According to a recent report from the National Center for Educational Statistics, approximately 20% of the United States' high-school aged population is at risk of dropping out of high school, an outcome that strongly limits participation in economic and educational opportunities. The importance of earning a high school diploma has increased many local districts' efforts to close graduation gaps across the student population. Accordingly, this study evaluated a recuperative environmental leadership and service (EL&S) program in a northwestern local district to ascertain its effectiveness in providing at-risk students the personal and academic support required for high school graduation. Following the logic model program theory, this study examined the program's effectiveness in redirecting off-track students by comparing on time (4 year) and extended-time (> 4 years) graduation rates of at-risk students who did participate (n = 96) and did not participate (n = 76) in the EL&S. Through an ANCOVA, the 4 year and extended graduation rates, 68.3% and 89.1%, respectively, were analyzed and found to be higher than the on-time and extended-time graduation rates for the local district, 65.8% and 68.5%. Results indicated that the EL&S does statistically increase the participants' likelihood of graduating from high school. These findings illustrate the utility of EL&S interventions for at-risk students who have experienced multiple indicators of educational failure. Replication or adaptation of this EL&S program could provide social change benefits to educational stakeholders seeking to close the graduation gap; to families seeking educative and personal support for at-risk students; and to struggling students desiring to contribute to the economic, educative, and social growth of their community.

Experiential, outdoor education supports improvement in students’ problem-solving skills; collaboration and communication skills; and enjoyment in learning in the outdoors. Outdoor instruction is becoming increasingly underutilized. A residential environmental education center, located in Tennessee has conducted professional development programs in effort to increase teacher implementation of instruction in outdoor spaces. This institute revealed concern for low implementation rates to past professional development opportunities. Their newly designed, long-term professional development explored teacher’s perceived challenges and needs, then combined effective experiential pedagogy in outdoor spaces with pre-established communities of support from the participating schools in effort to contribute to experiential, outdoor instruction reform. This program entailed four workshop meetings over a seven-month time span, producing over 50 hours of face-toace contact during the training. Program leaders designed the learning experience to include effective professional development strategies; reflective assignments; and activities that related to citizen science, experiential learning, and science and engineering practices found in the recently adopted Tennessee State Science Standards. This study identified concepts of the planned, delivered, and received curricula of the workshop series to define the intentions, methodologies, and impact of the experience. The intentions of the program were aligned to the delivered curricula then the impact of the program was considered. Data collected during this qualitative study included over 15 hours of interviews; over 110 hours of observation field notes; and various artifacts including journals, handouts and applications. This long-term professional development provided a pre-established community of practice and advocated for experiential instruction in outdoor spaces; eliminating barriers; improving teacher confidence and implementation of knowledge gained; and reinforcing the professional development experience.

Objective. To design a faculty-guided international elective Advanced Pharmacy Practice Expereince (APPE) in partnership with a medical relief organization. To expose students to pharmacy-related opportunities in non-traditional settings focused on an indigent population, while obtaining a global perspective on healthcare. Methods. The College of Pharmacy partnered with an international medical relief organization utilizing their resources for trip planning and in-country logistics to provide a framework for a pharmacy student rotation. The international trip is a portion of the calendar month rotation, while the balance is faculty-guided discussion groups, involvement in formulary planning, developing educational materials, and local medical relief work. Student course evaluations, exit interviews, and post-trip debriefing were used to evaluate the rotation experience. Results. The APPE rotation met all pre-selected objectives outlined by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. This is evidenced by complete submersion into a developing country’s culture and healthcare system as well as student course evaluation responses. Students evaluated seven rotation objectives with the College of Pharmacy’s Likert scale. The average score was 4.8 of 5, which demonstrated the student’s either agreed or strongly agreed that each objective was met. Additionally, the response to the exit interview and group de-briefing questions confirmed that the students successfully met the goals and objectives of the APPE rotation. Conclusions. Partnering with an international medical organization can provide a framework for a faculty-guided international elective APPE experience, requiring minimal resources from the College of Pharmacy while providing a quality international experience.

This research study examined the long-term effects of a professional development study tour to Southeast Asia that took place in 2001. Participants included ten public school teachers from Western Massachusetts, which has a significant population of people of Vietnamese and Cambodian descent. Funded by a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant, the purpose of the study tour was to increase teacher awareness, knowledge and understanding of contemporary Southeast Asia so that they could more effectively address the educational needs of students representing diverse cultural backgrounds, particularly immigrant and refugee youth, through the development of culturally relevant curricula and lesson plans. From 2007 to 2009, this researcher conducted a series of phenomenological interviews with nine of the original participants to investigate more deeply how their personal and professional lives were impacted by the study tour experience. The decision to interview using a phenomenological approach was based on the belief that in order to more fully understand how and why individuals constructed meaning(s) from certain experiences, it was essential to have some contextual knowledge of that person's life, including those formative episodes that helped establish their original worldview. Analysis of study tour impact areas revealed areas of personal and professional growth particularly as it pertained to the development of sociocultural consciousness, cultural understanding, sensitivity and empathy towards students of diverse cultural backgrounds. Another finding was that the experience of being an "outsider" in another country provided the context for teachers to explore and critically reflect on issues related to their own social and cultural identities. Further analyses revealed that the overall impact of the study tour varied based on the participant's prior intercultural and life experiences. Participants with less experience and practical knowledge of issues of multiculturalism and identity were more likely than their counterparts to come away from the experience with more profound changes to their worldview. This study is theoretically grounded with research in multicultural education, experiential education, transformative learning, global education and study abroad.

