Teaching Adventure Education Theory : Best Practices

Teaching Adventure Education Theory: Best Practices offers stimulating, fun, and engaging activities instructors can use to assist future adventure educators, outdoor leaders, and group facilitators in making the connections between adventure theory and practice. Written for students and instructors who want their classroom experience to be as involving as the field environment, this professional reference features ready-to-use lesson plans that employ experiential education strategies for presenting the theory underlying the technical and facilitation skills required in leading adventure experiences.

Editors Stremba and Bisson and leading adventure educators from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan provide an extensive perspective on teaching adventure theory, philosophy, history, and conceptual models through the use of activity-based learning. They offer a collection of 34 lesson plans that can be easily modified to fit individual teaching styles or student needs. Each lesson plan provides detailed activity instructions, teaching suggestions, and an overview of the theory taught in the lesson to provide the instructor with background conceptual material. An instructor CD-ROM, included with the text, contains student handouts, worksheets, and PowerPoint presentations to facilitate lesson implementation and assessment.

Teaching Adventure Education Theory presents experiential lesson plans covering such topics as these:

-Instructional theory and curriculum design processes

-History of adventure education

-Educational and philosophical foundations of adventure education, including lessons on John Dewey's contributions

-Central theories supporting common field practices, including optimal arousal theory, self-efficacy theory, attribution theory, and the flow theory

-Leadership models and theories

-Ethical and social justice issues

-Group development and social psychology

-Processing and facilitation models

-The human-to-nature connection

The book introduces core curriculum theories and models of adventure education, including a rationale on why students should know theory and how broader competencies within adventure education often align with colleges' liberal arts outcomes. It also explores the common pedagogical threads present in effective adventure education teaching processes and discusses the challenges and rewards of teaching adventure education. The book also provides a framework for implementing the lesson plans.

Teaching Adventure Education Theory: Best Practices assists instructors in bringing to the classroom the experiential learning, critical reflection, and interdependent community that a challenging outdoor environment facilitates, helping students broaden their view of adventure education to encompass its theoretical dimensions.

Bob Stremba, EdD, is associate professor and director of adventure education in the department of exercise science at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where he teaches a wide range of adventure courses both in the field and in the classroom. As a seasonal instructor and course director for Outward Bound Wilderness, Stremba enjoys the opportunity to put the theories of adventure education into action.

Stremba has developed adventure education programs at three universities in the United States and has taught conceptual, theoretical, and technical adventure skills to undergraduates for nearly 10 years, using experiential and hands-on activities to illustrate concepts and theories in his classroom teaching. He has presented his work on experiential education for adventure theory at several conferences for the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) and the Wilderness Education Association.

A member of AEE, Stremba also serves on the board of directors and as a member of four AEE international and regional conference committees, and he is a former member of the AEE's Accredidation Council. He is also a member of the Wilderness Education Association.

Stremba resides in Durango and enjoys backpacking, moutain biking, and snow skiing.

Christian A. Bisson, EdD, is an associate professor of adventure education at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire.

Bisson earned his doctorate in physical education with a specialization in pedagogy. He is a former editor of the CORE Newsletter for the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) Schools and Colleges professional group and served on the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Clearinghouse on Rural and Small Schools. Bisson was also an Outdoor Education editorial board member from 2001 to 2004.

In 2000, Bisson received an Outstanding Teaching Award from Northland College. He also received the Outstanding Experiential Teacher of the Year Award from the Association for Experiential Education in 1997.

He and his wife, Julie, reside in Plymouth. In his free time, Bisson enjoys parenting and, when possible, woodworking, hiking, and paddling.