Evidence on the design of adventure learning and its impact on children's cognitive skills and social and emotional learning

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the stated challenges and stated research gap and future work of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 1986 and 2026, spanning 3 journals. Those papers have been cited 28 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• Risky Outdoor Play and Adventure Education in Nature for Child and Adolescent Wellbeing: A Scoping Review (2025) · Behavioral Sciences · cited 18× · doi

  One challenge identified is the need to balance the benefits of nature-based risky play and adventure education with the need to ensure child safety and minimize risk. Another challenge is the need to address parental anxiety and institutional liability concerns that may limit the implementation of nature-based risky play and adventure education programs. A third challenge is the need to promote cultural risk aversion and encourage the development of programs and policies that support child and adolescent wellbeing through nature-based risky play and adventure education.

  generalstated challenges
  Keywords: one challenge identified need balance benefits nature-based risky
• Flourishing through adventure learning: A (semi)cautionary tale (2026) · British Educational Research Journal · doi

  There is a lack of evidence on the design of adventure learning and its impact on children's cognitive skills and social and emotional learning. The study identifies a gap in the understanding of how adventure learning can be used to promote improved peer relationships, help repair broken student-teacher relationships, and engage disengaged learners. The research highlights the need for effective transfer mechanisms to ensure gains are maintained in school.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: there lack evidence design adventure learning impact children
• Effective Learning in Adventure-Based Education: Setting Directions for Future Research (1986) · The Journal of Environmental Education · cited 10× · doi

  RONALD D. RIGGINS ABSTRACT: There is research evidence that adventure-based programs are effec- tive vehicles for education. Research has failed to clarify, however, how adventure- based programs create an environment for effective growth and change. By extrap- olating results from studies on effective traditional classroom education, educators may begin to address this issue. Through a literature review, this article identifies and explores five characteristics known to exist in both the adventure-based learning environment and the effective traditional classroom setting. They are: (1) small learning group size; (2) cooperative learning environment; (3) communication of high expectations for students: (4) building on student success; and (5) creating an identifiable classroom culture reflecting positive, supportive values. uring the past twenty years, a number of labels D have been applied to adventure-based education programs. “Stress-challenge” (Bernstein 1970) and “survival training” (Adams 1969; Clifford and Clifford 1967; and others) were popular terms in the early stages of program development. They lost much of their popu- larity because they reflected a limited aspect of the total program and placed a sometimes misguided emphasis on a high degree of personal risk (Meier 1980). Ronald D. Riggins is an associate professor and coor- dinator of the Recreation and Parks Program at Western Washington University, in Bellingham, WA . Terms incorporating “wilderness” (Cardwell 1978; Lowenstein 1975; and others) and “outdoor” (Parker and Meldrum 1973; Senosk 1977; Wade 1975) increased in popularity beginning in the mid-1970s. However, they implied an environmental constraint not always consistent with program settings and content popular today. Of greater current use are terms focusing on the con- cept of adventure: “adventure programs” (Dawson 1979); “adventure-oriented programs” (Buell 1981 ; Iida 1975); “high adventure programs” (Spacht 1980); “adventure education” (Bagby 1980; Cousineau 1978); “adventure-based education” (Walsh and Golins 1976); and “adventure-based experiential education” (McAr- thur 1978; Wells 1978). Kylloe (1980) defines such programs as “planned pro- grams of situational adventure experiences developed to 1 Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 09:47 09 May 2016 2 JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION provide optimum growth and learning opportunities for individuals and groups” (p. 5). According to Wood and Gillis (1979) they contain three common elements: (1) stressful experiences which occur in (2) an educational framework, and which (3) are based on the Outward Bound model. Critical elements of the Outward Bound model, as described by Walsh and Golins (1976) are: (1) a neutral physical envi

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: adventure based programs education learning program environment effective classroom high terms ronald riggins growth traditional

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