This paper presents a new integrated model for documentation and evaluation tested in 2021 on Back Into the Wild project, an Adventure Education project by Equilibero Association (Padova-Treviso, Italy). The project proposes educational walks to groups of at-risk adolescents to promote their psychophysical and relational well-being. Due to the…

In a hope to foster their students' autonomy, capability of decision-making and problem-solving, and thus better equipping them for facing real-world challenges in later life, an increasing number of German schools have implemented so-called 'challenges'. In these novel de-schooling projects, students get the chance to spend a longer period of…

Adventure Gap year programmes are becoming popular globally but there is still little research on their contribution to the development of soft skills of the participants. Using the Beyond Adventure Structured Adventure Gap Year Programme in South Africa, this study used a qualitative research approach where semi-structured interviews were…

The Outdoor Adventure Leadership Experience (OALE) is an outdoor health promotion initiative primarily designed for youth. This program was developed through community-based participatory research in a First Nations Community in northern Ontario: Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. It is a 9- or 10-day intensive program involving a wilderness canoe…

This paper provides an informed and critical understanding of the concept of self-esteem. It explores this psychological construct in relation to its use in adventure education and outdoor learning. Enhancing a participant's self-esteem is perceived to be fundamentally a good thing and is culturally linked to the Hahnian notion that implies…

Although positive effects are often reported, research assessing the impact of Adventure Education and Outward Bound programmes on self-esteem is fraught with methodological weaknesses pertaining to an emphasis on scales assessing global self-esteem, a lack of follow-up measures to assess the potential long-term benefits of such programmes and…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the existing evidence about the impact of sport/physical activity programmes on positive youth development in the context of education. The issue of youth disaffection is topical and a number of authors and policy makers have acknowledged that physical activity/sport may be an effective way of helping to…

The purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes of using metaphors to enhance learning in the framing and debriefing of teamwork issues for a corporate adventure training (CAT) program. Through random assignment, four different but intact regional work groups from a European banking institution participated in a CAT program for the purposes…

Describes an outdoor adventure camp to help mental health consumers and nursing students explore the issues of mental health and illness through experiential and perceived risk challenges. Evaluation data reveals a breakdown in the stigma of mental illness as consumers and students came to know, trust, and count on each other in order to succeed…

The New Zealand Department of Corrections commissioned an outcome evaluation of an outdoor adventure challenge program (OACP) on 84 participating inmates at Rolleston Prison. The program consisted of 2 weeks of fitness training, skill development, and challenge experiences, followed by a 5-day wilderness expedition. Outcome was measured in three…

This paper examines practical and theoretical problems and issues that arose during evaluation of an adventure program for young offenders. During 1989-93, the Sail Training Association and the Humberside (England) Probation Service collaborated on a project in which probation clients aged 17-25 made sailing voyages across the North Sea or around…

This paper describes a longitudinal study of a residential outdoor education school program in Australia. Specifically, the research tracked 409 ninth-grade students for up to 24 months to determine the impact on boys and girls of an extended-stay outdoor education program. The program is located at Timbertop, a coeducational school in a…

Excerpts of interviews with four New Zealand boys in an outdoor education class were analyzed to explore the possible impact of challenge on their lives and the choices they made. Analysis also focused on the relationship between outdoor adventure and "rational recreation" as a means of social control or as a liberating tool for…

Summer Activities Initiatives is a U.K. program that uses outdoor adventure activities to prevent dropouts and help at-risk young people re-engage with services that offer them further education, training, or employment. This preliminary look at a program evaluation discusses the target group, recruitment, staffing, residential programming,…

Pre- and postvoyage interviews with seven participants on a 10-day adventure trip aboard the sail training ship Leeuwin revealed that the experience met the expectations of most participants and that participants experienced increases in self-confidence, self-esteem, motivation, and tolerance. Suggests that prevoyage briefing, postvoyage…