Nursing In A Time Of Crisis

Nursing has been at the core of the International Red Cross Movement since the beginning and Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, first came to public attention as an amateur nurse who provided aid to soldiers during the Civil War.

Today’s Red Cross nurses are continuing a proud tradition of service that stretches back to the earliest days the organization, volunteering as clinicians, educators, leaders, and more. Red Cross healthcare workers exemplify the core values of Compassion; Expertise and Trust.

Read more about the role of nursing in this Colorado & Wyoming Red Cross Blog article.

#AmericanRedCross #ClaraBarton #Nursing

#Compassion #Expertise #Trust

SGS USA - Class Timetable

Storm Gathering USA 2017

Following are the class choices for each day at Storm Gathering USA 2017.

Friday Session Choices 1 p.m. - 4.30 p.m.

All Levels - Developing Boat Control DBC1

All levels - Surfski Paddling SSP

..................................

Level 1 and 2 - Storm Paddling Essentials SPE

Level 1 and 2 - Surf Zone Fundamentals SZF

..................................

Level 2 and 3 - Intermediate Rock Gardening IRG1

Level 2 and 3 - Unscrambling the Scramble UTS 1

Level 2 and 3 - Long Boat Surfing LBS1

Level 2 and 3 - Short Boat Surfing SBS1

Level 2 and 3 - Moderate Water Boat Handling MWBH 1

..................................

Level 3 - Rough Water Boat Handling RWBH 1

Level 3 - Tricky Launch, Tricky Landing TLTL1

..................................

Saturday Session Choices 9.30 a.m. - 12.30 p.m.

All Levels - Simplifying The Roll STR

All levels - Surfski Paddling SSP

..................................

Level 1 and 2 - Fundamentals of Rock Gardening FRG 1

..................................

Level 2 and 3 - Situational Rolling & Bracing SRB1

..................................

Level 3 - Tricky Launch, Tricky Landing TLTL1

..................................

Saturday Session Choices 1.30 p.m. - 4.30 p.m.

All Levels - Wild Harvesting WH

All Levels - SurkSki Paddling SSP

..................................

Level 1 and 2 - Coastal Journey CJ1

..................................

Level 2 and 3 - Intermediate Rock Gardening IRG2

Level 2 and 3 - Moderate Water Boat Handling MWBH 2

..................................

Level 3 - Rough Water Boat Handling RWBH 2

..................................

Saturday Session Choices All Day

Level 1 and 2 - Fundamentals of Sea Kayak Leadership FSKL

Level 2 and 3 - Practical Leadership and Group Dynamics PLGD

Level 2 and 3 - Incident Management IM

Level 2 and 3 - White Water of The Sea WWOTS

Level 3 - Rock Garden Safety and Rescue RGSR

..................................

Sunday Session Choices 9.30 a.m. - 1.30 p.m.

All Levels - Developing Boat Control DBC1

All levels - Surfski Paddling SSP

..................................

Level 1 and 2 - Fundamentals of Rock Gardening FRG 2

Level 1 and 2 - Coastal Journey CJ2

..................................

Level 2 and 3 - Ocean Journey OCJ1

Level 2 and 3 - Short Boat Surfing SBS

Level 2 and 3 - Unscrambling the Scramble UTS 2

Level 2 and 3 - Situational Rolling and Bracing SRB2

Level 2 and 3 - Long Boat Surfing LBS2

..................................

Level 3 - Rough Water Boat Handling RWBH 3

Level 3 - Tricky Launch, Tricky Landing TLTL2


To register, click HERE.

For more information, e-mail, info@greenlandorbust.org.

• Find Us On Facebook • Follow Us On Twitter • Read All About It • Visit Our On-Line Store •

A Storm Is Coming…

Storm Gathering USA Website

The main Storm Gathering USA website can be found here.

Contact us if you have any questions, queries or want more information about the event.

The Storm Gathering USA Team.

Association of Paddlers/ Coaches

A new organisation in the making......

The Association of Paddlers/ Coaches is a collaboration of Level 5 coaches across disciplines that provide the highest level of coaching and the training and assessment of NGB awards. These coaches are also active paddlers having their own adventures in their spare time, be it in the UK, Europe or on expedition. Membership is open to any L5 coach be it a freelancer or in full time employment, who is an active coach working at a range of levels and who is an active paddler in their free time. 

The L5 coach is the highest coaching award in the UK and at the moment there is no independent organisation to promote their services. The aim of the logo and the website is to provide a simple way of identifying the highest levels of coaching from active paddlers passionate about their sport. Our members are chosen by their peers and the criteria ensures that not only are they L5 coaches, but they are active in their chosen discipline.They provide evidence of this which has to be updated every 2 years to retain membership. This ensures you get the highest quality coaching from active passionate paddlers.

