Course description

It is an intensive 5 day course. The program joins together three concepts - didactic, performance and experiential. This program was accepted many years ago as a common or model programme for other pedagogical and P.E. and sport faculties. It has influenced many pedagogical and P.E. specialists and professionals. The recent program has been provided since the late 1990s by the sub-department of "Turistika", Outdoor Sports and Outdoor Education at the Department of Outdoor Sports, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University. It is an introduction into the area of turistika and outdoor sports. For more than 40 years the program has received positive feedback from university students and, in a modified version, from high school students and pupils of elementary schools. The course is situated in Southern Bohemia, in a beautiful landscape of a protected area (a biosphere reservation under the protection of UNESCO).

The course covers theory and practice of outdoor pursuits (cycling, cyclo-touring, orienteering, climbing, and mountaineering), initiative and co-operative games, ropes courses, basic information about outdoor equipment, safety and environmental education. The course provides a model program of outdoor education in schools or leisure centres.

We work with groups of 8 to 12, led by experienced instructors or teachers. Specialists from the Department conduct the theoretical lectures. All program parts are described in the book "Turistika a sporty v přírodě" (Neuman et al., 2000). The course provides an overview of basic skills and knowledge for Outdoor Education.

During the course we will introduce some events from Czech history and Czech culture /food, habits, clothes/. Specially we will spend outdoor overnigt /at summet semestr/ at the castle and we will visit portery factory /handmake/ and try to make some our own portery.