The ability of adventure education to influence the social skill development of urban middle school students

This study investigated the ability of adventure education to impact the social skill development of United States urban middle school students. The Project Adventure Inc. RESPECT adventure education program was delivered to students at three Boston Public middle schools over the course of three academic years. Students at two neighboring Boston Public middle schools were used as a comparison group. The RESPECT program was a comprehensive, whole-school program facilitated by school administrators and teachers trained by Project Adventure staff. Social skill ability was measured by the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) Student Form, which was administered at the beginning and end of each academic year for a total of six measurement occasions. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze the longitudinal data to determine the effect of treatment, school, and gender on students\u27 initial status and estimated rate of change in social skill development. Results showed no statistically significant difference between experimental and control students\u27 estimated rates of change. However, the shape of estimated growth trajectories was different between groups. Similar results were found regarding the role of school attended on social skill development. Statistically significant differences were found between male and female students\u27 estimated rates of change regardless of treatment status or school. Females began sixth grade with higher social skill ability than males. Males and females declined in a similar fashion until the end of seventh grade, however, males increased more sharply than females from the end of seventh grade to the end of eighth grade. Results also indicated that regardless of treatment status, school attended, or gender, urban students had a nonlinear estimated social skill growth trajectory during their three middle school years. Specifically, students demonstrated a decline in social skill ability from the beginning of sixth grade to the end of seventh grade followed by an increase in social skill ability from the end of seventh grade to the beginning of eighth grade. The findings of this study are relevant to both school-based adventure education research and the broader area of adolescent social skill development

Contact Theory as a Framework for Experiential Activities as Diversity Education: An Exploratory Study

Participation in experiential education is said to enhance people\u27s appreciation for diversity. This article reports on a study that found significant changes in participants\u27 attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors following a nonformal diversity education program using adventure-based and community-service activities. Additionally, hypothesized program conditions, as outlined by contact theory, were significantly predictive of outcomes, although majority and minority participants differed on their perceptions of these conditions. These findings suggest that experiential activities may be considered a viable approach to diversity education in nonformal settings, assuming key conditions are met. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed

An Evaluation of the Impact of a One-Week Summer Camp Experience on Participants\u27 Social Skill Development

Social skill development is emerging as an important issue for educators and practitioners in their work with adolescent youth. Within the summer camp industry, youth development researchers are beginning to focus more intentionally on the ability of summer camp programming to develop social skill capacity among its participants (Thurber, Scanlin, Scheuler, & Henderson, 2007). While research in camp settings has been occurring for several decades, much of the inquiry has been descriptive in nature (Henderson, Thurber, Scanlin, & Bialeschki, 2007) or focused on individual psychological traits such as self-esteem and self-concept.(Gillis & Speelman, 2007). More recently, however, social skill development has received more focused attention in both in and out-of-school settings, namely from researchers investigating the emerging theory of social and emotional learning (SEL), with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) foremost in this process (Durlak & Weissberg, 2007; Rimm-Kauffman & Chiu, 2007; Rimm-Kauffman, Fan, Chiu, & You, 2007; Zins, Bloodworth, Weissberg, & Walberg, . 2004 ). Encouraged by this trend, researchers within the camping industry have called for a more intentional focus on promoting social skill development in their respective programming (Jordan, 1994; Nicholson, Collins, & Holmer, 2004). In the youth development literature social skills are critical to the educational process of adolescent students and have been shown to be a fundamental asset for healthy psychosocial development and (Moote Jr & Wodarski, 1997; Scales, Benson, Leffert, & Blyth, 2000). Additionally, social skills serve as a preventative tool for future issues such as misbehavior in school, criminal conduct, dropping out of school, unhealthy stress, and violent behavior (Mahoney, Stattin, & Magnusson, 2001; Marsh & Kleitman, 2002). While acting as a deterrent to these problems, social skill development has also been shown to be a significant factor in current and future academic functioning and achievement (Eccles, Barber, Stone, & Hunt, 2003; Malecki & Elliot, 2002). Within the camping and outdoor education literature, research findings are mixed regarding the impact of adventure-based programming on social skill development. A small number of studies have found no significant change in the social skill development of participants in adventure­-based programs (Dickey, 1996; Michalski, Mishna, Worthington, & Cummings, 2003). However, other studies have shown positive gains in social development through such programming (Boyle, 2002; Guettal & Potter, 2000; Reefe, 2005), with more recent studies utilizing considerably larger sample sizes to enhance the significance of their findings (Henderson, et al., 2007; Thurber, et al., 2007). Given the increased focus on the relationship between camp programming and social skill development, this study aims to provide additional insight into this topic

American Indian Gathering and Recreation Uses of National Forests

Proceedings of the 2004 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station: 81-87.This paper identifies and describes the patterns of use of the Chippewa National Forest (Minnesota) by Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe members; and, the use patterns of six national forests in northwest Montana by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The paper also identifies conflicts tribal members encounter while using the forests and makes recommendations regarding the management of national forests in light of tribal members' use of these lands. The implications from both study areas indicate that Forest Service managers should pay more attention to cooperative approaches, and potential co-management of forest resources that are near American Indian reservations. Managers need to be more sensitive to American Indians' uses and values associated with national forests and other protected lands that are close to reservations. They also need to be aware of the history of government and tribal relations, as well as tribal member traditional and historic uses of forests

The Project Adventure RESPECT Program: Implementing an experientially-based intervention as an agent for whole school social and academic change in the era of evidence-based practice

As experiential education attempts to achieve more prominent influence in school reform efforts, organisations often bring adventure into the classroom. This paper will use the Project Adventure RESPECT Program as a means to explore the challenge of implementing a system-wide experientially-based programme as an agent for whole school social and academic change. Developed to address the current requirements of evidence-based research in United States education, this programme provides valuable insights into the use of experiential methods in traditional school settings. Initial results and conclusions will be discussed from the first two years of this three-year research project