"Voluntourism" refers to the use of "discretionary time and income to travel out of the sphere of regular activity to assist others in need" (McGehee & Santos, 2005, p. 760). These experiences have been shown to raise consciousness and increase interest in activism (McGehee, 2002; Wearing, 2001) and to build pro-social values, affection for…

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…

To be effective, experiential educators need to understand the developmental characteristics of their students so that they can tailor their programs to their capabilities. Often, their primary population consists of teens or college students. Recognizing that learning is a primary objective of experiential education programs, experiential…

A session that has a theme of outcomes of experiential programs in varied contexts is both exciting and pressing. The three studies in Session IV all addressed relevant issues to experiential programming and all the authors were faced with the empirical challenge of demonstrating how and/or if their programs achieve what they say they are going to…

Research on wilderness experience programs indicates there is much to learn about specific components of the overall experience. The solo, where students are intentionally separated from their expedition group for an extended time for reflection, has long had an anecdotal reputation for enhancing the quality of participants' experiences. The…

Colleges and universities across the United States are struggling with student retention and attrition (Derby & Smith, 2004; Jacobs & Archie, 2008; Tinto, 1993). As a result, theoretically supported interventions designed to encourage retention and persistence are needed. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to intentionally create an…

This article explores findings from a two-year study of the Expeditionary Learning (EL) professional development program for teachers. Using case study qualitative methods, we present findings about how EL meets the challenge of preparing teachers to teach in innovative ways. We investigate how EL structures experiential professional development…

Constructivism theory (Crotty, 1998) served as the framework to investigate the reciprocal nature of a service-learning project that involved physical education pre-service teachers and urban underserved youth. Participants included three physical education teacher education (PETE) candidates and 15 youth between the ages of 6 and 13 who were…

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 =…

Examining mindfulness in a non-clinical and non-therapeutic setting such as a summer camp is an area of growing interest. Our study tested three mindfulness scales with staff in a summer camp setting, and we conducted preliminary reliability and validity analyses for any modifications needed in the scales. Results indicated two major findings: (a)…

Transfer of learning from adventure programs remains of critical interest to adventure education professionals. Although some research has investigated what transfers, notably less has focused on mechanisms that might influence transfer. This paper explores the mechanisms of transfer reported by a stratified random sample of National Outdoor…

This study examined the effects of an adventure orientation program on the student development behaviors of incoming first-year students at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. Student development was measured by a condensed version of the Student Development Task Inventory-2 (CSDTI-2; Gass, 1986; Winston, Miller, & Prince, 1979). Data analysis…

This paper is concerned with if, and how, measures of discipline and control are involved in outdoor and experiential education. Using the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, author of Discipline and Punish (1975), we shall explore how educational practice may be used to control people and to render them into "docile bodies." We follow…

Service-learning (SL) has become a popular teaching method everywhere from elementary schools to colleges. Despite the increased presence of SL in the education world, it is still unclear what student outcomes are associated with SL programs and what factors are related to more effective programs. A meta-analysis of 62 studies involving 11,837…

Characterized by acute changes in attachment relationships, adolescence is a time of balancing autonomy and attachment needs. For adolescents in wilderness therapy programs, the setting often challenges their understanding of their own attachment relationships. The current study evaluates the narratives of 13 adolescents in a wilderness therapy…