lapse of 1/2day bike riding we undertook under guide Nam Jim. The 2nd man in Singapore to gain a University level qualification degree in Outdoor Education (through LaTrobe University, Bendigo) he is a wealth of knowledge and currently heads  up the Raffles Leadership Institute in Singapore’s number 1 school. He is a passionate man with a background in Outward Bound Singapore and has major plans for the future of Outdoor Education in this country. Through his expertise and willingness to share we explored a majority of the East Coast of Singapore including history and environmental impact through use of a network of Connector Paths.

There’s No ‘I’ in Team

There’s no ‘I’ in Team

     Although in theory the outline and plan for our day walking along the Green Corridor and summiting Bukit Tima seemed great, there are so many factors that can affect how it runs in real-life. Team the fact you’ve never visited the area before with the notion that you’ll be facilitating a group of your peers and it makes thing a little more complicated. Add the fact that you’re facilitating with a bunch of like-minded, competitive, fellow future teachers and you can imagine how tough it just might be!

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