Mathematical modelling emphasizes the connection between mathematics and reality -- still, tasks are often exclusively introduced inside the classroom. The paper examines the potential of different task settings for mathematical modelling with real objects: outdoors at the real object itself, with photographs and with a 3D model representation. It…

Students routinely struggle with grasping and retaining the content of marketing research courses. To combat this problem, a new market research course was designed that applies all content in the course to an outdoors-based experiential learning project. Specifically, a hands-on nature therapy project was used that involves developing a marketing…

The paper utilises the method of hermeneutic interpretation to examine the sense and meaning of Jaroslav Foglar's first and most famous long-term stage game and its motto 'Alvarez needs only the brave and the strong!'. The historical impact (nearly 80 years since the game was introduced) and the motivational, programmatic and ethical elements of…

Starting around 2000, research activity about sail training increased such that there is now sufficient research on the subject to constitute a foundation upon which an emerging body of literature can be identified. The literature has the potential to be utilized to influence program design, policy, theory, and practice--a growing area of youth…

Adventurous activities are established as an integral aspect of The National Curriculum for 5-16-year-olds. Securing a place in the curriculum provides adventurous activities with an unparalleled opportunity to reach more pupils than any other form of delivery during these formative years. However, little consideration has been given to…

Franklin Vernon provided an example of how programs viewing themselves as "cultural islands" are in fact embedded within historical capitalist relations, through the discourses of "self" that they promote. In this response, I expand on Vernon's argument to situate the quasi-therapeutic practices he identified in the history of…

Environmental awareness is evaluated related to cognitive and affective areas so it might be considered one of the important points in order to predict environmental behavioural change. One of the behavioural change models is ecological dynamics model (EDM) and this model's characteristics overlap with ecopedagogy-based outdoor experiential…

This article explores the current state of knowledge regarding the use of autonomous student experiences (ASE) in outdoor and adventure education (OAE) programs. ASE are defined as components (e.g., solo, final expedition) in which participants have a greater measure of choice and control over the planning, execution, and outcomes of their…

Despite the belief that emotions are important in the learning process, research in the area of emotions and learning, especially in science, is scant. Modelling and SSI argumentation have shared with respect to the emphasis in recent science standards reports as core scientific practices that need to be part of science teaching and learning. Even…

America's adult populace has failed to keep pace with the rapid inundation of science-centric advancements affecting nearly every facet of personal and public life. With deficiencies in areas of science knowledge, America's adult populace is characterized as civic science illiterate. This research constructed and employed the renewed citizen…

A facilitator is commonly defined as a substantively neutral person who manages the group process in order to help groups achieve identified goals or purposes. However, outdoor educators rarely experience the luxury of only managing the group process, because they are typically responsible for the provision of leadership, skill instruction, and…

Throughout time and across cultures, the relationship between Homosapiens and the natural environment has played a central role in identifying and defining aspects of the realm of spirituality, wherein humans seek to make sense of the universe and find meaning in their own existence. Within outdoor recreation and experiential education (OREE)…

Successful hiring, training, and pairing or grouping of staff requires administrators to consider the relationship between their programs' goals and the specific outdoor leadership skills of individual leaders. Authors have divided outdoor leadership skills into a three-category structure, and models of outdoor leadership have focused on skills…

There is an increasing interest in the field of experiential education to move beyond simply documenting the value of experiential education programs and, instead, develop more evidence-based models for experiential education practice (cf., Gass, 2005; Henderson, 2004). Due in part to the diversity of experiential education programs, participants,…

The article aims to introduce Environmental Education (EE) in Finland and to discuss how it has been taken into account in Finnish nature schools. Firstly, we present EE models used in Finland. Thereafter we describe a qualitative case study on EE in nature schools (NS). The aim of the study was to get information for the development of EE. The…