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Semester schools provide high-school students with a relatively new type of learning environment that largely has not been empirically studied. This study used a retrospective survey (n = 797) to explore the learning outcomes that stem from semester schools and identify features within the educational environment that promote them. Participants reported that appreciation for differences was the most critical and useful outcome of participation in semester school programming, with willingness to try new things, communication and identity development following closely behind. Participants also identified specific features of semester schools that supported the development of their learning outcomes, which included relationships with faculty and peers, the pedagogical approach used by semester school teachers, the non-traditional structure of the semester, and specific coursework or learning activities. The findings pointed to the strong community that developed between students and their peers, as well as to their teachers as being a driver of the intrapersonal development participants experienced, which partially stemmed from the distinct features of semester schools such as being away from home, living together in a bounded social structure, and having an integrated curriculum. In addition, the temporary structure of a semester school could promote types of learning that students would not typically experience while at traditional four-year high schools.

Background: Understanding how contextual elements within educational environments relate to identity formation can help educators design experiences intended to support identity formation processes. Purpose: This study examined identity formation among students enrolled in immersion semester high schools and how contextual elements and identity formation actions influence identity formation process profiles. Methodology: Data were collected from middle to late adolescents using the Dimensions of Identity Development Scale, and analyzed using latent profile analysis, crosstabulation, and regression. Conclusions: The findings showed that thinking about values and beliefs in school is related to increased identity exploration and that the teacher-student relationship and novelty in these contexts facilitates thinking about values and beliefs. Students prone to rumination may particularly benefit from the supportive environment, which can increase the likelihood that they discuss their values and beliefs. Implications: Experiential educators working with middle to late adolescents who want to help their participants engage in identity formation should prioritize teacher-student relationships, novel experiences, and a supportive community.

Outdoor adventure education has an extensive history of considering how its students should wrestle with privilege. Recent events have brought issues of privilege to the forefront, which raises the question of whether outdoor adventure education can play a role in learning to see and affect systems of privilege. This paper examines several elements of outdoor adventure education that make it an ideal environment for teaching about systems of privilege, and makes the argument that Jack Mezirow's critical reflection, wherein people question the principles that underlie their ideas, should be a key element of outdoor adventure education curriculum in the 21st century. The authors' perspectives are grounded in critical theory and the assumption that power dynamics need to be examined in order to be changed. By combining critical reflection with the unique characteristics of outdoor adventure education, outdoor adventure educators may be able to successfully teach participants to recognize and impact systems that operate around them.

In "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (2011) Kahneman describes two modes of thinking: System 1 and 2. System 1 operates quickly, automatically, and unconsciously, drawing on our vast reservoir of stored knowledge to decide what should or should not be done in any situation. System 2 is a slower, more deliberate process, requiring us to step back from our immediate circumstances to analyze them in more depth. Kahneman praises System 1 for its efficiency in dealing with life's ordinary problems, but cautions against relying on System 1 when faced with more complex problems. In this paper, we reason that the essence of effective college teaching is moving students from System 1 to System 2 thinking. We describe both systems in detail, illustrate how System 1 thinking applied to a System 2 problem can be troublesome, and then propose an educational strategy to elevate students to a System 2 frame of mind.

The outdoor recreation industry faces the challenge of recruiting the next generation of professionals. This study examined factors that may influence young adults' interest in outdoor recreation careers, including participation in organized and unorganized outdoor recreation as a youth, connection to nature (CTN), racial identity, and socioeconomic status (SES). An online questionnaire was distributed using a Qualtrics panel, and criterion sampling was used to ensure the sample included participants with approximately equal representation across racial identity and SES categories. Participation in unorganized recreation, CTN, and SES were found to be significant predictors of interest in outdoor recreation careers. Additionally, participation in organized recreation was found to be a significant negative predictor of CTN, while participation in unorganized recreation and racial identity were significant positive predictors of CTN. Finally, CTN had a small mediating effect on the relationship between unorganized recreation participation and interest in outdoor recreation careers.

Background: Research shows that people benefit from having an internally defined belief system and identity to guide their decision-making rather than depending exclusively on external authorities to make choices. Less is known about what types of developmental experiences facilitate progression toward self-authorship, which is a way of being where a person depends on their internally defined beliefs to make decisions and direct their future. Purpose: This study examined an experiential education setting and the influence the setting had on high school students' progression toward self-authorship. Methodology/Approach: We used Pizzolato's open-ended Experience Survey and semi-structured interviews to examine aspects of self-authorship in high school students attending a semester-long experiential education program. Findings/Conclusions: We found students returning from their semester-long program focused on decisions that had a greater impact on their personally defined, long-term identity rather than immediate decisions. In addition, students showed growth in the three domains of self-authorship--epistemological, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. The results could be attributed to the pedagogical approach of the experiential education program. Implications: Educators who seek to provide experiences that support self-authorship could implement developmentally effective practices situated in an experiential learning context.

