Does Pushing Comfort Zones Produce Peak Learning Experiences?

Comfort Zone: Model or metaphor?

“…The centrality of the concepts of challenge and risk to the field are examples of how a discourse has been built up around an approach to adventure education that finds its basis in the notion that personal growth and learning primarily occur when an individual is placed in a situation outside their 'comfort zone.' However, as Leberman and Martin (2003) have pointed out, activities in which students had been pushed outside of their 'comfort zones' were not necessarily the activities that resulted in peak learning experiences. I suggest that the adoption of the comfort zone model and the assumptions that underpin it have less than desirable consequences in terms of student engagement, psychological well-being and emotional safety.…”

“…Using stress as the way to achieve growth may possibly have taken on the mantle of an 'urban myth' in education in the outdoors. Recent research (Berman & Davis-Berman, 2005;Davis-Berman & Berman, 2002;Estrellas, 1996;Leberman & Martin, 2003;Zink & Leberman, 2003), and the central tenet of this paper is that it is perhaps time to advocate for a paradigm shift in the way leaders frame and conduct adventure education programmes. Davis- Berman and Berman (2002) have argued that the greatest amount of change comes when participants feel safe, secure and accepted.…”

“…Learning can be viewed as a gradual and cumulative process rather than a sudden quantum shift in understanding. Learning can and will occur in activities that do not create a strong perception of risk (Leberman & Martin, 2003). Let us provide students with favourable conditions for authentic and meaningful experiences where they are challenged in an appropriate manner and suitably supported by those with a genuine interest in their learning informed by sound educational principles.…”

“…I have purposefully used the term adventure education in this paper to refer to the particular branch of outdoor education that has developed with a primary focus on developing interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships (Priest & Gass, 1997). The role of perceived risk is an integral component of the adventure education model (Leberman & Martin, 2003;Zink & Leberman, 2001). The pedagogical approach employed in adventure education is well summed up in the following quote, To maximize safety, adventure professionals structure risk in a manner that causes participants to perceive it as being enormously high, while in actuality it is much lower than perceived and more acceptable as a medium for producing functional change and growth.…”

The dramaturgy approach to education in nature: reflections of a decade of International Vacation School Lipnice courses, Czech Republic, 1997–2007

“…This importance is often reinforced during activities which involve psychological and/or perceived physical risk, and push participants to extend their 'comfort zone' . Leberman and Martin (2002) indicated that participants may not produce the most learning when pushed out of their comfort zones. The dramaturgy wave helps to push comfort zones in an atmosphere of physical, social and emotional safety, as this pushing of comfort zones is related to the individual's perceived risk of any activity.…”