During a summer cruise to Mexico and Central America, students earned academic credit for doctoral-level coursework in qualitative research approaches and data collection and analysis. This study explored how participants, 16 doctoral students at a midwestern university, perceived experiential education and its effect upon their understanding of…

Wilderness therapy (WT) provides an alternative treatment modality for a number of mental health issues. It holds particular appeal for at-risk youth, a population that is often less responsive to traditional psychotherapeutic interventions. Anecdotal accounts on the effectiveness of WT often show positive outcomes. Still, some researchers have…

This paper explores the meaning Norwegian sea kayakers form in their engagement with nature and their reflections upon uncertainty and resistance. Findings in this paper stem from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a sea kayak community, with the aim of describing learning processes and experiences made outdoors by recreational sea kayakers. Sea…

This paper suggests a model of embodied environmental education grounded in participant interviews, fieldwork, scholarly literature, and the author's own embodied relationship with the natural world. In this article, embodiment refers to a process that stems from Indigenous Knowledges and theatre. Although Indigenous Knowledges and theatre…

This paper describes a field trip by senior undergraduate anthropology students to a local winery, where they participated in a wine-tasting class with winery staff. In response to explicit hints from a wine-tasting facilitator, and more subtle cues from the cultural capital embedded in their surroundings and the winery staff, the students…

This paper outlines a pilot study of the post-program psychological adjustment outcomes of adult staff facilitating an Australian-based wilderness adventure program for youth at risk. The descriptive and correlational survey study (N = 62) examined the psychological adjustment processes staff underwent following program completion, and the factors…

Experiential programs have become a core part of extra-/co-curricular activities in secondary schools in Hong Kong. Programs usually aim at enhancing youngsters' personal development, which incorporates self-understanding, self-other relationship, and self-social involvement (cf. Hahn, 1908-1913). Students are expected to acquire a stronger belief…

It was of interest to determine if earlier research findings, where female students were particularly advantaged by the Team Building Through Physical Challenges (TBPC; Glover & Midura, 1992) program in a coeducational setting, would still be observed in gender-segregated physical education classes. A total of 260 female (n = 127) and male (n =…

Partnerships are the foundation of teacher education at Victoria University in Australia. They provide opportunities for preservice teachers to be inquiring and socially active practitioners. These partnerships have been developed between the university and a broad range of educational settings in the community. Preservice teachers work in these…

This paper reports on a New Zealand study that obtained firsthand narrative accounts from a group of Year 10 (14 to 15 years old) secondary school students who were provided with 27-exposure disposable cameras on which they were asked to take a series of photographs to record what a residential school camp was like for them. Follow-up individual…

This study investigates how structured Mediated Learning Experiences may improve peer-cooperative communication within problem-solving task exercises. Two groups (n = 22) of Year 8 students (mean age 13 +/- 5 months) were randomly selected to participate in this study. The study began with two one-hour sessions of activity-based problem-solving…

A facilitator is commonly defined as a substantively neutral person who manages the group process in order to help groups achieve identified goals or purposes. However, outdoor educators rarely experience the luxury of only managing the group process, because they are typically responsible for the provision of leadership, skill instruction, and…

The purpose of this article is to present the development of inclusive experiential education courses in the Czech Republic. The inclusion of people with disabilities (PWD) in recreation, sport, and education has become more prevalent in Czech society. This article describes the conceptual meaning of the term inclusion from both a historical and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible enhancement of compassion in college students as a result of participating in community-based learning immersion trips. In two separate experiments, a total of 123 college students were given a series of questionnaires immediately before and after university-sponsored immersion experiences to…

This paper considers the complexity of learning and decision-making in modern society and argues that experiential education should embrace this complexity. It argues that experiential programmes should provide independent learning experiences that address the capacities of learners, the value contexts in which they learn, and that taking…