Sense of belonging among undergraduate college students improves the likelihood of retention and graduation, along with the overall association with positive mental health and well-being. College students build a sense of belonging with their peers through various forms of involvement opportunities, including informal campus recreation activities.…

Creativity is a useful skill in the recreation profession, yet it is rarely treated as a fundamental skill in the preparation of undergraduate recreation majors. The purpose of this overview is to illustrate the need for creativity in the workforce and how best to nourish student creativity through undergraduate teaching. We review…

In response to academic and healthcare restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pirate Wellness Program (PWP), a recreational therapy telehealth program, was developed and implemented in May of 2020 by East Carolina University Recreational Therapy (RT) faculty to provide virtual services and interventions to quarantined individuals with…

Through recognizing that teleconferencing platforms--such as Zoom--were not created to serve as virtual classrooms, but rather to host virtual meetings, I created a semester-long mock stakeholder meeting project for my Recreation Planning class in hopes of harnessing the unique strengths of a platform designed for meeting purposes. This brief…

Service learning is an effective approach to deepen student learning through engagement of action and reflection. This project was structured to benefit students as well as our community partner by addressing a pressing need during the COVID pandemic.

Success in the field of recreation management requires a variety of 21st-century skills including the abilities to solve complex problems, think creatively, and collaborate with peers. Research suggests that instructor contribution through active learning pedagogy, incorporation of technology, and maximization of classroom design can foster…

Online courses have become common in leisure studies and recreation education university programs, yet little is known about online instruction in this field, especially in courses about human diversity. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is (1) to discuss literature relevant to online courses about human diversity broadly, and in a leisure…

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) in an experiential learning setting can provide undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to learn about other professional practices, address patient/individual needs, and learn to work in a team setting that is respective of many disciplines. The current study examined the impact of an…

In our research on university students from historically under-represented backgrounds who successfully graduate from their undergraduate degree program or are in their final year, we found that many who participated in out-of-class activities indicated those activities were important to their success. We take a strengths-based approach to focus…

An ongoing debate points to a possible gap between the published research about and the delivery of leisure services. For example, two of the major research journals in the field of leisure studies, "Journal of Leisure Research" ("JLR") and "Journal of Parks and Recreation Administration" ("JPRA"), are…

The purpose of this article is to explore how intergroup contact theory and inclusive recreation curriculum may influence undergraduate students' perceptions of individuals with disabilities. Attitudinal barriers continue to be a constraint for people with disabilities in regards to community participation. Academic recreation programs have an…

Demographic trends related to the baby-boomer generation suggest that the future will necessitate significant increases to the workforce serving this population. Recreational-therapy services are no exception, as this area of practice ties directly to the anticipated health-care and quality-of-life needs of this growing segment of society. The…

The history of parks and recreation is deeply rooted in child's play. From Joseph Lee's writings about the developmental benefits of child's play at the beginning of the 20th century to the establishment of the University of Illinois's Motor Performance and Play Research Laboratory in the 1960s and 1970s, child's play has been a central focus of…

Academic researchers dedicated to contributing to quality improvement in professional practice need to find more effective ways to bridge the gap between research and practice. Bridging the gap requires understanding what encourages the use of research findings by practitioners and what discourages it, as well as understanding how practitioners…

This four-day learning activity on the controversy of exclusion of gays and subsequently atheists in Boy Scouting is particularly relevant because it highlights the complexities that surround issues of equality, equity, the provision of leisure services, First Amendment rights, and the implications of court decisions on social justice. This lesson…