Background Nature-based learning (NBL) has gained attention across experiential, outdoor, and sustainability-oriented education; however, research on adult learning in natural environments remains fragmented. Purpose This scoping review synthesizes 32 empirical studies published between 1996 and 2025 examining how adults learn in and with nature when natural environments function as active components of the learning process. Method The review followed the methodological framework for scoping reviews and was reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. Studies were identified through systematic searches of educational and interdisciplinary databases. Included studies addressed adult-focused NBL across formal, non-formal, and informal contexts. Studies covered higher education, professional training, community-based programs, and outdoor learning. Findings Five thematic outcome domains emerged: ecological knowledge and scientific literacy, awareness of environmental challenges, practical conservation skills, personal and professional development, and relational place-based perspectives. Three orientations of adult NBL were identified: learning about nature, learning for nature, and learning through nature. Methodological approaches ranged from experimental designs to qualitative case studies and participatory approaches. Implications The review clarifies conceptual boundaries of adult NBL, highlights the pedagogical role of natural environments in adult learning, and identifies directions for future research revealing conceptual and methodological diversity across the field.
Background Outdoor experiential education and adventure-based training are widely regarded as important practices within experiential education because they involve challenge, direct participation, peer cooperation, guided reflection, and transfer of learning. However, evidence on their effects on students’ self-efficacy remains inconsistent. Purpose This study synthesized available evidence on the effects of outdoor experiential education and adventure-based training on students’ self-efficacy. Method A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted using Chinese and English databases. Eligible studies were screened according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Controlled studies and one-group pre–post studies were synthesized separately. Findings Controlled studies showed a significant positive effect on students’ self-efficacy, although heterogeneity was substantial. One-group pre–post studies also showed significant improvement following intervention, with negligible heterogeneity. Overall, the available evidence suggests a positive association between outdoor experiential education and adventure-based training and students’ self-efficacy, although the findings should be interpreted cautiously given the small and methodologically mixed evidence base. Implications : These findings suggest that outdoor experiential education and adventure-based training may have potential value for physical education, camp education, and youth development, although stronger evidence from more rigorous controlled studies is needed.
Background: Entry-level health, kinesiology, and sport professionals, such as certified therapeutic recreation specialists and sport managers, are often required to adapt programming or provide education related to this topic. As a result, it is important to practice these skills prior to entering the work force. There is limited research to identify the impact of experiential programs in which students encounter adaptive programming or adaptive sport awareness. Purpose: The purpose of this initial comprehensive evaluation was to determine if a student-led seated volleyball project created an avenue for recreational therapy (RT) and sport management (SM) students to develop skills in education, planning, and implementation of adaptive programming. Methods: This initial comprehensive evaluation used a qualitative-dominant complementary mixed methods approach to gather perspectives from student learners and identified the motivation level of student participants, spectators, and volunteers. Findings: Findings identified comprehensive learning for students across all five levels of Kaufman's framework as well as high participation engagement and perceived value. Implications: These findings provide preliminary implications for future adapted sport awareness projects within university settings to help develop student competencies as well as serve others.
Background: Employability is a central concern in higher education, with increasing emphasis on how students prepare for the transition from university to work. Despite the growing importance of internships, outcomes related to internship quality and employability remain inconsistent. Purpose: This study investigates the role of clearly defined internship expectations and personal skill confidence in shaping students’ self-evaluation. It further explores how self-assessment relates to employability and the role of experiential learning in this relationship. Method: A structured survey was administered to 268 students in business and management programs, using convenience sampling. The data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling to examine the association between internship expectations, skill confidence, and self-evaluation on employability, with a focus on experiential learning. Findings: Students who received clear guidance during internships and felt confident in their skills tended to make more accurate self-evaluations, which in turn were associated with perceived readiness for the workforce. Self-evaluation was linked to employability, with reflective learning enhancing career preparedness supporting career preparedness. Experiential learning significantly moderated this connection, indicating that experiential exposure shapes how self-evaluation transfers into employability. Implications: The findings highlight the importance of structured internships, skill confidence, and self-reflection in shaping students’ perceived employability within the study context. The study offers context-specific insights into internship design and career development practices in higher education, particularly within emerging economy settings.
