The Duke of Edinburgh's Award adopted flexible and creative strategies for delivering the expeditions section since the UK countryside was severely restricted during the foot-and-mouth crisis. This includes the option of undertaking ventures during winter. Because of greater risks during winter, advice and requirements are given concerning…

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…

Outlines environmental, equipment, and social changes related to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Expedition since 1956, and debates the need to restore the expedition's physical challenge or to emphasize the developmental inner journey of the mind and spirit. Considers whether the purpose of the expedition is a physical challenge or a developmental…

This paper describes a longitudinal study of a residential outdoor education school program in Australia. Specifically, the research tracked 409 ninth-grade students for up to 24 months to determine the impact on boys and girls of an extended-stay outdoor education program. The program is located at Timbertop, a coeducational school in a…

This paper explores some aspects of building and fostering strong group dynamics to enhance expedition behavior and ultimately, successful wilderness group experiences. It attempts to reflect the needs of both large-scale expeditions and educational and camp groups traveling through wilderness, and includes various activities to allow for direct…

Augustana University College (Alberta, Canada) offers a senior-level outdoor pursuits course called Arctic Canoe Expeditions, open to any student with a previous canoe-based outdoor course. Course goals are for students to apply knowledge from previous outdoor courses, integrate knowledge from their home disciplines into the experience, explore a…

In Annie Proulx's novel "The Shipping News," the anti-hero undertakes a journey of change that transforms the way he sees himself and his ways of acting and relating. This novel about the complexity of life and difficulty of change mirrors the course of wilderness-enhanced narrative therapy. Narrative therapy suggests that the sum of…

A study examined experiences of nature among eight adolescents during a 12-day wilderness trip. The trip generated feelings of good will toward nature but no increase in environmentally responsible behaviors. Group norms emphasized social interaction and constrained attention to nature. Outdoor educators should consciously plan for transfer of…

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…

Fourteen wilderness and adventure therapy programs in England, Scotland, the United States, and New Zealand were studied to explore critical issues of practice. In view of differences in terminology among countries, various terms and assumptions are defined at length: adventure therapy; wilderness therapy; wilderness-adventure therapy; the…

Adventure travel to Latin America requires careful planning, implementation, and followup to ensure safe, healthy experiences. This paper provides an overview of basic principles of prevention, assessment, and treatment of medical problems common to adventure travel in tropical areas. A brief introduction defines the vegetation and climatic…

Three years after a 35-day wilderness expedition in northern Ontario, five youths described lessons from the trip that were either transfered to their home environments or were overcome by the social influences of their home environments. Follow-up support is recommended to assist with integration of learning into the home environment. (Contains…

This paper briefly describes development of an Australian wilderness program for at-risk and problem students and outlines the "wilderness enhanced" model on which it is based. In the late 1980s, the New South Wales Department of School Education developed a wilderness intervention for adolescents with a history of school behavior…

This proceedings contains selected papers from the first International Adventure Therapy Conference. The papers reflect a wide range of ideas about what constitutes adventure therapy and how it should be conducted. Presenting an array of international perspectives, programs, and practices, the papers expand the current literature, which has come…

Laurentian University (Ontario) offers a 4-year holistic outdoor adventure leadership program that promotes personal growth, develops leadership skills, and trains individuals to be safety-minded in various outdoor settings. A strong environmental ethic is promoted through courses in biology and Canadian Native culture. Practicums, internships,…