Discusses the solo experience as an outdoor training technique that promotes development of contemplation and insight; emphasizes man's oneness with nature; and seeks to win some moral, philosophical, spiritual, or religious benefit from solitude. Includes relevant quotations by Thoreau, Wordsworth, and others. (SV)

Traces types of expeditions in the history of civilization. Describes the following phases in the current expedition experience: (1) conceptualization/dream phase; (2) the preparation phase; (3) the action/reality phase; and (4) the reporting/reflective/processing phase. An expedition should be self-contained, have an element of challenge, and…

Navigation exercises in the outdoors involve interactive team skills; individual assessment of self-confidence, competence, and esteem; and leadership skills. Learning goals include planning, managing a team, handling information, allocating individual objectives, making decisions, and attending to accuracy. Provides facilitators with instructions…

Forty-four males and 40 females completed an adaptation of the Linear Arousal and Stress Scale after a 1-day rafting trip. Men showed higher base levels of anxiety than women. Anxiety and arousal increased significantly prior to the first rapid. Levels of anxiety and arousal during this adventure activity changed constantly as different situations…

Through activity in the outdoors, we make ourselves more available to the value lessons of nature. Outdoor pursuits and adventure activities are the best providers of value experiences. These value experiences foster individual growth and respect for the environment. (KS)

Across cultures, a common motif is the rite of passage that facilitates transition to adulthood. The structure of an Outward Bound course parallels a classic adolescent initiation rite, involving separation from home and family, influence of a guide or instructor, group adventure in which participants increasingly take responsibility, a solo…

Mentally handicapped clients improved their self-image and self-reliance as a result of involvement in outdoor activities. The staff currently takes six clients out weekly to nine different venues within a two-hour drive of the clients' residential facility. Addresses leader qualifications, special equipment, and transportation. (KS)

Five stages of development in the facilitation of adventure experiences in order of sophistication are letting the experience speak for itself; speaking for the experience by the instructor; debriefing the experience through reflection; frontloading the experience with prebriefing; and framing the experience isomorphically. (KS)

Reviewing is an important component of adventure education that involves reflecting, describing, analyzing, and communicating what has been experienced. Reviewing adds value to the adventure experience for participants and provides information the leader can use to evaluate and revise the program. (KS)

Outdoor pursuits can facilitate major psychological and philosophical change in participants, and can act as a catalyst for self-actualization. Participants are temporarily relieved from all but the basic needs in life, allowing efforts to be concentrated on intense, meaningful, personal experience. (KS)

Twenty-seven corporate managers completed the Priest Attarian Risk Taking Inventory before and after a day of rappelling. Subjects also completed a business version of the inventory a few weeks before and a few weeks after the experience. Subjects appeared to transfer some of their new risk-taking behaviors to their jobs. (KS)

The stages of a model for reviewing or "debriefing" an adventure experience are: experience, or relive what happened; express feelings about the experience; examine, or analyze the experience for learning; and explore something brought out in the previous stages. Describes suggested activities for each stage of the sequence. (KS)

Provides information for planning an expedition in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain and France. Considers weather and gear, food and drink, first aid, travel to the area, washing, planning the day, languages of the area, base camp areas, specifics on the town of Bagneres de Luchon, and personal growth opportunities. (KS)

The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI), a measure of self-actualizing tendencies, was administered to 10 instructors at Plas y Brenin, to 23 tutors at Outward Bound Wales, and to 35 students before and after a course at Outward Bound Aberdovey. Instructors scored higher on the POI than students. Student scores significantly increased after the…

Outdoor education is financially and environmentally costly. Goals attributed to outdoor education such as recreational skills, experiential learning, and personal development are not unique to outdoor education. The distinctiveness of outdoor education is that it leaves the conventional setting behind. The only justifiable goal of outdoor…