This study examines semester schools, which have elements associated with transformative learning, and an adolescent population, where transformative learning has less commonly been studied. We administered the Learning Activities Survey pre/post semester (n = 173) and followed the survey with semistructured interviews (n = 30) to assess whether students experienced Mezirow's stages of transformative learning and achieved perspective transformation. Our results suggest that adolescents experience the stages of transformative learning more frequently at semester schools than at their originating schools. However, while students said they achieved perspective transformation on the surveys, interviews revealed that the outcome might better be described as a cycle of identity formation. Students said that the relationships with teachers and students, time for reflection, and the structure of the semester were important to their learning. Specifically, a supportive but challenging environment provided content that they reflected on to gain insight into their values and beliefs.

We assessed the efficacy of the educational simulation Quagmire to deliver curriculum focused on park and protected area management in a time of record visitor use. Specifically, our study evaluated how Quagmire prepared contemporary students to maximize field-based learning during a week-long experience at Capitol Reef National Park, USA (Capitol Reef). Student essays and discussion responses (n = 71) were collected following the visit to Capitol Reef, and coded by two researchers familiar with Quagmire and simulation-based learning. Place-based education and preparation for future learning frameworks were used in qualitative analyses. Results indicate students perceived Quagmire prepared them to maximize learning at Capitol Reef, however, combining Quagmire with subsequent field-based learning did not substantially contribute to outcomes associated with connection to place. Implications for using Quagmire with contemporary student populations are discussed, as is the potential usefulness of sequencing simulation-based gaming with field-based learning.

Transformative learning (TL) theory has rarely been used in outdoor adventure education (OAE) research despite many students describing their courses as transformative. In this study, we applied TL theory to OAE to determine whether the outcomes students reported and the activities and processes used on course produce TL. We surveyed 139 National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) students using the Learning Activities Survey and interviewed 20 about whether they were transformed at NOLS and if so, how they were transformed. Our findings showed that OAE can be a catalyst for TL but it depends on the student and whether they have encountered a disorienting dilemma (or challenge to their usual frames of reference). OAE courses that challenge students while offering a supportive environment and time for reflection are more likely to promote TL. Educators seeking to provide TL should focus on reflection, challenge and support in their curriculum.

Background: The relevance of outdoor adventure education (OAE) programs to diverse participants has been questioned by numerous scholars. Limited research exists about similarities in learning outcomes across categories of difference such as race and socioeconomic status. Purpose: This study focused on understanding how learning outcomes differed between students who did and did not receive scholarships to attend an OAE program and whether students apply what they learn in OAE to their lives similarly. Methodology/Approach: Twenty-one students who enrolled on a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) course between 2010 and 2012 participated in semi-structured interviews 5 years after course completion. Half received scholarships. Participants were matched by course. Findings/Conclusions: Regardless of group, students reported learning comparable lessons and using what they learned in OAE similarly. What differed was the transfer context, meaning the conditions where students applied their learning. Scholarship students do vary demographically from non-scholarship students, but most students in both groups attended college during or after NOLS. This may explain why they applied their learning in similar ways. Implications: OAE practitioners can anticipate that most OAE students will learn the outcomes targeted through the program design and delivery regardless of scholarship status.

Background: Practitioners want to create meaningful experiences for youth because they provide positive benefits. Immersion semester high schools are likely to provide meaningful experiences. Purpose: This study sought to identify what types of activities are most meaningful to youth, whether activities are more meaningful in immersion semester high schools, and to determine which aspects of immersion semester high schools predict meaningfulness and whether this varies by emotional valence. Methods: Youth (N = 261) provided 11,498 surveys (6,062 at program/5,435 at home) when they participated in an immersion semester high schools and when they were at home. They reported on the meaningfulness of experiences twice daily for 3 weeks in each context. Findings : The results showed that hanging out with peers was the most meaningful activity, that experiences in immersion semester high schools were more meaningful than at home, and that whereas higher levels of emotion predicted higher levels of meaningfulness regardless of how positive or negative the experience was, behavioral engagement was more predictive for positive experiences, whereas psychological engagement was more predictive for negative experiences. Implications : Immersion semester high schools can create more meaningful experiences than at home, especially those that are emotionally engaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor adventure education (OAE) is philosophically rooted in Western values, yet it has been implemented in non-Western cultures, such as East Asia. This paper examines how OAE functions in East Asia, through data from Hong Kong. Although some cultural differences are clear, there is no compelling evidence that OAE cannot provide benefits in Eastern contexts. The data in our example support the premise that OAE can be a viable and valuable medium for the development of social and intrapersonal skills and may serve as a complementary approach to traditional schooling in East Asia. Implications from this paper include better aligning OAE with schools and teachers, understanding the merits of relationships developed through OAE, and appreciating that some traditional OAE practices should be questioned when exported to different cultures.

