The field of outdoor recreation education, or experiential education, has come into question recently because of the lack of evidence supporting it's value. Programs like Outward Bound, NOLS, and even university Outdoor recreation programs (like Regis University's OAP) struggle for funding and institutional support because of their supposedly "unproven" nature. This need has paved the way for an entirely new field of sociological research surrounding the value of experiential education. However, sociological research is not always enough. The search for justification of these sorts of outdoor recreation programs is now expanding into the "hard sciences" for biological, chemical, neuro, and physiological support.
Alan Ewert, Chair of the Environmental Health department and previously Director of Personal Development at Outward Bound, has a long history in research supporting the outdoor recreation industry. Experiential education has been linked to stress reduction, trust, development of social networks, sense of empowerment, and resilience (Ewert 2012). Ewert 1989 explores the power of fear and anxiety in outdoor adventure experiences and how control and understanding of the level of fear in participants is important for adventure leaders. Recently, Ewert's research has taken a different turn. In a presentation at November's Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education conference titled "Identifying changes in participants' levels of stress during a high challenge activity: Using physical biomarkers and psychological measures," Ewert's colleagues reported the effectiveness of salivary cortisol measurements as well as facial expression analysis to measure stress response before, during, and after a challenging repel. Though the results of the experiment were inconclusive, this was one of the first projects that utilized techniques of this sort.
The use of new techniques for this type of research not only involves other branches of science in the justification of outdoor recreation education, but it could result in new information about stress and the human body in settings other than a lab. Future research ideas presented by Ewert's colleagues included the use of brain wave monitoring as well as more thorough blood hormone testing once technology for this type of monitoring becomes more available for use in the varied settings of outdoor recreation.
Ewert, A. (1989). Managing Fear in the Outdoor Experiential Education Setting. Journal Of Experiential Education, 12(1), 19-25.
Ewert, A. W., & Voight, A. (2012). The Role of Adventure Education in Enhancing Health-related Variables. International Journal Of Health, Wellness & Society, 2(1), 75-87.
I was disappointed to read that Ewert's research was inconclusive! Cutting outdoor programs is definitely becoming an epidemic in schools today because as you said, it's true that it's harder and harder to find solid proof that it is directly adding to the child's educational experience. For someone like me though, I can easily say yeah sure, of course by allowing a child/adolescent/young adult to pursue to the outdoors gives him or her a great educational benefit. However, actually quantifying this type of education I see is extremely difficult and is in increased demand by educational institutions. I do think however this new sociological branch of research is fascinating because even though these results have been inconclusive so far, they might prove fruitful in the future. Aren't we trying to keep children's interest outside instead of the current trend that is tending towards television, phones and tablets. Perhaps utilizing these research methods used by Ewert will help us gain the actual hard evidence we need to give educators and parents the push they need to get their kids away from social media and computer screens back to the outdoors. I think that even though these experiments unfortunately didn't show the results Ewert probably intended, they will definitely be in use in the future! This article was super exciting! I would like to know more about his exact testing methods since I am personally still at a loss on exactly how one measures the exact value of a experiential education. I understand how stress tests work, but what exactly are you stressing and under what circumstances?
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