It is being formed by Olly Sanders of Rock and Sea Adventures and Rock and Sea Productions.

A Dispositional Approach Towards Inclusive Adaptive Leadership - Suresh Paul and Mark Tozer

As a practitioner, can you lead inclusively? Do you lead inclusively? These are different questions, and your answer may well be "yes" to the first and "no" to the second. The first question asks about ability: if you are given a mixed ability group to lead, could you lead them inclusively? The second tacitly asks much more, it goes beyond ability and asks about inclination: Are you disposed to leading inclusively? Do you like to lead inclusively? Do you lead inclusively regularly? 

Leading inclusively is like higher order thinking in at least this respect: in both cases, ability alone is not enough to ensure ongoing performance. Paul (2010) suggests that the creation of inclusive meaningful opportunities in the outdoors requires the taming of a wicked problem that is embedded in a social mess. Furthermore, Paul (2010) proposes two models that provide a nexus for developing leadership dispositions through inspirational learning and the enhancement of a leader’s adaptive capacity. 

Developing the capacity for individuals to learn more effectively from their experiences is an important part of building the expertise, knowledge and skills for inclusive leadership. A likely outcome is the formation of dispositions of adaptive capacity or expertise.

Figure 1: The Fear Fear and Fear Model (Paul 2010) sets out the barriers that exist for practitioners who wish to learn how to be inclusive adaptive leaders. In order for adaptive capacity to flourish from the outset, individuals need to consider the importance of: (1) practicing different ways of learning, (2) ensuring variation in that practice (3) become proficient at making balanced judgements about how or if an experience might change their current perspective by reflecting on their learning experiences and (4) become adept at seeking out and taking different perspectives by applying principles of ‘good thinking’ (Figure 2).

Figure 1: The Fear Fear and Fear Model (Paul 2010) 

Good thinking (Perkins et al., 1993a) is characterised by seven dispositions 1) To be broad and adventurous 2) Toward sustained intellectual curiosity 3) To clarify and seek understanding 4) To plan and be strategic 5) To be intellectually careful 6) To seek and evaluate reasons 7) To be meta-cognitive. Each disposition (Figure 3) is a complex relationship between three elements: inclination (a person’s felt tendency towards a particular behaviour), sensitivity (a person’s alertness towards a particular occasion), and capability (the ability of a person to follow through with a behaviour). 

Figure 2: A Disposition And Its Elements (Tozer et al., 2007)

A ‘good leader’ may be disposed towards all of the thinking behaviours, and appropriately exhibit one or more of them depending on the situation. Perkins et al (1993a) contend that it raises provocative questions about existing models of thinking, casts new light on controversial issues in the field, connects in interesting ways to findings in other promising areas of cognitive research, and has important implications for the education of good thinking. Inclusive leadership is more than just a matter of skill. It involves attending to one's attitudes, values and of habits of mind. Adaptive leaders need to be good thinkers and develop appropriate dispositions in accordance with that (Tozer et al., 2007).

Typically, a leadership practitioner is an experienced and qualified individual who may act as a positive role model to those they lead. Loynes (2004) considers that the functions of leadership whilst in the outdoors are concerned with working with participants, ensuring maximised opportunities for all involved, resolving group issues and task problems along with achieving the desired goals. Loynes also states that leadership must focus upon managing a number of diverse and changing factors that arise within wilderness settings, something he regards as a complex and dynamic process. Figure 3: The Inclusive Adventure Model (Paul, 2010) provides a focal point for balancing these factors for practitioners as they think about being inclusive and adaptive as leaders. 

Figure 3: The Inclusive Adventure Model (Paul, 2010) 

The fear of change (Figure 1) can be eased when people anticipate and plan how to manage it. One effective plan for overcoming the theory-or-practice learning dilemma is to aim to combine theory and practice into one rhythm of effort. In practical terms, that means taking either a think-do-think approach to developing inclusive and adaptive dispositions as leaders, or a do-think-do approach. Both of these approaches involve cycles of reflection and practice. All these elements will be recognisable in any leadership approach that reflects understanding through flexible performances and the cognitive agility to adapt to their participants’ needs.

Applying ideas about adaptive capacity, learning and inclusion to a wide variety of outdoor skills, abilities and conditions that can occur within leadership practices is likely to develop a greater flexibility in dealing with new learning situations. Initially, the practice of leading in an adaptable way will require careful analysis and review of learning episodes and experiences. Eventually, the process will become automated. In the end, a good learner, and hence a good leader, will be able to learn, act and think more skilfully with only sporadic self-checking in novel and dynamically variable circumstances (Schwartz et al., 2005). 