Background: There has been limited investigation of teachers’ perspectives on the provision of quality outdoor play in schools, analyzed through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and experiential learning. Purpose: This qualitative, globally scoped research examined teachers’ experiences of navigating motivational needs when facilitating quality outdoor play, with connections to experiential learning. Method: Data were collected via a web-based survey of 135 practicing teachers from 25 countries, incorporating demographic information and open-ended essay-style responses. Findings: Thematic analysis identified patterned findings organized through the SDT dimensions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Across participants, autonomy was expressed through resisting curriculum confinement, micro-autonomy in play supervision, and policy resistance to preserve play freedom. Competence was expressed through self-directed professional growth, specialist expertise and transferable skills, and competence threat from environmental deficits. Relatedness was expressed through collegial micro-communities, building trust with students, and parent and community influence. Findings demonstrate that when SDT needs are supported, outdoor play is more likely to be embedded as a valued pedagogical approach. Implications: This research extends SDT into an underexplored dimension of teacher practice, offering actionable insights for policy, professional development, and leadership strategies to strengthen teacher motivation and integrate outdoor play into core educational pursuits for schools.
Background: Collaborative engagement is central to experiential learning environments, where learners work in teams to address real-world problems and develop essential post-graduation skills. Despite its importance, no established measure exists to assess collaborative engagement dimensions of experiential learning across educational and professional contexts. Purpose: This study aimed to develop and validate the Collaborative Engagement Experiential-Based Learning (CEEBL) Instrument, designed to assess learners’ behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement in collaborative, experience-based learning environments. Method: An initial item pool was created through literature review and expert consultation across professional training disciplines. Face validity was established through expert review and pilot testing. The measurement structure of the instrument was evaluated using Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency was assessed using model-based reliability estimates in a primarily undergraduate business sample. Findings: Results supported a three-factor structure consistent with the theoretical framework. The final CEEBL Instrument comprised 19 items representing behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement. All items loaded substantively on their intended factors, and reliability estimates indicated strong internal consistency across dimensions. Implications: The CEEBL Instrument demonstrates strong psychometric properties and provides educators and researchers with a reliable tool to support collaborative engagement in experiential and professional education, enabling benchmarking of outcomes across programs and industries.
Background: Course-based photovoice brings together high-impact educational practices and can serve as a mechanism to engage students with their surrounding environment through photography, narrative, and critical dialogue.Purpose: This article (a) considers how photovoice may serve as a pedagogical tool for fostering student engagement with place; and (b) explores students' perspectives on campus green spaces and how engaging with these spaces through photovoice may have implications for sense of belonging.Method: Through photovoice, 26 undergraduates were invited to capture photos of campus green spaces and voice preferences, concerns, and potential improvements, culminating in a photo exhibition.Findings: Findings suggest that photovoice is a promising tool to allow multiple narratives about place to emerge. For example, student photo-narratives suggest that, in addition to more traditional spaces, informal, in-between green spaces hold meaning. Project outcomes include a change in student perspective (e.g., actively noticing campus nature) and feelings of empowerment (e.g., having a platform and audience). Overall, findings suggest course-based photovoice has the potential to encourage critical noticing, interpretation, and relation to place.Implications: The article concludes by critically reviewing limitations of course-based photovoice, providing recommendations for pedagogical practice, and considering how visual approaches may enrich place-based pedagogy.
