Provides a comparative analysis of the implications for girls in outdoor and adventure education in New Zealand and England. Observed and interviewed girls aged 13-15 in residential outdoor education programs. Girls in both settings stated that their self-confidence had increased as a result of the outdoor and adventure activities. (KS)

Describes the effects of Camp DETOUR, an adventure experience program for sixth-grade students at a Georgia middle school. Program goals were improvement of student self-esteem as a component of drug abuse prevention and improvement of student behavior. The program was shown to have positive effects on student self-esteem. This result may deter…

Outdoor education staff in Toronto developed definitions of outdoor education, environmental education, conservation education, experiential education, environmental studies, adventure education, and global education. Predicts influences on outdoor education, lists implications of those influences, and recommends directions for outdoor educators…

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) brings medical and scientific skills to the documentation and prevention of violations of international human rights laws--a mission that can drain energy from staff. Project Adventure worked with PHR to provide adventure activities and team training for personal renewal and organizational development. Includes a…

Yoga creates a union of the body, mind, and spirit, and develops in the participant a conscious awareness of self. Noting that adventure education programs give participants the opportunity to come to a greater awareness of self, an experiential educator started combining yoga with adventure activities. Several anecdotes illustrate the mind/body…

Metaphors are guiding images that influence one's approach to problem solving. Experiential learning is a process of metaphor change; the task of educators is to facilitate development of new metaphors that generate new potential when old metaphors don't work. Discusses stages of metaphor development, creating an open learning space, and…

Four adventure and experiential educators discuss ethical dilemmas encountered in their work: participants coerced by their employer to attend diversity workshops, facilitator responsibilities, conflict between practitioner and client values, school requirements for student evaluation in an adventure physical education class, and correcting a…

Effective adventure programming is explained in terms of the "significant learning" experience, involving periods of tension, questioning, and transfer during personal and social learning. Adventure programming that is supportive, adaptive, and properly sequenced maximizes the potential of significant learning. Trust- and…

Personal narrative links elements of a dog sledding trip with the transformational curriculum model as applied to outdoor education. Describes the physical, mental, and spiritual challenges of a seven-day winter camping and dog sledding trip, during which students learned responsibility through experience and natural consequences and realized the…

Adventure education research struggles to measure components of the field's larger, complex processes and outcomes. Because valid measures provide the foundation of quantitative research, finding, assessing, and utilizing good measures of the outcomes and processes of adventure education are necessary. Describes measurement techniques, validity,…

Presents five group problem-solving initiatives for use in adventure and experiential settings, focusing on conflict resolution, corporate workplace issues, or adjustment to change. Includes target group, group size, time and space needs, activity level, overview, goals, props, instructions, and suggestions for framing and debriefing the…

Views experiential learning as metaphor development. If a participant's enactment of a personal metaphor leads to an impasse during an adventure activity, this moment of "stuckness" is an opportunity to develop new images that generate new options for action. Facilitators must be sensitive to such situations and assist in widening…

For true learning to occur, participants in experiential programs must be given the opportunity to explore personally meaningful concepts that come from their own history, context, and feelings. The different stages of experiential learning and the role of the facilitator in connecting experiences to the ongoing life story of each participant are…

In adventure education, debriefing is an art and a science. The facilitator must understand what is occurring and help people feel that they are learning for themselves. Categories of questions that move the conversation forward, explore deeper levels of understanding, and capture the "teachable moment" include open-ended, follow-up,…

This paper examines the development of outdoor education in Hong Kong from its colonial roots to the challenges of its uncertain future. The scene is set by a synopsis of Hong Kong's geography, history, economy, and culture. Next, we trace the history of organised outdoor education from the early 1900s to the present day. This is followed by a…