Background: The United States Air Force Academy's Center for Character and Leadership Development developed the 'Adventure and Experiential Based Learning' (AEBL) course--a new experiential education summer course intended to develop interpersonal leadership skills in 1,100 sophomore cadets. Purpose: Improving cadet emotional intelligence (EI) is…

The Anthropocene is a geo-stratigraphic unit of the upper Earth's layers, impacted by human disturbances, but also humankind's historical record, and children's place to live on. It is an unfinished narrative. This study explores how garden and soil-related activities with kindergarten children, guided by well-informed teachers, may have the…

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way the world works and experiential and adventure education programs are no exception. These changes have significantly affected various outdoor adventure and experiential education (OAEE) programs and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Purpose: To explore changes in outcome…

Outdoor education (OE) is a broad term referring to organized outdoor learning . Given Canada's large size, sparse population, varied landscapes and diverse culture , developing a comprehensive understanding of the philosophies, goals and activities of OE in Canada is challenging. While Canada has a long history of OE, scholars struggle to…

Background: Youth expeditions are regarded as beneficial and even "life-changing" experiences for young people, however the evidence on their perceived long-term impact is limited. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to examine the perceived long-term influence of expeditions in participants' lives 29 and more years after going on…

Adventure Education is the field of study that uses human-powered activities in the wilderness to facilitate both individual and group growth and development. Over the past few decades, this field has focused on a return to the natural environment to provide experiential learning for students to develop both technical skills and higher-level…

Most educators recognize the value of practical experiential learning and strive to develop assignments that engage students in a meaningful way and help them to deepen their understanding of rote content and derive some meaning from it. In an age where multiple streams of information input compete for student attention, active learning activities…

This study explores differences between Outward Bound (OB) and National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) participant perspectives on programmatic factors and their relation to outcomes. Although OB and NOLS are assumed to be similar in many ways, as each program offers wilderness expeditions for students in backcountry environments, the mission…

Adventure-based programs focusing on adolescent girls' development often claim that they cultivate courage in girls; however, very little research has examined whether they accomplish this goal or how they accomplish this goal. An evaluation was conducted on one such program, Passages Northwest, to examine the efficacy of adventure-based…

Social skill development is emerging as an important issue for educators and practitioners in their work with adolescent youth. This presentation will use the results from two ongoing research projects to examine the relationship between adventure-based programming and social skill development in the lives of diverse youth. The first project is…

One curriculum that can be used by physical educators to promote positive social skills between students with Down syndrome (DS) and their peers is adventure programming. Adventure programming combines experiential learning, physical activity, and group facilitation techniques that physical education teachers can implement as a way to build an…

Includes "Outdoor Training: Revolution or Fad?" (Wagner, Baldwin, Roland); "Getting the Most out of Outdoor Training" (Buller, Cragun, McEvoy); and "Outdoor Training Companies" (a directory of more than 100 firms). (JOW)

The ubiquitous use of the term "transformation" in experiential education has blurred its specific meaning in any given case. Designing an effective curriculum requires instructors to determine what kind of transformation they would like to generate. A review of two research projects provides insights about different types of personal…

Discusses the lack of theoretical principles underpinning experiential education. Outlines a flow model of experiential learning applicable to adventure education, involving the learner, reality context, new and applied skills, responsibility, and critical reflection. Suggests that even small increases in theoretical understanding will help…

This paper presents a model for implementation of behavior therapies in adventure programs that use Group Adventure Initiative Tasks (GAITs) to promote personal development. Behavior therapies include various techniques and processes based in learning and pedagogical theory and used to promote changes in behavioral responses to environmental…