Background: Traditional study abroad programs often overlook the importance of place, missing opportunities for deeper, context-driven learning. Despite the transformative potential of place-based education, existing research has not consistently examined or explicitly conceptualized its integration into global learning experiences. Purpose: This study explores the impact of a place-based study abroad program on first-year college students at a U.S. university. Method: Using a qualitative design, researchers analyzed reflective learning journals from nine students who participated in a short-term, place-based study abroad program in Scotland. The study was grounded in Experiential Learning Theory and utilized open coding and dyadic analysis to identify themes. Findings: Three interrelated themes developed from the data: (a) broadening perspectives through cultural immersion and reflective inquiry, (b) cultivating a strong sense of community among peers and with locals, and (c) increasing confidence and independence as learners and global citizens. These outcomes were shaped by the intentional integration of place, self-directed learning, and real-world engagement. Implications: Findings highlight the value of intentionally designed place-based study abroad programs, especially for holistic student development. Implications for educators and program designers emphasize the value of contextual, place-aware learning environments in global education, particularly for students in the early stages of their college experience.
Background: This review examines Carry the Flame: The Remarkable Story of the Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School (2025), an edited collection by Charles Luckmann, Alistair McArthur, Wendy Pieh, and Ian Yolles. The Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School (COBWS) has played a significant role in shaping outdoor and experiential education through its distinctive organizational culture and adaptation of Kurt Hahn's experiential philosophy. Purpose: This review describes how the book documents and interprets the history, culture, and guiding principles of COBWS. Methods: The editors bring together essays, artwork, photographs, and personal reflections to construct a multi-voiced narrative of the institution. Findings: Contributions emphasize consensus-based leadership, a strong and cohesive staff community, and the evolution of Hahn's ideals within the Canadian context. Implications: The book highlights the enduring influence of organizational culture on outdoor and experiential education, offering insights for educators and practitioners interested in community-based and values-driven program design.
Background Equine-assisted learning (EAL) has been widely applied to support personal and social development among children and adolescents. Little evidence exists to support the contribution of EAL to leadership development among university students, particularly in areas relevant to academic and professional growth.Purpose This study explores how EAL supports leadership-related learning processes among Malaysian university students.Method In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants, including university educators and an EAL facilitator. The qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.Findings Four analytic themes emerged: (i) communication and self-awareness, (ii) trust and relationship-building, (iii) resilience and problem-solving, and (iv) teamwork and leadership practice. Participants characterized EAL as providing novel opportunities for students to engage in experiential and embodied leadership learning, with horses offering immediate, non-evaluative responses that supported relational learning.Implications These findings suggest that EAL could stand as an important addition to traditional leadership education approaches in universities, providing transferable skills with implications for students' academic, professional, and personal lives.
Background: Research internships for high school students are designed to provide authentic, hands-on learning experiences to prepare students for STEM careers. However, few programs explored students' learning experiences, confidence, and engagement with interdisciplinary applied STEM research. Purpose: This paper explores the impact of SPARKS, Summer Program for Applied Research and Knowledge Sharing, which was created for high school students to develop their understanding of innovative, interdisciplinary STEM research. Methodology: The program was designed to engage students in cutting-edge research activities in collaborative, constructive contexts where students explore real-world problems, develop solutions, and present research findings. The study used a mixed-methods approach using quantitative and qualitative surveys to understand how the students' research confidence, identity, and STEM self-efficacy changed, along with mentorship and research experiences during the program. Findings: Pre-and post-surveys from two cohorts of 28 students showed significant improvement in students' confidence in completing research tasks like creating a poster and writing a research report. Students reported their mentorship experiences as valuable and shared that the internship expanded their knowledge and interest in STEM fields. Implications: The study presents STEM career pathways in K-12 contexts through interdisciplinary research, collaborative learning, and mentorship.
