Can preservice students learn to teach alternative curriculum models based on book knowledge alone, or should they experience the models firsthand? Curricular models abound in the physical education profession (e.g., fitness, personal-social development, movement education, adventure education, sport education, multi-activity). Many prospective…

Three 2-week international courses using a holistic experiential program design--dramaturgy--were evaluated. Seventy participants completed questionnaires 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after the courses. Dramaturgy enhanced the challenge to participants through innovative nonphysical activities and can be adapted during the program for specific…

Project Adventure's adventure-based counseling text, "Islands of Healing," uses language and simplistic conceptions of individualism and community to create an ecology of ideas. In this framework, moral and social complexities of modern life are exchanged for an artificial cyberspace-like microworld where unthinking acquiescence to group…

More people are participating in adventure programs than ever before. Consequently, the natural resources that support these activities are being compromised, resulting in greater restrictions on land and water use, and implementation of user fees. Trends towards artificial adventure environments, certification and accreditation, litigation and…

Summer Activities Initiatives is a U.K. program that uses outdoor adventure activities to prevent dropouts and help at-risk young people re-engage with services that offer them further education, training, or employment. This preliminary look at a program evaluation discusses the target group, recruitment, staffing, residential programming,…

This article highlights Project Adventure, an adventure-based curriculum that teaches students social skills, teamwork, and conflict resolution. It describes how Project Adventure works, what effect it has on students with behavior disorders, and practical steps for teachers to follow as they introduce their students to this social-skills…

A model to explain the adventure experience and to relate adventure experience to adventure education uses risk and competence as diagram axes with experimentation/exploration, adventure, peak adventure, misadventure, and disaster/devastation completing the framework. The model assumes that peak adventure, the point at which personal competence…

On the premise that the benefits of adventure education far outweigh risks in any well managed program, this document provides such programs, which stand on relatively untested ground in the eye of the law in this litigious society, with strategies for reduction of risk by controlling the nature and frequency of accidents. The first section…

Emphasizes value of service component in adventure education. Describes how rescue training in adventure programs promotes individual and group development. Explains how Outward Bound and similar programs emphasize rescue service using genuine or simulated rescues. Offers model and references for incorporating rescue-service theme into outdoor…

Two methods of teaching beginning kayaking were compared using matched groups of Australian college students. One approach teaches rolling in the event of a capsize as the first skill acquired, whereas the other approach begins with basic skills and strokes. Teaching rolling first was found to enhance subsequent skill acquisition and learner…

Among the 156 employees of a Canadian corporation, group initiatives and ropes courses were equally effective at improving overall trust toward their organization. However, the ropes course diminished acceptance of others' ideas, while group initiatives built acceptance. The ropes course enhanced encouragement of others' efforts, while group…

Pre- and postvoyage interviews with seven participants on a 10-day adventure trip aboard the sail training ship Leeuwin revealed that the experience met the expectations of most participants and that participants experienced increases in self-confidence, self-esteem, motivation, and tolerance. Suggests that prevoyage briefing, postvoyage…

Interviews and surveys of 98 students and 7 instructors in Outward Bound Canada found that specific aspects of course activities, the physical environment, instructors, and participants influenced course outcomes. As role models, instructors made a greater contribution to student interpersonal skills than most other course components. Implications…

For 72 new workers in a British automotive corporation, self-confidence was enhanced by participation in a ropes course. While general debriefing (addressing a wide variety of human behaviors) and specific debriefing (centered solely on self-confidence) contributed to these improvements, the benefits that accrued from specific debriefing were…

Journal entries, reflections, and interviews from a phenomenological study indicate the benefits experienced by 70 British youth participating in a six-week Greenland expedition. Themes emerging from the data include reflection on values, life and career plans, friendships and relationships, connectedness to self and society, environmental…