摘要：

A persistent challenge for outdoor adventure education (OAE) is the extent to which the learning experiences of students effect change beyond the immediate environment. In efforts to justify the value of OAE, theorists have argued the importance of transferring skills/knowledge to other life situations and have advocated various approaches to facilitation that supposedly enhance transfer. To this effect, OAE activities are often highly contrived and structured to develop metaphors which symbolise "real learning" that has meaning beyond the immediate context. A result of an emphasis on personal development as an OAE outcome is that the situated nature of learning is ignored -emphasis is placed on the individual as an autonomous agent who is capable of applying new learning to "real-life" contexts. This paper investigates the possibilities made available by understanding OAE from a situated perspective. Consideration of OAE students as participants in a highly orchestrated community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) places learning, and observable change, within a sociocultural frame rather than as a function of cognitive development within the individual. This position takes seriously the claims made by practitioners of "seeing evidence of change" and researchers who raise questions about the validity of "generalised truths" and constructivist learning assumptions by placing greater emphasis on the social and cultural context in the learning process. Moving beyond constructivist conceptions regarding the "internalisation of learning" and the student as an autonomous and independent learner who is able to transfer knowledge across diverse contexts has implications for existing OAE pedagogical practices.

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