Learning in and from nature for the classroom. The new Certified Course of Studies in "Expeditionary Teaching" (ExpeT) can briefly be explained in this manner. In 2016, the Chair for Sport and Health Didactics offers, for the first time, an additional qualification. Previously, two successful rounds were carried out by the "Outdoor Education" Team at the TUM School of Education.
"I believe that ExpeT represents an impressive enrichment for our studies, and the students can and will profit greatly through this," explains Prof. Filip Mess, Professor for Sport and Health Didactics. In 2014, this academic concept received a teaching award for its innovative character (to the tune of 10,000 euros) from the Technischen Universität München.
ExpeT: Excursions in nature, accompanied by seminars and practical training
Target groups are all students striving to become teachers at the TUM as well as students at the Department of Sport and Health Sciences. The study program beside the semester is carried out in cooperation with the Students' Research Center in the District of Berchtesgaden. Initially, the number of participants is limited to 16 individuals.
The cut-off is unusual, since ExpeT primarily takes place in nature. On a total of three one-week mountain hiking excursions, the participants will attain specialist athletic and didactic competency. Overnights will be spent in lodges or in open country. Provisions and bivouac materials will be carried by the students in their backpacks. Concomitant to the excursion, there are two specialist seminars and two courses of practical training to be completed. "I consider the methodical approach and didactic perspectives to be an important and interesting alternative to the conventional instruction," according to Prof. Mess.
Transfer of knowledge and personality development
"We follow two different approaches. On the one hand, knowledge is transferred in concrete situations while, on the other hand, we concentrate highly on the formation and development of personality," explains Gabriele Lauterbach who, along with Prof. Mess and Dr. Ulrich Dettweiler, is responsible for ExpeT. Through the development of teaching/learning situations in nature, the participants must leave their familiar comfort zones and grapple with themselves as well as with their behavior and functions in the group. At the same time, they must also learn skills for individual situations - like movement techniques in the mountains, meteorology or orientation. "This does not involve high-performance athletics. The focus is clearly on challenges to react as a group in a confined space and the social conditions that are thereby necessary," explains Lauterbach.
Close linkage to the Students' Research Center in Berchtesgaden
In relation to the transfer of knowledge there is also an emphasis put on "place-based learning/environmental and health development" as well as on "outdoor education in an international and historical context, and the didactics of outdoor learning". "We work out concepts for environmental development, like knowledge from the fields of chemistry, mathematics or also physics which are mediated from nature and can be portrayed comprehensively," explains Christoph Becker from the Chair for Sport and Health Didactics.
Standing in focus here are the research weeks designed by the Students' Research Center in Berchtesgaden. There, the students attain knowledge of data in the field from such subjects as ecoclimatology, agrology, geomorphology and performance physiology over the course of a one-week course. Hereby, they cooperate with the group of Associate Prof. Dr. Annette Menzel of Weihenstephan Scientific Center, which specializes in ecoclimatology.
Our own outdoor project with students
As a third step, the students complete practical training at the Students' Research Center in Berchtesgaden, where they support the Outdoor-Education Team in their work in the mountains and can thereby accumulate ideas for their own practical project which is to be carried out independently together with a target group that they have selected themselves.
The ExpeT certificate course is offered concomitant to the main course of studies and takes place from February to November. Students receive 16 ECTS as well as a certificate for the additionally completed qualification. The selection procedure for 2016 has now already been completed. 16 students can enjoy an exciting course of study for this certificate.
"I think that those who have attained this certificate will have learned a great deal on the development of personality and, in particular, will also have learned to deal with themselves as a teacher. This will then help them to put themselves in the position of their students and finally during their internship as well," as Mess describes.
To the Homepage of the Chair for Sport and Health Didactics
To the Homepage of the ExpeT certificate course of studies
To the Homepage of the Students' Research Center in Berchtesgaden
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Filip Mess
Professor for Sports and Health Didactics
Uptown München, Campus D
Georg-Brauchle Ring 60/62
80992 München
Telephone: 089 289 24521
E-Mail: info.sportdidaktik(at)tum.de
Text: Fabian Kautz
Photos: Professor for Sport and Health Didactics; TUM