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,…

A trainee in psychotherapeutic counseling conducts an allegorical trip to the Greek underworld via a caving trip to demonstrate the healing and learning potential within the risk-based experience. The acknowledgement of one's fears and their origins can have a powerful effect and serve as a metaphor for transformation in other areas of life.…

The death of a 17-year-old British girl on a youth expedition to Vietnam prompts questions about the ethics and role of expedition education and about accreditation and regulation of the adventure field. Should the agenda be controlled by a central corporation, government, or the field itself? Those in the field should present a united front on…

Many outdoor adventure educators are ignorant of the relevant literature and heritage. Books and tradition have become a waste of time for those who believe all learning must pay in the fast-time global mis-economy of fragments for sale. Yet many university students relish the classics and deeper knowledge, once they are given the opportunity. (TD)

Describes outdoor education students' developmental needs for belongingness, acceptance, care and friendship, praise and recognition, responsibility, self-respect, creativity, achievement, and new experiences. Explains how upward, outward, forward, and downward models of personal growth can be linked to developmental needs to enhance and evaluate…

New adventure educators frequently rely on lists of review questions to guide group processing of activities and experiences. An alternative tool is offered; a review table based on themes of hard (technical) and soft (interactional) skills encourages observation and critical thinking as educators modify the review process to fit a particular…

Outdoor adventure educators need a solid foundation in theoretical knowledge that will influence and guide equally important practical skills. A strong sense of professional practice should be instilled in new outdoor adventure educators to prevent them from becoming insulated in their ideas and practices. Philosophical underpinnings and good…

Nineteen practitioners, academics, and students of outdoor and adventure education explored the role of adventure education in promoting spiritual development at a think tank held in 1999 in Cumbria (England). Discussions on the nature of spirituality, outdoor education elements conducive to spiritual development, and ethical considerations…

Walk and Talk Experiences combine challenging outdoor experiences, group living, and opportunities for reflection and discussion to promote self-exploration and personal development. The British program has served various client groups, such as adolescents and people with disabilities or special needs. Activities on several weekends are described.…

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…

A company division of 72 people that had participated in an adventure training program one year earlier was surveyed to identify the longitudinal impacts of adventure training on corporate managers, attitudes toward adventure training, and changes in work behavior. Results showed positive changes that were short-lived without follow-up programs.…

Reviews "Quality Work with Young People" (John Huskins, 1996) and other writings of the 1990s concerned with outdoor adventure education, youth work, "risk," and risk management. Compares these works with those of the 1970s. Criticizes deterministic trends in adventure education "interventions" and the present-day…

A survey of outdoor and adventure activities (OAA) in 33 United Kingdom schools found the following: 1) successful programs resulted from individual teachers' commitment, 2) primary and secondary pupils gained enormous benefits from OAA, 3) OAA's benefits were often lost because of inadequate reporting, and 4) OAA's contributions to personal…

Educational programs that teach agricultural practices, health care, or technology in developing nations can be complemented by adventure education. Adventure education can foster the social skills that enable people to cooperate, take initiative, and solve problems, and thereby contribute to their country's development. Arguments against the…

The Youth Sport Trust developed a package of activities to support the teaching of outdoor and adventurous activities, integrated into the British national curriculum through physical education programs for preschool through secondary school age. Activity categories are physical challenges, trails, and orienteering. Teaching resources and their…