Outdoor Education & Environmental Education

Centre for Excellence in Outdoor and Environmental Education

Staff Profile

Dr Glyn Thomas

Senior Lecturer

Room/Location: Ironbark Centre, 2.13c
Ph: 5444 7480
Fx: 5444 7848
Email: g.thomas@latrobe.edu.au

Qualifications

• BHMS(ed), University of Qld , 1985.
• MA (OE), Griffith, 1992.
• Grad. Cert. Bus. Admin, UNE, 1995.
• EdD, La Trobe

Awards

"Excellence in Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching," Faculty of Regional Development, La Trobe University , 2002.

Citation for Contribution to Student Learning, La Trobe University, 2007, " For creating student-centred learning opportunities that encourage the development of outdoor leadership competence through the successful integration of theory and practice."

Teaching Areas

• Outdoor Leadership A, Year 2: OE core, NT elective (unit co-ordinator)
• Teaching in River Environments, Year 3: OE elective (unit co-ordinator)
• Rock Environments, Year 2: OE elective

Professional Involvement

• Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, Editor (2003 to present)
• Outdoor Council of Australia, Board member, (2003-2006)
• Australian Climbing Instructors' Association, Board member & Curriculum Advisor, (2001 to present)
• Higher Ground Inc., Board member, (2000 to present)

Research Interests

The theory and practice of facilitator education

My doctoral thesis examined the theories and practices facilitator educators used to help novice facilitators to develop their skills, knowledge, and experience. Operating within the interpretivist paradigm, interviews and participant observations were conducted with six facilitator educators to establish the primary outcomes and critical components of facilitator education programs, and the theoretical foundations and values informing the practices of facilitator educators. Surveys with the graduates of their programs were also used to establish, from their perspective, what the strengths and weaknesses of the programs were. Through my research I developed a Dimensions of Facilitator Education model (Thomas, 2005c), which categorises four different approaches to facilitator education. The results of this line of research inquiry have been published in various books and journals (Thomas, 2006, 2005c, 2005a, 2003). My thesis summary can be downloaded here.

Integrating adventure foci in outdoor environmental education

The theme of this research has been to explore the tensions that exist between adventurous activities and their inclusion in outdoor environmental education. In 2004, I conducted an action research project (with LTU ethics approval), which included: interviews with La Trobe staff and students, analysis of student writing, and the keeping of a professional journal. My publications and presentations in this area (Thomas, 2005b; Thomas & Thomas, 2000) have provided a critically reflective account of some of the challenges that practitioners encounter when including adventure activities in outdoor environmental education. These papers also provide suggestions to other practitioners on ways to resolve the tensions between these two foci and the findings have contributed to reflections on the teaching of outdoor environmental education within our school.

Work related stress in outdoor education: Implications for practitioners and managers

The motivation for this research project stemmed from the commonly held perception that the turnover rate for outdoor education staff was very high. I was successful in securing a La Trobe University Research Grant ($2500) in 2000, which assisted me with the data collection and analysis in this research project. I used a survey to collect data from 230 outdoor education practitioners across Australia and had a response rate of around 46%. I also conducted interviews with ten managers from larger outdoor education organisations in Victoria , New South Wales and Queensland . These interviews were transcribed, coded and thematic analysis was used to identify themes, essences and patterns within the data. This is the only large scale, national survey of outdoor education practitioners conducted to date and provided much needed insights to the human resource management within the outdoor education field. The results of this line of research inquiry have been published in two refereed national journals (Thomas, 2001, 2002a, 2002b) and one international book chapter (Thomas, 2005d) .

Refereed Publications and Presentations

(All underlined publications may be downloaded as a pdf file.)

Thomas, G. J. (in press). Facilitator, teacher, or leader? Managing conflicting roles in outdoor education. Journal of Experiential Education.

Thomas, G. J. (in press). When research content reflects research process: Unexpected but welcome symmetries. Qualitative Research Journal.

Thomas, G. J. (in press). Facilitate first thyself: The importance of person-centered approaches to facilitator education. Journal of Experiential Education.

Thomas, G. J. (2008). Preparing facilitators for experiential education: The role of intentionality and intuition. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, 8(1), 3—20.

Thomas, G. J. (2007). Skill instruction in outdoor leadership: A comparison of a direct instruction model and a discovery-learning model. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 11(2), 10-18.

Thomas, G. J. (2006). Facilitator education: Learning from group counselor education. Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal, 7, 3-12.

Thomas, G. J. (2005a). Facilitation in education for the environment. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 21, 107-116.

Thomas, G. J. (2005b). Traditional adventure activities in outdoor environmental education, Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 9(1), 31-39.

Thomas, G. J. (2005c). Dimensions of facilitator education. In S. Schuman (Ed.), The IAF handbook of group facilitation: Best practices from the leading organisation in facilitation (pp. 525-541). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Thomas, G. J. (2005d). Work related stress, and its management, within the australian outdoor education profession. In T. J. Dickson, T. L. Gray & B. Hayllar (Eds.), Outdoor and experiential learning: Views from the top (pp. 153-162). Dunedin, NZ: Otago University.

Thomas, G. J. (2004). A typology of approaches to facilitator education. Journal of Experiential Education, 27(2), 123-140.

Thomas, G. J. (2003). A review of different approaches to facilitation and the training and development of facilitators. Refereed paper presented at the 13th National Outdoor Education Conference, Adelaide, South Australia.

Thomas, G. J. (2002a). Human resource management hurdles on the path to professionalism for the Australian outdoor experiential education field. Journal of Outward Bound Canada Education, 8 (1), 14-19.

Thomas, G. J. (2002b). Work related stress in the outdoor education profession: A management perspective. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 7(1), 54-63.

Thomas, G. J. (2001). Thriving in the outdoor education profession: learning from Australian practitioners. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 6(1), 13-24.

Martin, P., & Thomas, G. J. (2000a). Interpersonal relationships as a metaphor for human-nature relationships. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 5(1), 13-24.

Thomas, G. J., & Thomas, J. (2000b). Moving water paddling as critical outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 5(1), 47-54.