Prescott College

Background: School-based outdoor experiential education (SBOEE) is a curriculum-aligned approach in which classroom teachers use outdoor environments and experiential teaching pedagogies to promote student learning. While research demonstrates its benefits for students' academic, cognitive, and social-emotional development, SBOEE remains inconsistently implemented and underrepresented within teacher preparation programs. Purpose: This systematic review examined how SBOEE experiences within teacher preparation programs influence pre-service teachers' self-efficacy, knowledge, skills, and preparedness to utilize SBOEE. Methods: We conducted a systematic review using PRISMA guidelines and Braun and Clarke's (2006) thematic analysis framework. Seventeen peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025 were analyzed to identify patterns related to SBOEE integration and teacher development. Findings: Three types of experiences emerged: mastery experiences, where pre-service teachers practiced teaching SBOEE, vicarious experiences, where they observed SBOEE facilitated by peers, and modeling, where they observed teacher educators or experienced teachers implementing SBOEE. Each type enhanced pre-service teachers' knowledge, confidence, and preparedness to utilize SBOEE. However, SBOEE opportunities varied greatly across programs and were often inconsistently employed. Implications: Intentional integration of SBOEE in teacher preparation programs may strengthen pre-service teachers' efficacy and likelihood of utilizing SBOEE.

Background: Research attests to the beneficial effects of canine-assisted interventions (CAIs) for supporting post-secondary student well-being. As post-secondary is a time of great stress and anxiety, institutions implement resources, such as CAIs, to try and bolster student well-being. Among other measures, CAIs have been shown to improve student self-esteem, connectedness to campus, and decrease stress, homesickness, and loneliness. However, an essential figure in these interventions has rarely been studied thus far: the therapy dog handlers themselves. These interventions simply cannot take place without the therapy dog handlers, so it is crucial to further understand their role. Methods: To address these needs, this qualitative study explored therapy dog handlers' perceptions of their roles and responsibilities and whether they are utilizing professional counselling skills that are potentially outside their scope of practice. Thirteen therapy dog handlers from a large post-secondary therapy dog program in Western Canada were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews focused on topics such as handlers' motivations for volunteering, a self-description of their role, and the skills they use when interacting with students. Results: The insights gleaned from handlers in our study revealed they often feel as though they are pseudo-therapists and utilize many of the same skills, while recognizing that they are not professional counsellors, nor are they meant to be. Conclusions: Findings from our study clarify how therapy dog handlers perceive their role and the varied skills they employ to support human well-being outcomes. Our findings help respond to the need to more fully understand a key agent within the therapy doghandler-client triad.

Corporate sustainability has gained prominence in recent decades, yet challenges remain in its integration into business due to conflicting priorities, regulations, and guidelines. Despite research demonstrating positive links between sustainability and profits, many companies prioritize profit over society and the environment. While prior research has explored theoretical frameworks, a gap exists in a lack of concrete data and analysis on how successful companies implement key sustainability practices. This study addressed this gap by investigating key practices in the governance, strategy, and values of high-ranking sustainable firms in the United States. The results demonstrated consistent patterns across different datasets, providing valuable guidance codified in a guideline format for sustainability integration. The proposed guidelines offer a starting point to companies for assessing their position on the sustainability journey. They present a list of practices focused on efficient resource allocation, summarizing the approaches employed by high-ranking sustainable companies. The intention is not to prescribe specific actions but rather to provide guidance that will enable companies to understand and select practices based on where they are in their corporate sustainability journey.