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Critical outdoor education seeks to promote improved human to nature relationships. As academics and teachers strive to develop theory and practice appropriate for such outcomes, the traditional role of adventure activities is being scrutinized. This paper draws on a two year qualitative study which traced changes in human/nature relationships reported by a group a university students as a consequence of involvement in an outdoor education programme. From the many outcomes of the study, the following discussion extracts and concentrates on the role outdoor adventure activities can play in shaping connectedness to nature within outdoor education. Results suggest that adventure can be a very powerful tool for green outdoor education and that deskilling activities as a means of enhancing environmental outcomes may be counterproductive for some students.

There is increasing pressure on academic staff in this economically competitive world to enhance the graduate capabilities of students, rendering them employable as morally informed global citizens, in addition to enhancing their disciplinary knowledge and understanding. The BA Outdoor Adventure Education degree programme at Plymouth Marjon University, includes the module, Environmental Awareness through Adventure Sport, as one focus to engage students in the environmental ethics discourse of outdoor adventure and explore how adventure activities are managed with specific consideration to ethical environmental practices (Module Descriptor, 2016). We aim to achieve this through learning, teaching and assessment that includes autoethnography as pedagogy and research method. This approach enables students to experience nature through an adventure activity, in this instance, rock climbing. This is a human experience in a social and cultural context, in, of and for nature. Students are asked to engage with nature ‘making-meaning in, about, and for the various environments’ (Payne and Watchow, 2009, p. 16) as outdoor practitioners and leaders. These lived experiences in nature have prompted us to develop a framework where future students and other outdoor leaders can develop understanding and interrogate, the multiple, complex and nuanced ways outdoor activities can engage people with nature.

Adventure-based learning is used by behavioral health providers to connect clients to therapeutic activities outside traditional settings. These approaches often aim to build internal and external ...

This study explored the psychosocial outcomes of an outdoor adventure program for adolescents. A purposive sample of 144 Grade 10 learners participated in the Journey outdoor adventure education (O...

The inaugural Brian Nettleton Lecture links two of Brian’s views: 1) that it is important to get to know a certain area to be more a part of it and of nature; and 2) that areas suitable for outdoor adventure lie unnoticed near the centre of Melbourne. Nature needs our help given the serious and escalating threats. Increasing evidence shows that humans need nature in order to live happy and healthy lives. Personal examples, based on 40 years of activism, of the roles that community organisations have played in caring for land and nature in a local area in inner Melbourne, on a regional scale along a creek corridor and then on a State-wide scale are discussed. The active involvement of volunteers, employment of staff and evolution of organisations such as Friends of Merri Creek and the Merri Creek Management Committee have overcome a range of obstacles to environmental restoration. Outcomes include: creation of a heavily-used resource for environmental education and outdoor recreation by establishment of a bushland corridor in expanded public parklands. At a State-wide scale, the Victorian National Parks Association works for nature protection and has a strong record of successful campaigns. Currently, nature conservation and park management by Parks Victoria need substantially more public funding. Many people willingly volunteer to care for nature with practical restoration work, advocacy and organisational governance. Contributions by countless volunteers and community groups caring for nature have been essential to enable people to use and enjoy the outdoors in natural Victoria.

Operational stress injuries (OSIs) are an increasing concern for military personnel, particularly those returning from conflict zones. Over the last decade, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has seen...

Background: Over the past 10 years, research has started to investigate the pedagogic practices of instructors and coaches working in adventure sports settings. Outdoor instructors face particular challenges regarding the impact the dynamic environment has on the coaching process and their students. This challenging combination of factors obliges the instructor to be agile in response. We propose that this adaptive expertise is characteristic of these factors and that adaptability may be a beneficial focus of outdoor instructor training and education.Purpose: The major aim was to identify if adaptive expertise is an attribute of outdoor instructors? And if so, what are its characteristics in this context?Research design and data collection: We applied a mixed methodology to a sample of outdoor instructors (n = 64). The instructors were asked to complete a quantitative adaptive expertise inventory. We then interviewed a selected sub-sample (n = 12).Participants and setting: Quantitative data was collected from outdoor instructors working in the UK (n = 64). The sample consisted of instructors qualified to work independently with groups in adventurous settings in a range of activities. Qualitative data was collected from a smaller sample (n = 12) via a series of thematically analysed semi-structured interviews.Findings: Results suggest that the participating outdoor instructors have high levels of adaptive expertise. A characteristic of that adaptive capacity is a combination of skills revolving around reflection, metacognition, and situational awareness. There were differences, however, between less and more experienced outdoor instructors in their adaptive capacity, with less experienced instructors being adaptive to a lesser extent.Conclusions: The implication is that further research is worthwhile to examine the development of instructors’ adaptive capacity. The training and education of outdoor instructors requires pedagogic approaches that facilitate and engender adaptability, flexibility and agility in neophyte instructors.

