How do we turn experience into learning?

Camp is full of experiences. But not every experience is educative, in fact, many experiences can be mis-educative. What are the mitigating factors?

• The experience tends to provoke greater learning if it pushes you out of your “comfort zone” and into your “groan zone”.
• The learner must decide to move from her “groan zone” of discomfort to the “growth zone” by drawing back from the experience to reflect on it, observe her reaction and those of others, then to understand the whys or theories in play and finally to move into making concrete changes or adjustments for the next experience.

This is the essence of experiential learning and since camp provides a wide gamut of experiences our CCI/LA instructors need to know how to learn from experience themselves to be able to teach others how to as well.

Therefore, the first phase of the IFI in Mexico was a four day focus on training them to be facilitators of experiential learning using low ropes courses or team-building elements.

This 4:56 min. video (can be viewed directly on my YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/2lnB0nFMvRM) shows you how we begin by teaching safety skills, both to guard one’s emotional and physical safety. This is how we teach about emotional safety for example:

• What are some of the words or gestures we tend to use that are destructive in nature?
• What are words and gestures that we can use that are constructive and useful for building each other up?

You’ll also we also notice in the video that we practice spotting skills to avoid accidents when we are doing the team-building activities.

Our CCI/LA training is always characterized by a combination of theory and practice. We teach an idea or concept and then give ample opportunity for it to be practiced and accompanied by immediate feedback so the images of people in the video doing the activities are led by the students themselves.

How have you learned from experiences? How would you teach others to learn from their experiences? Tell us your thoughts, if you please, by sharing your observations using the link below.

Training workshop for Ropes Course facilitators: Honduras

One of the events I look forward to the most are those where we develop facilitators of low ropes course initiatives. On the outside, being passed through a "spider's web of string" or falling into the arms of a group of people or climbing a wall, might look simple. One might think: Anyone can lead this activity. But in reality it's not as simple as it looks. Leading it well requires a lot of training in safety measures and most difficult of all is learning how to inductively lead the participants to gain insights into themselves, group process and related Biblical principles.
As you look at this picture, ask yourself, what type of feelings might I have if that was me?
This gives you some idea as to the level of skill the facilitator must have to draw out those feelings, discuss them within the group and make sense of them in light of scripture (learning to trust others is a key issue that causes difficulty for many).
That's why we invest over 48 hours of teaching and practice from Friday night to Monday afternoon. They are taught in small groups of 8 people with two trainers.


As you view the slideshow below, pray for the 40 facilitators who have been trained to use their new found skill to promote godly living and playing and pray for the team of 10 trainers to be given God's strength and wisdom as we teach others purpose-driven recreation.

If you have problems viewing the pictures below, you can go directly to this site to view them in picasawebalbums: http://picasaweb.google.com/lisaandersonumana/TallerDeAcertijiosNivel1CCIALHonduras2629DeMarzo2010?feat=directlink