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Do outdoor education experiences contribute
to positive development in the affective
domain?
Crompton, J.L. and Sellar, S.
The Journal of Environmental Education,
12.4 (1981), 21-29.
Purpose:
Review current literature to determine whether
the empirical evidence supports the assertion
that outdoor education contributes to positive
affective development, specifically to development
in self-concept, socialization, attitude
toward the outdoors, and attitude toward
school and teachers.
Sample:
Subjects in the studies were school-aged
children ranging in age from eight to 18.
Camp experiences included resident and day
camps. Length of experiences ranged from
a 7-hour nature center experience to two-week
residential camp and six-week day camp experiences.
Methods/Instruments:
Instruments:
- Self-concept: Three approaches: direct
measures of self-concept, discrepancy
scores, locus of control orientation measures.
Instruments used included: Nowicki-Strickland
Locus of Control Scale, Piers-Harris Self-Concept
Scale, Lipsitt Self-Concept Scale.
- Racial Integration: Children's Manifest
Anxiety Scale, qualitative measures.
- Disadvantaged Groups and Socialization
and Teacher-Student Relationships: specific
instruments not reported.
- Impact on Attitude Toward Outdoors as
a Learning Environment: Millward-Ginter
Outdoor Attitude Inventory, semantic differential
instrument using paired adjectives, Environmental
Attitude Inventory Grade B, 20 statements
related to outdoor camp rated using a
Likert Scale.
Designs:
- Qualitative and quantitative designs
were used.
- Most designs were pre-test/post-test
designs. Some use of follow-up or retention
post-test.
- Some use of control groups, randomization
and matching
Results:
- Enhanced self-concept and positive changes
in locus of control, with some positive
retention effects in self-concept.
- Facilitation of peer socialization and
racial integration with some transfer
effects to the classroom.
- Improved teacher-student relationships.
- More stimulating educational environment
if the subject area was closely related
to the outdoors and the experience was
long enough.
- Contradictory findings on the impact
of the outdoor education experience on
economically disadvantaged students.
- Little support for positive effect of
outdoor education experiences on attitudes
toward school.
- The research in this area is sparse
and most of what exists is on the master's
thesis and doctoral dissertation level
rather than published research in professional
journals.
- There were fewer studies on the effects
of programs on participants than on leadership
preparation, philosophy, program development,
etc.
- The reviewer noted the following design
weaknesses: lack of retention tests, inadequate
control and randomization, possible experimenter
bias, small samples not representative
of the larger population, use of instruments
with untested reliability and validity.
- The reviewer recommended the use of
the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control
Scale as appropriate for use in outdoor
education studies.
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