Individualisation is a key aspect of coaching practice. This is particularly important for adventure sport coaches, given the demands of the hyper-dynamic coaching environment and the various motivations to participate in adventure sports. However, the literature on individualisation is limited. As a logical beginning, the aim of this study is to understand why individuals seek coaching in the context of adventure sports. Semi-structured interviews with adventure sport clients (N = 15) were thematically analysed, revealing that clients seek three different but not mutually exclusive experiences: holistic, authentic, and developmental. Importantly, the extent to which each experience was desired varied between individuals. These differences in individual desires place a fundamental emphasis on coaches’ understanding of why an individual seeks coaching as well as their longer-term participation goals, and then having the adaptive expertise to meet those expectations. Further research is required to understand how aspects of the developmental experience are achieved, specifically in the desired contexts.

This study explores father-child relationship development through participation in an Outward Bound (OB) family course, using the lens of identity theory. Data were collected through partic...

Aim: A synthesis of different researches on outcomes in adventure and outdoor education was used in this paper, in order to develop universal tool, aiming to support analyzes of future groundwork materials in competences researches. Method: The article is based on extended literature review. The research becomes more multiplying than comparative in nature, or serves to deepen or add knowledge about outcomes in adventure outdoor education. Results: In this theoretical reasoning attempt of selection, classification, connection within broader categories of competences was made by reviewing previous researches and literature, moreover tested on examples of concrete educational process. Conclusion: In reviewed literature researchers often use tools designed particularly to serve this purpose and that are aimed at structuring the skills and competences acquired by participants of this kind of education. Other researchers dealing with this topic are likely to experience a difficulty while trying to summarize and compare the results of other research presented in literature due to the various classifications and terminology used.

The research described in this paper built on the embryonic work on the occupational socialization of adventure educators (AEs). Its purpose was to determine the influence of one adventure education instructor education (AEIE) program on the perspectives and practices of preservice AEs (PAEs). Fifteen PAEs and their instructor were participants. Data were collected with six qualitative techniques and analyzed by employing analytic induction and constant comparison. Results revealed that PAEs entered the AEIE program with one of three broad orientations to their subject matter: a leisure orientation, an outdoor pursuits orientation, and an unsophisticated adventure orientation. In addition, they revealed how these orientations were shaped by the differing acculturation the PAEs experienced. The study’s findings also suggested that well-taught AEIE had helped those PAEs near to completing the program acquire a relatively sophisticated adventure orientation regardless of the orientations with which they commenced their training. Keys to the success of the AEIE program were the blend of personal and pedagogical skill displayed by the instructor and the nature and sequencing of the coursework in which the PAEs engaged.

Mindfulness can be successfully combined with adventure education but the area is understudied. This longitudinal quasi-experimental study investigated whether an 8-day Outward Bound Mindfulness Program in nature would increase levels of positive affect, savouring, and mindfulness. Results indicate the experimental group experienced a statistically significant increase in mindfulness, positive affect and savouring compared to the control group post-intervention, and that the increase was maintained at 3-months post-intervention. These results illuminate the lasting impact of an intervention which combines mindfulness with adventure education, and highlight the potential which natural environments may play in educational and therapeutic processes. Study limitations and need for further research are shared.

Background: Adventure experiences offer opportunities to improve resilience by exposure to controlled challenging situations. While previous studies have shown improvements in resilience, they have often lacked matched control groups, relied on a single measure of resilience, and had limited longitudinal follow-up. Purpose: This research assessed changes in subjective measures of resilience in response to adventure experiences. Method/Approach: Using a quasi-experimental design, resilience was assessed in two matched groups of university students using two validated instruments. Measurements were taken at four time points over a 3-month period, which included a 4-day residential experience for the Outdoor Adventure group. Findings/Conclusion: Adventure experiences showed tentative evidence for influencing subjective measures of resilience, more so for individuals who started with a low score. Resilience demonstrated the largest increase immediately post-program, returning to near baseline within 3 weeks. Implications: The mechanism for change in resilience would appear to be appropriate levels of challenge, rather than specific exposure to outdoor adventure activities. Furthermore, individuals with initially low scores are likely to achieve the greatest gain.

