Many of the characteristics of effective physical education lessons have been discovered by sport pedagogy researchers by employing what has become known as the ecological or task structures perspective. The purpose of this study was to describe the task structures and ecology that existed in two consecutive 7-day summer adventure camps run by an…

This study attempted to assess the development of environmental virtue in 7th and 8th grade students in an Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (ELOB) school using an instrument developed for this study--the Children's Environmental Virtue Scale (CEVS). Data for this study were obtained by administering the CEVS survey (pretest and posttest) to…

The purpose of this study was to collect and analyze demographic characteristics and job related difficulties experienced by field instructors in outdoor behavioral healthcare programs which utilized wilderness therapy as well as other treatment modalities. Three state-licensed outdoor behavioral healthcare programs in the United States provided a…

There is an increasing interest in the field of experiential education to move beyond simply documenting the value of experiential education programs and, instead, develop more evidence-based models for experiential education practice (cf., Gass, 2005; Henderson, 2004). Due in part to the diversity of experiential education programs, participants,…

This article presents the keynote address given by Katherine J. Pinch at the 2008 Annual Symposium on Experiential Education Research (SEER). Pinch discusses the importance of evaluation research and argues that the realm of evaluation is where the margins of research and practice have the potential to intersect with the greatest ease. She…

Outdoor education researchers have accumulated a notable cache of work documenting the outcomes of participation in outdoor education programs (e.g., Hattie, Marsh, Neill, & Richards, 1997; Kaplan & Talbot, 1983). While continuing this work remains an important task, some researchers are turning their attention toward understanding the process of…

Voluntary employee turnover is a major factor affecting adventure education (AE) organizations (Garret, 2003). Voluntary turnover often is dysfunctional for both employees and organizations (Birmingham, 1989; Podsakoff, LePine, & LePine, 2007). Turnover can result in increased employee and organizational costs (e.g., McKinney, Bartlett, &…

One purpose of professional conference attendance is to enhance social support. Intentionally fostering this support is an important political aim that should be developed. Although many multifactor definitions of social support exist (Cobb, 1979; Cohen & Syme, 1985; Kahn, 1979; Shaefer et al., 1981; Weiss, 1974), all distinguish between an…

Social skill development is emerging as an important issue for educators and practitioners in their work with adolescent youth. This presentation will use the results from two ongoing research projects to examine the relationship between adventure-based programming and social skill development in the lives of diverse youth. The first project is…

This research involves the current educational challenges facing First Nation students of northern Canada through examination of two experiential and place-based educational programs presently being applied in both the public school system of the Yukon Territory (Experiential Programs in Whitehorse and surrounding communities) and in two Cree…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of an experiential, adventure-based "Anti-Bullying Initiative" on levels of resilience. The goal of this initiative was to create a more positive, caring, and safe learning environment for all students at a local elementary school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Activities were designed to promote…

Even though these papers represent radically different types of research in different environments and with diverse populations, I think they are appropriately grouped under the theme of "experiential education and youth development in diverse settings." In their own way, each of them deals with the role of experiential education in mitigating the…

This study examined the relationship between the sensation-seeking personality trait to changes in perceived risk and perceived competence during an adventure experience. Participants (n = 57) were enrolled in a 14-week introductory scuba diving course offered at a university in eastern North Carolina in 2006. The data was analyzed using a…

More than 200 schools currently use some form of the Outward Bound-adapted model of outdoor orientation (OO). Assisting students with the transition to college is a primary goal of these programs (Bell, Holmes, Vigneault, & Williams, 2008). This study was conducted at a small Midwestern liberal-arts college with a strong environmental mission.…

Researchers have been studying the conditions that matter in supporting the successful transition and persistence of students to the collegiate environment for more than three decades (Astin, 1997; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt & Associates, 2005; Upcraft, Gardner & Associates, 1989). As first suggested by Sanford (1962,…