Inclusive adaptive leadership will require innovative thinking; it entails practitioners taking positive and inspiring learning steps; and it necessitates them to be able to work openly with others. What is needed of a good leader is the ability to recognise and apply good adaptive practices in potentially novel and unstructured situations. To be accustomed to operating independently, make decisions in chaotic conditions and be cognitively agile (Tozer et al., 2007). 

Developing Adaptive Expertise

Where does the adaptiveness of adaptive experts come from? Adaptive experts are assumed to possess as the source of their flexibility and inventiveness, conceptual knowledge of the objects of the procedures (that is, what each of these objects is like). ‘Flexibility and adaptability seem to be possible only when there is some corresponding conceptual knowledge to give meaning to each step of the skill and provide criteria for selection among possible alternatives for each step within the procedure’ (Hatano, 1982: 15). Such conceptual knowledge enables experts to construct mental models of the major entities of the domain, which can be used in mental simulation. Using Holyoak's (1991) expression, the key to adaptive expertise is the development of deeper conceptual understanding of the target domain. Needless to say, such conceptual understanding must be connected to procedural competencies and meta-cognitive awareness and monitoring of one's own understanding.

It is hypothesized that if people ask themselves why a skill works or why each step is needed during its application, this question will tend to lead them to form some conceptual knowledge about the object (Hatano & Oura, 2003). This was similar to what Donald Schön (1991) called ‘reflection-in-action’ as against technical problem solving in his attempt to characterise professionals. Although experts are seldom taught conceptual knowledge in the verbalised form, they may construct it in the process of solving problems or performing tasks in the domain.

Identifying particular kinds of learning experiences that develop adaptive expertise is a serious challenge for educational researchers. Hatano and Inagaki (1992) proposed four conditions that would promote sustained comprehension activity that is likely to lead to adaptive expertise. Their proposal is based on the assumption that cognitive incongruity (a state of feeling that current comprehension is inadequate; for example, wondering why a given procedure works) induces enduring comprehension activity, including seeking further information from the outside, retrieving another piece of prior knowledge, generating new inferences, examining the compatibility of inferences more closely, and so forth. The first two of the proposed conditions are concerned with the arousal of cognitive incongruity and the last two with the elicitation of committed and persistent comprehension activity in response to induced incongruity. The four conditions are: (1) encountering fairly often a novel problem to which prior knowledge is not readily applicable or a phenomenon that disconfirms a prediction based on prior knowledge; (2) engaging in frequent dialogical interaction, such as discussion, controversy, and reciprocal teaching; (3) being free from urgent external need (e.g., material rewards or positive evaluations), and thus able to pursue comprehension even when it is time consuming; and (4) being surrounded by reference group members who value understanding.

These conditions can be rephrased in terms of the nature of the practice in which people participate. For example, when a practice is oriented toward skillfully solving a fixed class of problems (e.g., making the same products for years), participants tend not to encounter novel problems, and thus they are likely to become experts distinguished in terms of speed, accuracy, and automaticity (i.e., routine experts). In contrast, when successful participation in a practice requires meeting varied and changing demands (e.g., making new, fashionable products), participants' prior knowledge must be applied flexibly, and they are likely to acquire adaptive skills. From socio-cultural perspectives, adaptive experts may not be characterised only by their domain-specific knowledge; in order to invent new procedures, for example, in addition to deeper conceptual understanding, people have to be able to participate in discourse, offer valuable suggestions, evaluate others' suggestions, and so on.

Adaptive experts exhibit a strong proactive desire to continuously learn from their experiences, improve performance and accept that their understanding will always change (Hatano & Oura, 2003). Underpinning beliefs and attitudes, along with the behaviours that are inevitably associated with such views can be both learned and taught (Perkins & Grotzer, 1997; Perkins, Jay & Tishman, 1993b). For any leader who is more able to learn flexibly in new situations, as with any learning, the process will become natural, unconscious and automated (Shuell, 1990). Fazey et al., (2005) suggest that a person who learns how to be a good learner will eventually develop greater openness to change and become more adaptive. It is anticipated that they will become a more effective outdoor leader, particularly on expeditions, as a consequence.

What is Adaptive Expertise

Adaptive expertise is a broad construct that encompasses a range of cognitive, motivational, and personality-related components, as well as habits of mind and dispositions (Bransford et al., 2000; Hatano & Oura, 2003; Schwartz et. al., 2005). Its empirical validity has been examined in a number of training and learning contexts. In a series of blog posts, the adaptive expertise paradigm will be reviewed as well as the associated literature that documents the various benefits this conceptual approach has been shown to confer including innovativeness, flexibility in performance, and learning through problem solving (Barnett & Koslowski, 2002: Fisher & Peterson, 2001; Holyoak, 1991).

