Karen Paisley

Using the Significant Life Experience Framework to Inform Program Evaluation: The Nature Conservancy's Wings & Water Wetlands Education Program

Significant life experience research suggests that outdoor experiences foster proenvironmental outcomes. Time spent outdoors is more frequently identified as the source of proenvironmental behavior than is education, suggesting that cognition may be less important than affect. Yet, environmental education field programs are often evaluated on cognitive outcomes alone. The authors piloted a mixed-methods evaluation, measuring both cognitive and affective responses to a field education program. Quantitative responses suggest that field-based participants demonstrated greater cognitive understanding than classroom-based participants. Qualitative responses suggest that field programs foster different affective reactions than do classroom programs. These results have critical implications for field-based programming, classroom instruction, and evaluation.

Student Learning in Outdoor Education: A Case Study from the National Outdoor Leadership School

While much attention has been paid to what students learn in outdoor education settings, little has been paid to the process through which that learning occurs. The purpose of this study was to identify the mechanisms through which students report learning one of six targeted objectives on courses offered by the National Outdoor Leadership School. Results suggested five broad domains through which learning occurs: structure-oriented mechanisms; instructor-oriented mechanisms; student-oriented mechanisms; student- and instructor-oriented mechanisms; and mechanisms that are a result of environmental qualities. The relative importance of each of these domains is discussed, as are recommendations for practice.

Mechanisms of Learning Transfer in Adventure Education: Qualitative Results from the NOLS Transfer Survey:

Transfer of learning from adventure programs remains of critical interest to adventure education professionals. Although some research has investigated what transfers, notably less has focused on mechanisms that might influence transfer. This paper explores the mechanisms of transfer reported by a stratified random sample of National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) alumni. The 538 participants reported that instructors (through a variety of means), inherent qualities of the adventure courses (e.g., group dynamics, natural setting), and curriculum (e.g., leadership progression) were critical mechanisms of transfer. Some of the literature-based mechanisms were not evident in the data; however, some (e.g., active learning, feedback) are inherent in adventure education. Thus, adventure education programs may inherently foster learning transfer through a variety of both data- and literature-based means. Ultimately, learning transfer is complex and highly individual; astute adventure educators should intentionally use a wide spectrum of techniques and tools, ranging from group dynamics to curriculum, when considering transfer in adventure education.

White Privilege in Experiential Education: A Critical Reflection

Through narrative and critique, this critical analysis addresses the role and reification of privilege in the pedagogical processes of experiential education. Using whiteness as a critical and theoretical lens, we argue experiential education is a privileged pedagogy, aimed at maintaining the status quo and reproducing dominant power relations between racialized social groups. Participants, instructors, spaces, and activities often reflect the embedded whiteness of experiential education. We critically examine the use of challenge in experiential education and offer a language of possibility for future trajectories for experiential education which facilitates more just and equitable teaching and learning processes.

Fostering Trust in Outdoor Leaders: The Role of Personal Attributes

This study examined trust development between participants of outdoor education programs and outdoor leaders. Participants were college students enrolled in outdoor education courses. Using a factorial survey design, the technical ability, interpersonal ability, benevolence, integrity, and gender of an outdoor leader was displayed randomly in a series of scenarios. Along with these leader attributes, the scenarios included two hypothetical situations that occur in outdoor education settings. Participants also completed a measure of dispositional optimism. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling, which revealed that displays of a leaders technical ability, interpersonal ability, benevolence, and integrity each influenced trust scores positively. Implications for future research and for outdoor leadership practice are discussed.

Trust Development in Outdoor Leadership.

Establishing trusting relationships between leaders and participants is one way that outdoor leaders can create an emotionally safe and productive milieu that supports the attainment of desirable outcomes. Multidisciplinary literature offers considerable insight into leader trust development and the outcomes that are linked to trust in a leader. This paper considers the contributions of that literature and offers findings from two studies that examined how outdoor leaders might gain the trust of participants. The results of these two studies suggest that participants develop trust in outdoor leaders in response to displays of both leader ability and character.

Intentional Programming in Wilderness Education Revisiting its Roots

October 2003 • JOPERD• Vol. 74 No.8 21 tional curricular design that targets specific educational goals, even though this targeting led to some of the oldest and, arguably, best wilderness programs in the world. Spurred on by a fractured market and increasing competition, the use of wilderness by outdoor recreation programs and the number of organizations using wilderness shouldcontinue to rise. Many newer organizations most likely will not have access to the seasoned leadership and curricular considerations that Outward Bound and NOLS had when theywere begun. In the old paradigm, an experienced outdoor educator might be able to assess a group, seamlessly alter the course design, and achieve the desired course objectives. In comparison, newer outdoor leaders and aspiring outdoor leadership students may lack the experience-based judgment necessary to make appropriate unplanned curricular decisions. In addition, the average outdoor leader today is younger, more inexperienced, and less able to make spontaneous, judgment-based programming decisions. Fortunately, a well-designed, intentional program can be robust to unanticipated problems: an exceptional leader can make a mediocre KAREN PAISLEY

Disrupting neoliberal discourse in critical sustainability education: a qualitative analysis of intentional language framing

While education for sustainability is a critical task that is gaining ground in a plethora of educational contexts, it is frequently rendered ineffective in the face of neoliberal practice and discourse. Here we examine the pervasive impacts of neoliberalism on education for sustainability, looking specifically at discursive formations that shape our understandings of humans in and as nature. Throughout ecological texts, root metaphors carry forward specific cultural histories that serve neoliberal agendas by positioning nature as commodity and humans as consumers. We sought to systematically understand how manipulating a root metaphor in the creation of instructional texts might disrupt neoliberal discourse and foster critical sustainability. Using a thought-listing technique to explore student response patterns qualitatively allowed for insights into the power of discourse in educational contexts. Data support the notion that intentional framing may be a powerful tool in education for sustainability. We argue that language and discourse are necessary and effective grounds for change if sustainability is to take root.

Fostering Experiential Self-Regulation through Outdoor Adventure Education.

Learners thrive when they have the capacity to regulate interest and goal direction. Through direct experiences that are interesting and goal-relevant, learners can internalize and better understand their own agency in the learning process. This article further examines this premise in an outdoor adventure education (OAE) context through two interrelated studies. The aim of the first study was to investigate the potential of OAE to afford more frequent experiences that are interesting and goal-relevant. The aim of the second study was to build on the findings from the first study and determine if exposure to OAE programs might lead to more self-directed learning. The results partially support the premise that OAE can foster experiential self-regulation.

The multi-dimensionality of group cohesion: A social network analysis of NOLS courses

Outdoor adventure education (OAE) provides a unique and dynamic context for small groups. Whether a group functions efficiently, both socially and technically, can be tied to the structure of the small group. Considering the development of relationships and community are some of the main drivers of student participation on OAE courses (Sammet, 2010; Sharpe, 2005), an outcome that is important to the well functioning of small groups is cohesion (Forsyth, 2010).