Abstract - Changes in perceptions of value orientation in university students after a winter expedition: A report on experiential education from the Czech Republic
Background and study aim. Research on value orientation, whether general or focused on a population of university students, is a complex issue involving philosophical, psychological, sociological and educational dimensions. The fundamental question of our research was whether it is possible to influence the value preferences of students in subjects and discourses other than philosophy, ethics and the humanities and social sciences in the broader sense.
Methods. For the purposes of this exploratory research, a winter expedition course (snow shoeing and camping), part of the curriculum at the Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic was chosen. To determine any changes in the perception of values in the research group (n = 27), the Q-sorting method with forced selection of 18 items (values) was applied. Data was collected twice; a month prior to the course and immediately after the completion of the course.
Results and conclusions. The research suggested that the greatest shift towards higher importance was in the category “a Peaceful world”. This could be particularly explained by the programme’s focus and the geographical-cultural environment of the expedition (references to World War II events in the terrain). On the opposite end of the scale, less important items after the course included “Happiness” and “a Comfortable life”, which might be associated with the need to overcome discomfort and pain while hiking through a winter landscape, with its natural impact on self-reflection and ideas about one’s own life path.