The operation and impact of participants’ trans-expedition reflective practice: Structuring and optimising the transfer process

Abstract

With gap year activities, including expeditions, for young people worth an estimated £2 billion annually, the subject of transfer (or ensuring that outcomes offer positive benefits to participants’ general lives) from these experiences is an important topic in outdoor education. This paper argues that many of the claims for a positive behavioural and/or attitudinal transfer remain anecdotal and assumed rather than explicit and evidential. It also suggests that the process of ensuring transfer is too important to be left to chance and that a more structured and constructively aligned method is required. By reviewing the experiences from two 35-day expeditions to the Arctic, a practical suggestion for facilitating transfer is explored, alongside some of the key benefits that the investigation identified. Implications for the education, training and continued professional development for expedition leaders are also briefly considered.