In 2003, the University of Utah and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) completed a study that developed a risk management taxonomy in the outdoor adventure industry and assessed how different outdoor expeditionary programs (OEPs) managed risk (Szolosi, Sibthorp, Paisley, & Gookin, 2003). By unifying the language around risk, the goal was that OEPs would be better able to understand how their risk management strategies compared to that of similar organizations; however, to do so, they needed empirical data against which to compare themselves. The study ultimately resulted in the identification and definition of 21 risk management strategies and 15 categories of hazards that OEPs typically encounter. OEPs then completed a survey in which they ranked what strategies they use to manage each hazard. Among the key findings were that larger organizations (defined by budget and user field days) tend to employ more risk management strategies than smaller organizations do. The survey also produced a ranked list of how frequently OEPs use each strategy. Since then, the outdoor industry has largely maintained a focus on the staff team, participants, environment, and equipment as the central areas in which risk can be managed (Dallat, Salmon, & Goode, 2015). Attention to these areas can be seen, for example, in the Meyer and Williamson (1998) accident matrix, which looks at potentially unsafe conditions, potentially unsafe acts, and potential errors in judgment. The accident matrix continues to be widely taught, and one can draw parallels between the categories it attends to and the 2003 survey hazards. The purpose of this study was to update the findings to understand how the use of risk management strategies has changed. A second goal was to identify OEPs' contemporary concerns.

Background: Meaningful experiences are integral to well-being, yet our understanding of how educational experiences can be designed to promote meaningfulness is limited. Purpose: Our study examined whether immersion semester high schools facilitated more meaningful experiences and investigated relationships between experience factors within immersion semester high schools and meaningfulness. Method: For 3 weeks at an immersion semester high school and home, youth reported on the most meaningful activities they engaged in during morning and afternoon/evening periods, their perceived meaningfulness of that activity, the level of emotion involved, the emotional valence, and their psychological engagement and behavioral participation. We collected 18,804 observations from 638 participants and analyzed the data with a series of mixed effects models. Findings: Activities were significantly more meaningful at immersion semester high schools compared to home. Additionally, activities were more meaningful when individuals had higher behavioral participation and psychological engagement, when the experience involved more emotion, and when the emotion involved was more positive. However, interaction models indicate that the effects of psychological engagement and behavioral participation varied depending on emotional valence. Implications: To expand the reach of meaningful educational experiences, we should explore whether structural elements of immersion semester high schools can be applied to other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on Coalition for Education in the Outdoors (CEO) Biennial Research Symposium. Topics include specialized organizations successfully serving the members' needs in the spheres of experiential education, organizing camping, nature interpretation, and conservation education; and assisting outdoor educators in advancing the philosophical, theoretical, and empirical bases of outdoor education.

The study investigated four aims that focused on the relationship between immersion semester high schools, identity formation processes, and contextual factors. Participants included students attending an immersion semester high school and students in a waitlist comparison group who would attend an immersion semester high school. Both groups completed a Pre/Post Semester Survey that assessed identity formation processes (using the Dimensions of Identity Development Scale, DIDS) and contextual variables, and Daily Activity Surveys that assessed how much a student thought about their values and beliefs and the presence of contextual variables in identified daily activities. We found that students at immersion semester high schools reported significant increases in the intensity of their identity formation processes in contrast to the waitlist comparison group, and that the context at immersion semester high schools differed significantly from the context for the waitlist comparison group. Students at immersion semester high schools thought significantly more about their values and beliefs, and regardless of group, thinking about one's values and beliefs was related to contextual factors, such as the role of the teacher, sense of belonging, opportunities for reflection, and the meaningfulness of the experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor adventure education utilizes expeditions and experiential education to provide students with opportunities for personal growth. However, by selling the possibility of adventure and character development, outdoor adventure education organizations unknowingly entangle the field with neoliberal ideologies. Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that promotes decentralization of governance, the rule of law, individual rights, and a free market. Despite its prevalence in the literature of related fields, outdoor adventure education scholars seldomly address neoliberalism, especially its effect on the field's social justice efforts. In this paper, we examine how outdoor adventure education's subscription to neoliberal principles, most notably individual rights and the free market, inhibits the field's attempts to contribute to social justice. Social justice is a process that seeks to unearth the institutional and systemic roots of injustice to work toward greater social equity. Institutions working toward social justice must disentangle from elements of a dominating neoliberal system that actively perpetuates social inequities. By understanding neoliberalism's influence, the outdoor adventure education field can become a leader for social justice by identifying the problems, and subsequent inequities, associated with neoliberalism. However, if outdoor adventure education hopes to progress beyond the oppressive structures imposed by neoliberal ideologies, we argue that the field needs to critique its current political, economic, and pedagogical practices. Outdoor adventure education organizations must embrace their role in developing citizens for a more just society by taking systematic and collective action. In an effort to make a tangible contribution, we offer potential strategies for mitigating the effects of neoliberalism and advancing social justice efforts in outdoor adventure education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]