Experiential learning as a constraint-led process: an ecological dynamics perspective

Abstract

In this paper we present key ideas for an ecological dynamics approach to learning that reveal the importance of learner–environment interactions to frame outdoor experiential learning. We propose that ecological dynamics provides a useful framework for understanding the interacting constraints of the learning process and for designing learning opportunities in outdoor experiential learning.

Keywords:

• Ecological dynamics
• Experiential learning
• Interacting constraints
• Outdoor education

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Brymer

Eric Brymer is a lecturer in the Faculty of Health at Queensland University of Technology. His research focuses on understanding how nature-based experiences can enhance positive health and well-being. He is particularly interested in the role of the social and physical environment and how to design and facilitate nature-based experiences so that positive outcomes for the environment and people are optimised.

Keith Davids

Keith Davids is Professor of Motor Control at the School of Exercise and Nutrition Science at Queensland University of Technology and Finnish Distinguished Professor at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä in Finland. He has researched extensively on skill acquisition and its implications for development of talent. The broad area of sport and exercise provides the context for his research in the movement sciences, which focuses particularly on coordination and the information-based regulation of dynamic interceptive actions such as catching, kicking and hitting skills.