This first assignment is about our first Ski Trip, where we should reflect our observations to the area, the way the teacher was instructing and we, the students, were responding.

We went in the area of Jegersberg, where we spent already some time with Hiking, Orienteering and Group games, so the area itself wasn’t new to us. The differences were that this time there was snow lying around and we had skis on. Due to the weather conditions the snow was pretty harsh and frozen. The area is undulating and the paths are mostly in a size, that only one person can skate at once.

The day was so structured, that the whole group was going together until some exercises after lunch and then everyone was allowed to go his own way with the skis. Therefore the better skiers were doing a trip on their own while the rest did some more practice with our teacher Len. The Cross-country Skis we used, together with the boots and the ski poles are courtesy of the university and we are allowed to use them this semester.

Our teacher Len mostly explained everything to the whole group and while the students were performing, he directly spoke to some people or revised with customized orders. You were always allowed to ask questions and some good humour came always with it. While we were skiing he moved between the last and the first ones and especially had a look at the beginners. While the exercises for better technic, the students were going one by one and everyone got some praise or critique.

At the beginning most of the students (me included) had problems keeping the balance on the skis and also parts or the trail, while it’s going just slightly downhill were quite a challenge. After the first three hours nearly all of us felt quite comfortable on the skis and done well. When there are groups with a wide range of their abilities in a certain skill (like we are), I personally think it is better for the weaker students as it is for the advanced ones, to split the group up.

The first big issue is that there is no fun factor for both skill levels, if you have to go together. While the advanced are annoyed by waited for the slower ones, the beginners are frustrated because they can’t keep up and may feel ashamed if they fall in front of the others. The second issue is the progression of the skiing skills. If you have a wide heterogenic group the learning progress will be eminently smaller than with two more homogenize groups. The given tasks will fit better to the skill level of the group. The reason is the smaller divergence of the abilities. The next point is pretty much related to the variety of the skills. Once there is a slighter variety of the ability the motivation is higher to outdo one another and that will lead to higher learning efficiency. Also the group size shouldn’t be too big for a good learning rate.

All in all I liked the structure of the day. Because it was the first daytrip on skis I can comprehend that we stayed together as a whole group at the beginning, what was useful to have a look at the individual abilities in skiing. Also the way our teacher accompanied the whole day was something positive: Always there if you need some advice but you were left on your own to experience with the skis by yourself.