Background: Although game-based learning (GBL) is effective in STEM, its use in climate change education is still limited. This is critical because current educational efforts for younger generations often emphasize transient, non-experiential approaches, leaving them unaware of how unsustainable practices reinforce climate change factors. Purpose: We address this gap by developing a board game based on experiential learning theory (ELT) that simulates key climate change factors and compares its efficacy to traditional lectures. Method: We employed a mixed-methods approach: focus group interviews with 16 science teachers and a three-week learning assessment study with 32 high school students divided equally into GBL and lecture-based groups. Findings: Teachers confirmed the game's value in teaching climate causes and effects while reporting a lack of practical solution-based learning in the standard curriculum. The GBL group achieved 33% higher knowledge retention, participated in solution debates during 92% of sessions (compared to 12% in lectures), and exhibited iterative strategy changes, demonstrating ELT's 'active experimentation' phase. The game's mechanics, such as cause-effect cards and solution coins, effectively translated abstract concepts into tangible understanding. Implications: ELT-integrated GBL significantly outperforms lectures in retention and engagement, offering a viable model for effective climate change education in resource-constrained contexts.
Background: As educators seek innovative ways to engage students in transformative learning, immersive service-learning provides unique opportunities to develop leadership and stewardship. The program explored in our research study provides undergraduate students with intensive volunteer experience with the National Parks Service (NPS). Purpose: Our research study is designed to describe and investigate how a service-learning experience transforms students' understanding of leadership and stewardship. Method: The program integrates formal learning with experiential community-based learning through interactions with university faculty and park rangers within the national park. These course-based experiences help solidify the main concepts of servant leadership, stewardship, and service throughout the experience. Qualitative data used in the study was collected from impact videos and written reflection questions from ePortfolio workbooks of 23 undergraduate participants. Findings: In analyzing the data, it was clear that transformational experiences helped students in their understanding of leadership, stewardship, and building of cultural awareness and community. Through experiential learning, students were able to immerse themselves in the beforementioned concepts in interactions throughout the trip with many crediting these interactions for a shift in their perspective. Implications: These findings stress the importance of immersive, interdisciplinary experiential learning on students' personal development and understanding of course content.
Background: Amid the youth mental health crisis, schools are uniquely positioned to help build social-emotional competencies in students, which may protect against adverse outcomes. Equine-assisted learning is one approach to teaching social-emotional competencies in an experiential setting, ideal for underengaged students. Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the efficacy of a school-based equine-assisted social-emotional learning program in the United States for youth with diminished social-emotional competencies. Method: We implemented a randomized waitlist-controlled trial. Thirty-one students from six middle schools were randomized by school to receive 8 weeks of an equine-assisted social-emotional learning program, or first entered a waitlist condition before participating in the program. Outcomes included parent and teacher-reported social-emotional competencies; student-reported depression, anxiety, and self-efficacy; and school-reported absences and behavioral referrals. Findings: Parents and teachers reported improved student social-emotional competencies after participation in equine-assisted social-emotional learning (p < .01), but not after the waitlist control condition (p > .05). Implications: Our findings demonstrate meaningful improvements in social-emotional competencies among a small sample of students in an 8-week equine-assisted social-emotional learning program. These results suggest that targeted, experiential interventions such as equine-assisted learning can serve as valuable resources for supporting social-emotional skill development and represent a promising addition to school-based partnerships.
Background: What role can outdoor adventure education (OAE) play in response to political, material, and existential crises? While scholars have provided essential critiques of the pedagogies and practices in OAE, there has been limited engagement with the purpose and value of OAE from a critical justice-oriented perspective. This scholarly conceptual contribution proposed that by drawing on anticolonial and critical frameworks, OAE can be reimagined to provide students with important tools to respond to this political-economic moment. Purpose: This conceptual contribution aimed to critically repurpose core elements of OAE pedagogy and practice toward collective justice-oriented action. Method: This manuscript adopted an analytical approach that drew on theories of colonial racial capitalism and liberatory educational pedagogy. Findings: Three core elements of OAE pedagogy were identified and critically renovated within this framework, including the core element of self as reimagined through collectivism and interdependence, the core element of place and nature reimagined as a critical sense of place, and the core element of leadership reimagined as radical relationality. Implications: This conceptual investigation revealed that multiple opportunities for critical renovation of OAE as a form of liberatory education exist. However, these critical renovations require the application of theoretical frameworks.
