Making the benefits last: transferring learning from park and recreation programs

Parks & Recreation, June, 2004 by Cathryn Haas, Jim Sibthorp

The concept of intentionally designing recreation programs for "benefits," or "benefits-based-programming" (BBP), is becoming more widely accepted by park and recreation professionals. This programming technique advocates a four-step approach of targeting specific programming outcomes, intentionally designing programs to impact these outcomes, assessing the program's effectiveness and publicizing the results (Allen, Stevens, Hurtes, & Harwell, 1998). In practice, many of these programs target benefits that last long after program completion. If a program's benefits are useful to participants after the program ends, then the programmers have achieved some level of learning transfer.

While formal education systems and skill-based training programs are challenged in showing that learning transfer occurs (Haskell, 2001), it is commonly acknowledged that, as with park and recreation programs, the real benefits of what participants learn often involves the retention and application of learning "outcomes" to other settings, times or contexts. For instance, if a park and recreation program purports to increase sportsmanship, it is likely that the true goal is to increase the participants' sportsmanship both in the program and in other settings (e.g., school, informal games and programs in the future). In addition to transfer across settings/contexts (school, pickup games), transfer can occur over time (same or similar program in the future), or modality (cognitive understanding or behavior). Typically, learning transfer is divided into three classes: near (specific), far (non-specific) and metaphoric (analogical).

For example, a recreation participant developing leadership skills through a youth soccer league might transfer this development to a similar situation such as a soccer game at school or a baseball league at the community recreation center. This type of learning transfer would be termed "near" transfer since the context of application is similar to where the leadership skills were developed. Alternatively, the student who might apply these same leadership skills in school or at home, might be exhibiting "far" transfer of learning, because the contexts of application are dissimilar to the original learning context. However, while the "near" and "far" designations are commonly used when discussing learning transfer, it is obvious that the application of the learned skill to con texts with differing levels of similarity is more of a continuum than an either/or proposition. The final classification of learning transfer is termed metaphoric or analogical. When this type of transfer takes place, the participant cognitively understands the learning context as parallel to the context of application. Continuing with the leadership example, the participant would be able to actively draw analogies between leadership on the soccer field and leadership in the classroom, recognizing the parallels between soccer and school. For example, he or she might say, "I have noticed that motivating my soccer team through positive and specific encouragement, which our coach encourages, is something that I have begun to use in my school setting in project groups. I believe that being the captain of the soccer team and a good group leader on school projects is really pretty similar." From this quote, it is evident that the participant is making an analogy between leadership techniques used in soccer and applicable at school.

Benefiting Others

Some examples of successful recreation programs nationwide include:

The Miamisburg Parks and Recreation Department in Ohio created a "Merry Milers" senior citizen walking program. Participants in the program demonstrated improvement in all of the objective goals of the program: physical health, cardiovascular and respiratory fitness, increased optimism and increased coping ability. They also increased their perceived competency in physical fitness (Eckhart & Allen, 1998). Outcomes such as increased health, perceived competency and increased coping ability are usually intended to provide benefits beyond the program context and time.

The Chicago Park District in Illinois developed the "Teen Outdoor Adventure Recreation Program," which targeted male Hispanic gang members ages 13-21. The participants showed significant increases in the development of life-coping skills and involvement in the program proved effective in lowering the arrest records of the participants as compared to the same period during the previous year (Allen & McGovern, 1997).

Austin Parks and Recreation in Texas initiated a Roving Leaders program in 1996. The program was designed to provide outreach to at-risk youth ages 10-18 by using a relationship-based programming strategy. One of the goals of the program was to help participants make positive choices regarding drug use and gang membership. This goal was realized by the 44-percent reduction of youth crime in one of the neighborhoods served by the roving leaders program (Witt & Baker 1999), as with the other examples, this program targeted outcomes with relevance beyond the specific recreation program and exhibited some potential evidence of successful learning transfer.