Understanding through experiencing

In my final blogpost during my semester in Norway I would like to reflect on the semester in its whole. I think it is very important to reflect on the time I had here because a study abroad is always giving yourself the chance to experience new stuff and by that even change you as a person, also if you don’t notice. A reflection about that is always helping to be aware of what you learned and experienced.

This semester presented itself as a completely new field to expe-rience. While knowing about the general topic in advance, called “Outdoor Education and Frilufts-liv”, it was hard to guess exactly what it was about. Especially because we do not use this term in Germany and the Outdoors are so different compared to Norway.

And this is what brings me to the point I want to stress in this blogpost. If I would just have read theoretical texts about Friluftsliv and Outdoor Education in Norway, the understanding about that topic would be way different. By doing and experiencing what Friluftsliv is all about, I was able to understand it in a deeper way, really grasping the concept and the believes. This is also why I chose this heading. You can only understand a complex thing when you experience it. We did this in a way in which we had a really deep outdoor experience, which is enhancing the quality of understanding as well. That is a thing Paisley et al. (2008) also found in their study.

 

Exactly that is what we did in this semester, by going onto several excursions, getting to know all the facets about Friluftsliv. We went on a four-day hike, a four-day sea-kayak trip, a forest excursion, a glacier excursion and several other short trips. We could have just talked about it in the classroom but doing it in reality and being in nature gave the understanding a way deeper feeling. Additionally, we looked at our activities also from the Outdoor leader perspective. Learning how to plan a trip and being safe while at the same time having a great experience in nature was also key for the experience (Priest & Gass 2018). I think that everyone of us who participated in that course now is in some way seeing nature and Friluftsliv in a different way than before.

For me personally now I see the nature in a whole different light and I think about nature more often. Now I can see the benefits we as human have through nature itself but also the problems we cause while relying on it and using it just for our benefits.

This thinking process about and with nature is the greatest part I learned in this semester. This is the best part for me to take from this half year in Norway. Besides all the other amazing things that happened here, like meeting amazing new people that I will hopefully stay friends with for a really long time.

The semester in Norway presented itself as a general challenge with a lot of new stuff to explore and it went out as a total success. I am really thankful for it and would be happy to come back.

References:

Paisley, K., Furman, N., Sibthorp, J. & Gookin, J. (2008). Student Learning in Outdoor Education: A Case Study From the National Outdoor Leadership School. Journal of Experiential Education. 30:3, 201-222.

Priest, S. & Gass, M.A. (2018). Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming (3rd. Ed.. Human Kinetics.