Expertise can be thought of as a continuum of adaptive ability making the distinction between those characterised as ‘merely skilled’ versus ‘highly competent’; as ‘artisans’ versus ‘virtuosos’ (Miller, 1978; Wineburg, 1998); or as those approaching a problem in a routine versus more flexible way (Schwartz et al., 2005). Artisan and virtuoso experts have in common extensive knowledge and skills with a capacity, where necessary, to skilfully apply well known procedures to address domain-specific issues. What differs, however, is their approach to problem solving and attitudes towards expertise, especially their own. Artisan experts regard new problems as opportunities to simply do a task more efficiently with their existing expertise (Bransford et al., 2000). By comparison, the notion of adaptive expertise highlights that a new problem can be viewed as a point of departure for exploration (Miller, 1978) and virtuosos see this as a means to expand and improve their skills and knowledge (Wineburg, 1998).

The latter observation flags the importance of differing views of expertise between artisans and virtuosos. Artisan experts commonly regard expertise as entailing knowing everything that is necessary and thus having all the answers. Success thus resides in using efficiently what one already knows. Adaptive experts, however, view their expertise as a ‘work in progress’ and realise that their current knowledge represents only a small part of what it is possible to know. Given this insight, they are happy to search out new information and to seek assistance from others. They have, in other words, no investment in appearing to be the expert (Bransford et al., 2000). Another perspective is to see adaptive experts as being more ‘meta-cognitive’, as in more aware of their own knowledge stores and gaps therein.

Giyoo Hatano (1982) proposed the notion of adaptive expertise as an ideal for educational researchers looking to find ways to teach students so they can apply learned procedures flexibly or adaptively. Keith Holyoak (1991) aptly makes the distinction that ‘…whereas routine experts are able to solve familiar types of problems quickly and accurately, they have only modest capabilities in dealing with novel types of problems. Adaptive experts, on the other hand, may be able to invent new procedures derived from their expert knowledge’ (Holyoak, 1991: 310). Giyoo Hatano and Kayoko Inagaki (1986) take this characterization further and state that adaptive experts are able to (1) comprehend why those procedures they know work; (2) modify those procedures flexibly when needed; and (3) invent new procedures when none of the known procedures are effective.

A distinguishing feature of adaptive expertise is the ability to apply knowledge effectively to novel problems or atypical cases in a domain without glossing over distinctive factors.. Adaptability allows experts to recognise when rules and principles that generally govern their performance do not apply to problems or situations (Gott, Hall, Pokorny, Dibble & Glaser, 1992). Moreover, studies have shown that this flexibility can result in better performance than that of experts who do not display cognitive flexibility, resulting in, amongst other things, more accurate medical diagnosis (Feltovich et al., 1997), better technical trouble shooting (Gott et al., 1992), and workplace error avoidance (Woods, Johannesen, Cook & Sarter, 1994). This flexible, ingenious application of knowledge in unique cases underlies adaptive experts’ greater tendency to enrich and refine their understanding on the basis of continuing experience to learn from problem-solving episodes.

Canoe Ballet

...... if only we all could be this graceful

Expertise

Coaches and leaders are so often assumed to be experts. However, what is expertise and is there more than one kind?

It is generally regarded that expertise consists of those characteristics, skills and knowledge of a person that distinguishes them from novices and less experienced people. In many domains there are objective measures of performance capable of distinguishing experts from novices: expert medical specialists are more likely to diagnose a disease correctly; expert outdoor leaders are more likely to assess a risk accurately and so on.

Expertise implies a capability toward skilful physical, cognitive and meta-cognitive behaviours; an organised body of knowledge that is deep and contextualised; retrieving and applying knowledge flexibly to a new problem or new knowledge to existing problems; and an ability to notice patterns of information in a novel situation (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000).

The concept of adaptive expertise is concerned with the idea that people who have had extensive, purposeful and varied experiences of doing something (which includes intellectual, physical, emotional and social undertakings) are capable of responding to novel unstructured situations skilfully and successfully (Fazey, Fazey & Fazey, 2005). This element may be recognised in leadership practitioners who are able to act more flexibly when problem solving in complex, ambiguous and unpredictable environments. Such flexible performance is one of the characteristics that can distinguish an expert from a novice (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000). More over it is what sets apart different types of expert (Hatano & Inagaki 1986). This notion could have important implications for those who are acting within the endlessly varying, dynamic conditions that can occur on the sea.

Have you reviewed what kind of expert you are?