Despite the documented positive outcomes of adventure experiences, subjective well-being (SWB) frameworks have been largely absent from discourse and analyses in adventure studies. This conceptual ...

This article explores, from a personal perspective, ageing and adventure in the context of the outdoor environment. Employing an autoethnographic sensibility, and drawing on fields of positive psyc...

To address feelings of “placelessness” and “not belonging,” many colleges and universities have implemented outdoor orientation programs developed to assist students with the transition from home. Outdoor orientation programs, in which students participate in some form of adventure activity away from campus (usually in a wilderness or naturalized setting), have been utilized by a growing number of colleges and universities (Bell, Gass, Nafziger, & Starbuck, 2014). This study investigated how an outdoor orientation experience impacted students’ connection to the natural world, and if these experiences built transitional skills and relational capacity that assisted their shift to university life. The study entailed a quantitative analysis of sense of place and a qualitative analysis of students’ self-reported trip experiences with regard to the influence of place, transition to university, and developing connections with others. Results suggest that participants developed a sense of place that positively influenced their connections to others and assisted in building transitional capacity.Subscribe to JOREL

The very rapid development of technology is slowly appearing in the world of education. Educational games are a form of multimedia that packages learning programs in the form of games, so besides being games, they are also educational. The use of game education technology as an interactive learning medium is one of the right ways to improve students' mathematical creative thinking skills. This educational game is expected to eliminate the feeling of boredom and fear of learning mathematics and can facilitate the learning process on geometry material for Senior High School (SMA)/Islamic Senior High School (MA). This study aims to develop an Android-based educational game that can be operated on various smartphones with the Android operating system and to test the feasibility of using adventure games as a medium for learning geometry. This game can be used as an alternative medium for learning geometry in changing conventional learning methods to learning game simulations, so as to improve students' mathematical creative thinking abilities, because in educational games it has elements of challenge, accuracy, reasoning and ethics. The methodology used in this research is the research development method or Research and Development (R & D) using the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) model with the following activity stages: (1) Analysis, gathering information; (2) Design, designing multimedia-based animation media and validating media designs; (3) Development, improvement of media design; (4) Implementation, media testing; (5) Evaluation, product revision.

Many schools aim to provide social and emotional learning (SEL) opportunities for students. SEL is important for positive youth development. However, it remains unclear how SEL skills might be influenced by adventure education in school settings. This study used a mixed-methods design to explore potential changes in teachers’ perceptions of students’ SEL during an adventurebased SEL program. Twenty-two fifth- and seventh-grade teachers completed questionnaires about their students three times a year for 3 years. Findings suggest an intentional adventurebased program aiming to build SEL skills can have modest influences on students’ awareness of and prosocial behaviors toward themselves, others, and the collective. However, considering the school context, SEL can be limited by some students’ struggles with self-regulation and awareness of others, and the negative behaviors of a few students can disproportionately affect the whole class. Implications include using adventure education approaches and activities that are responsive to dynamic situations in school settings. Subscribe to JOREL

Adventure education is a form of experiential education that is focused on interpersonal and intrapersonal development through adventure activities. Research has shown that this form of education is effective in the development of aspects like communication, cooperation, teamwork and leadership. This paper analyses the effect of an adventure education program, implemented in school, over the development of social abilities of 10-12 years old students. The program, consisting in orienteering activities, initiatives, specific games, and adapted rope course elements, was implemented between September 2016 - June 2017, during the physical education lessons. In this quasi-experiment, with a pre- and post-test design, the effect of the program was measured using the ROPELOC questionaire. Results show a significant increase of the scores of the experimental group on the scales Leadership Ability, Coperative Teamwork and Social Effectiveness, compared to pre-test. Compared to the control group, there were no significant differences between groups at post-test, but the experimental group had significantly bigger growth scores on all three scales. All significance was considered at p