Background: Independent Student Expeditions (ISE) are small-group learning activities regularly incorporated into outdoor experiential education (OEE) programming. Research suggests they yield valuable outcomes for participants; however, little is known about how groups that operate independently of their instructors regulate themselves to navigate the challenges they face. Purpose: To examine how OEE students regulate collaborative learning activities when instructors are absent or their role is less prominent, so we can offer insights into effectively utilizing ISE and other autonomous experiences as pedagogical tools. Method: Data were collected from NOLS semester students using a paper-and-pencil survey. To complement the survey data, a subset of participants completed follow-up interviews. Findings: ISE groups employed a variety of group and self-regulatory strategies to manage the challenges encountered during the ISE, allowing them to approach this course component as an opportunity for learning. Implications: Our data revealed three primary ways that instructors can help prepare groups for independent, collaborative learning: (1) help small collaborative learning groups learn how to regulate; (2) help individuals learn how to self-regulate; and (3) consider important structural components, like group member composition, before providing participants with independent learning experiences.
Background: Outdoor education in North America remains complicit in perpetuating settler-colonialism. Purpose: This paper uses a relational literature review methodology to explore how settler outdoor educators come to understand and (un)learn about colonialism. Method: Using relational literature review ( Tynan & Bishop, 2023) and Root's (2010) model of settler learning stages: priming, unconscious and conscious, we explore examples of each learning stage. Findings: Finally, we suggest that a fourth stage is warranted to describe ways in which settler practitioners are embodying learnings from Root's three stages. Implications: Practicing collective embodiment in cross-cultural settings presents an opportunity to shift outdoor education culture towards land mediated, transformative and emergent learning outcomes.
Background: Women continue to be underrepresented in outdoor leadership, a field traditionally shaped by masculine norms. Limited research explores the motivational factors that drive women to pursue and sustain these roles, especially in volunteer-based outdoor education programs. Purpose: This study aimed to identify the motivations and formative experiences that influence women's engagement and continued participation as instructors in Michigan's Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) program. Methodology/Approach: Five BOW instructors participated in semi-structured interviews focused on their backgrounds, experiences, and reasons for instructing. A constructivist theoretical framework guided the thematic analysis using NVivo software. Peer review of findings supported credibility and trustworthiness. Findings/Conclusions: Participants identified early exposure to outdoor experiences, strong mentorship, and cultural alignment with BOW as core motivators. Sustained involvement was attributed to emotional connection, supportive community, and the opportunity to create impact by mentoring others. BOW's unique all-women format enhanced confidence and belonging. Implications: To support gender equity in outdoor leadership, programs should foster inclusive environments that emphasize mentorship, shared values, and emotional safety. Findings inform future recruitment and retention strategies for women in outdoor education and leadership.
Background: STEM disciplines run a deficit of majors needed for national workforce needs, and students of color, first-generation college students, and women are systemically underrepresented. This deficit is often attributed to entrenched instructor-centered teaching approaches and noninclusive classroom environments, suggesting the need to explore the impact of alternative STEM pedagogies, including varieties of experiential learning, on these outcomes. Community-based learning, in which students help communities solve real-world problems, may be particularly valuable for these populations' cultural and personal values. Purpose: We apply Astin's Input-Environment-Output model to a systematic review of the literature to investigate the impact of CBL in STEM interventions on historically underrepresented populations' STEM major, minor, or career intent and their STEM-affiliated self-beliefs. Method: Following PRISMA reporting guidelines and JBI methodologies, we identified nine studies published between 1999 and 2024 and analyzed them for themes and strength of evidence. Findings: Only two compared the effect of CBL to that of other pedagogies, two compared outcomes across racial or ethnic groups, two compared outcomes for first versus continuing generation college students, and four compared outcomes across genders. Implications: Future studies should compare student outputs across demographic groups that are well-represented versus underrepresented in STEM (inputs) for CBL interventions compared to other STEM pedagogies (environments).