Two decades ago, McKenzie’s meta-analysis of literature provided six fundamental elements of adventure education programme design still used to guide research and practice today. While the value of McKenzie’s early work should not be underestimated, adventure education has undergone considerable changes. Adventurous activities are now available in urban and indoor contexts and used to facilitate a growing health and wellbeing agenda. The use of risk as part of adventure education programming has also been critiqued. This paper reflects on contemporary notions of adventure, risk and the emergent narratives emphasising the associated psychological benefits. The Ecological Dynamics framework, along with representative design delivery, are presented as a viable way of building on McKenzie’s work. Both consider how effective outcomes in adventure education programmes are achieved through designs that focus on the unique relationship between the individual and their environment. While McKenzie’s six elements recognise the importance of human relationships, Ecological Dynamics forefronts relational elements, not just between participants but, importantly, the task and the environment. Individual participant needs in relation to their everyday life therefore become the focus of adventure education expanding beyond the traditional long-standing narratives of risk and danger. Through these two important concepts, this paper advocates an approach to the design of adventure representative of a participant’s everyday environment. In this way, adventure education outcomes translate beyond the adventure-specific context and align more holistically with the needs of individual participants while also assuring emphasis on individual health and wellbeing.

Background: We present a unique study of adventure sports coaches teaching lead climbing. Expanding existing work on judgement and decision making, we examine the coaching process and the decision making employed to manage the pedagogical and security needs of climbers when they are being introduced to lead climbing.Research design and data collection: As part of a mixed approach, an Applied Cognitive Task Analysis was initially conducted on a small sample of expert coaches (n = 7) before a questionnaire was designed and administered with a larger sample (n = 53).Findings: The study identifies that the tuition of lead climbing is built on nine core elements that form a shared mental model which in turn is individualised to meet the needs and demands of the individual learning to lead climb. The existence of this coherent shared mental model displays minor modifications to reflect the coach’s own climbing background. More importantly, the existence of this shared mental model is derived from the instructors’ own experiences of climbing and teaching lead climbing rather than any formalised training. In short, this model is actualised through an informal community of practice.Conclusion: The implication for training instructors is that the skills of adapting these nine core aspects to meet individual needs should also be given due consideration alongside the technical skills of rope work and security.

Previous research of why inexperienced adventure educators’ (AEs) think and teach as they do had provided findings that suggested how AE instructor education (AEIE) might be improved. The purpose of this study was to build on this work and determine how occupational socialization shaped the perspectives and practices of two experienced and expert AEs. Six qualitative techniques were used to collect data. Analysis involved using analytic induction and constant comparison to categorize these data. Categories were then collapsed into meaningful themes. Results revealed how the AEs’ acculturation, professional socialization, and organizational socialization led them to possess sophisticated and advanced but slightly differing perspectives on adventure education, pedagogies for teaching adventure education, and AEIE. Key factors in the development of these perspectives and practices were the AEs’ early and positive experiences of adventure and the outdoors and their master’s degree programs.

Background: Critical examination by adventure educators in North American colleges and universities reveals that students receive messages about the nature of adventure education through both the intentional and hidden curriculum. Purpose: The study was designed to discover adventure education’s hidden curriculum and its potential effect on women in adventure education. Methodology/Approach: The phenomenon of the hidden curriculum was examined using a modified Delphi method. Three rounds of questionnaires solicited knowledge from a panel of experts (21 females and 18 males), who had tenure of at least 15 years in the adventure education field, to obtain a reliable semi-consensus of opinion. Findings/Conclusions: Gender-based hidden curriculum messages were found, including the prioritizing of values and traits perceived to be predominantly male, linguistic sexism, assumptions about outdoor identity, outdoor career messages, gender insensitive facilitation and teaching, and the centering of White men in the field’s history. Implications: The proposed strategies to consciously address sexism and gender role conditioning in the adventure education’s hidden curriculum may benefit women and gender-nonconforming participants and leaders.

This study examines the effect of short-term adventure-based outdoor programs (AOP) on reducing college students’ stress levels. The effects of sex and different outdoor adventure activitie...

Little research on the socialisation of adventure educators into their craft has been conducted. The purposes of this study were to describe (a) the perspectives and beliefs of preservice adventure educators as they began adventure education training (AET) and (b) the elements within their acculturation that led to these perspectives and beliefs. Participants were 20 preservice adventure educators at the beginning of their AET. Data were collected with three types of interview. They were coded, categorised, and reduced to meaningful themes by employing analytic induction and constant comparison. Results revealed that preservice adventure educators possessed one of three orientations. These were a leisure orientation, outdoor pursuits orientation, or adventure orientation. Factors shaping these orientations were family and friends, experiences of outdoor and adventurous activities, experiences working as counsellors, timing of occupational selection and age, and a number of secondary attractors inc...

This paper describes a quasi-experimental crossover trial of an outdoor adventure program for Year 9 school students in Australia. Previous studies have reported a range of positive outcomes of outdoor camps and adventure programs, but cautious interpretation of some claims may be warranted due to limitations in research methods. This study examines a purpose-designed, seven-day outdoor adventure program intended to promote positive adjustment in young people. A total of 335 participants (aged 14–16 years) were recruited from across two Victorian secondary schools. In year 1 (2015), students from school A were recruited to the outdoor program while students from school B were recruited to a control group. In the second year (2016) the roles of each school were switched (crossed over). Outcome measures assessed on five occasions included a range of self-reported social and emotional health indicators. While quantitative analyses did not find support for positive, universal effects of our program, qualitative information gathered across the course of the study suggested that the outdoor program may have been both impactful and positive for some students. This complex picture suggests that effects of the outdoor adventure experience were quite variable amongst participants. Reasons for this pattern of findings are discussed, including the possibility that our quantitative measures may have been insensitive to some benefits. Future work should examine salient moderators of the beneficial effects of outdoor adventure experiences.

The article is a synthetic analysis of the of space, activities and skills in the Outdoor education model in the context of Using Visual Methods to Explore Experience in Qualitative Research. The gathering of research material, in the form of photos was shown in two stages, which were stages with a ratio equivalent. The first situation was researched by The Treehouse Building Camp, organized by Buitendoor in the Netherlands, in the woods around Nunspeet (VIII 2016), the other one Low Rope Course was organized by the Laboratory of Science and Adventure and instructors Actionworx Germany (X 2016). The collected research help to compare Dutch and Polish practice in the field of outdoor adventure education. For the researcher, an important aspect is looking at the social capital of the Dutch and Poles.

This study is an investigation of what happens to participants during their adventure education (AE) experiences and the meanings they ascribe to those experiences. These topics were explored through the qualitative framework of educational connoisseurship and criticism at three sites: a backpacking expedition, a challenge course and a multi-activity adventure programme. Through 183 hours of observation and 74 interviews with 41 participants, the qualities of AE as aesthetic experience were revealed. This conception of AE experience is characterised through sensory encounters, full attention and aesthetic paradox. Findings are supported with the voices of participants, and the significance of this conception of AE experience is discussed.

Background: Research has identified enhancement of positive self-concept as an important outcome connected with participation in adventure-based activities in physical education (PE). Purpose: This study compared the effectiveness of Team Building Through Physical Challenges (TBPC) and Adventure Curriculum for Physical Education (ACPE) programs on the self-conceptions of middle school PE students. Both approaches include adventure-type tasks adapted for use in PE. Methodology/Approach: Participants consisted of 397 female ( n = 183) and male ( n = 214) students who were enrolled in Coeducational Grades 7 and 8 PE classes in three middle schools. Students in the treatment classes were exposed to either the TBPC condition or the ACPE condition during PE classes over 7 months, whereas students in the control group completed the regular PE curriculum that did not include activities from either approach. Findings/Conclusions: Results suggest that both approaches benefit the self-conceptions of children with each being particularly effective at changing those self-conceptions logically related to specific organizing themes. Specifically, ACPE was greater than TBPC, for global self-worth and perceived behavioral conduct. TBPC was greater than ACPE for perceived social approval. Implications: Incorporating either the TBPC or the ACPE program in middle school PE can benefit the self-conceptions of students.

The article is a synthetic analysis of the Outdoor Adventure Education model in the context of three elementary components: the environment – in relation to the theory of space from the perspective of sociological and pedagogical theory of space; personal perspective and growth as well as social development – in relation to psychological phenomena that accompany the individual and group involved in the process of Outdoor Adventure Education. The aim is to present how these processes determine the effects of education and what personalities’ elements are involved.

While key personalities often connected with the roots of outdoor education and experiential learning, like Dewey, Seton, Hahn or Naess, are well known internationally, Jaroslav Foglar, a Czech outdoor and experiential educator, is mostly unknown to the international audience. The article adds to the literature related to Czech outdoor experience and focuses on introducing Foglar, his personality and work to a wider audience. Foglarʼs principles of boyhood are taking risks, active lifestyle, honest behaviour and learning in nature with others in a small group. Foglar’s specific outdoor adventure characteristics include timelessness, place, romance, mystery and challenge, and traditions with rituals. All these factors together point to Jaroslav Foglar being not only an important Czech writer and educator, but also potentially influencing the field of outdoor adventure and experiential education internationally.

In the fiercely competitive athletic situation, athletes’ sports performance is affected by physiology, psychology, technique, and external environment. Nevertheless, psychological skill training, ...