This theoretical and empirical thesis with title Influence of experiential education to clients youth club, it is dealing with the topic of the experiential education and the topic of youth club in the theoretical part. The practical part then connects these areas to the practical example. Using qualitative interviews with participants, we answer to the question: What is the significance for their development are aware of the trip participants with experiential education components, organized NZDM Dixie? Keywords Experiential education Experience Reflexion Youth club Endandered children and youth Socially undesirable phenomena

The traditional way to learn about social sciences in a university setting includes taking courses that teach theoretical frameworks and scientific methodologies that are required for one’s major area of study. The courses that are taught to students are determined by what major they sign up for. After a student has taken all required courses,what skills does the student have to take with him after graduation? Whether participation is pursued solely for academic credit, for career development, or for civic engagement, an experiential experience typically enhances a student’s connection between academic content and “real world” applications. Bridging the gap between “real world” situations and the classroom demonstrates the need for the application of knowledge. This project’s primary purpose was to examine the student’s internship experience and determine whether it helped to enhance his or her ability to achieve the predicted outcomes of the internship program. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies was deemed appropriate for empirical analysis. This evaluation project measured enhancement outcomes of an internship program, which rationalized potential designs for the undergraduate sociology major/minor and the undergraduate criminology minor, offered by a higher educational institution.

This study examines the experiences of five teachers who lead and participate in adventure biking trips with students. The narrative case study was framed by the author’s autoethnographic writing: her personal narratives about leading adventure education trips, teaching experiences and reflections on the concept of learning. The meaning four other trip leaders made of their adventure biking experiences was investigated through conversational style interviews characterized by open ended questions and a list of issues to be explored. The purpose of the study was two-fold: to discover what meaning teachers make of adventure bike trip experiences and what happens when teachers collectively explore that meaning in relation to their teaching practice. The voices of the participants uncovered four meaningful elements of the trip experience: personal challenge, shifting perceptions of students and student learning, the opportunity to shed the teacher facade and positive collaboration with colleagues. As the participants collectively reflected upon these meanings they began to examine their in-school teaching practices in relation to the trip spaces. Tension between the two spaces opened up a dialogue where the participants began to challenge their teaching identity, enabling them to imagine their classrooms in a different light. The results of this study point to the need for teachers to have opportunities to participate in unique and novel teaching experiences (such as the adventure education trip) that hold within them the potential to initiate change in practice. In order to challenge education experiences, time and space need to be provided for teachers to reflect and develop teacher knowledge that can transfer into the development of positive, effective learning communities with colleagues and in their classrooms.

The work deals with personalities that are among the more significant in this field in our country. The aim of the research is to discover and to describe these individuals. Then to show, where and in which organization and association they work, from which position they are known, what have achieved education, what they propagate or hold. Will be presented their published posts and will be summarized their overall work.

This thesis deals with terms like experience and experiential learning in publications by John Dewey. The aim of this thesis is to find out how John Dewey works with issues of experiential learning. The thesis is structured in six main chapters. Each chapter is relevant to one Dewey´s book, which is related to experiential learning theory. In the first chapter, there are general thoughts of experiential learning from Experience and Nature. In the second chapter, Art as Experience is analysed, in which Dewey researches experience connected with art and aesthetics. The third chapter presents an analysis of The Child and The Curriculum, focused on curriculum from the point of experimental learning. The fourth chapter is concerned with The School and Society, in which there are obvious thoughts of experiential learning from educational and social perspective. The fifth chapter is based on Democracy and Education, where John Dewey thinks about experiential learning and its consequences for an individual in democratic society. Last chapter analyses Experience and Education, which sums up and complements the previous publications.

The dissertation explores the potential psychological risks in accessing pedagogy of experience, during adolescence. The beginning of the thesis characterizes the basic pedagogical concepts related to the pedagogy of experience. It briefly describes the experiential pedagogy as an approach, its objectives, principles. An important part of this thesis is the theme of psychological security, focusing on adolescence. Furthermore, the dissertation focuses on crisis intervention, ie helping the experiential course participants in a risk situation, which they cannot handle alone. The last part is devoted to the summary, and compares the views of selected experts on the issue of psychological safety and potential risks in experiential education. The first half serves as an introductory part. The second half is more specific. It includes the most important part, which is a comparison of views of experts, and a list of psychological possibilities and risks of experiential education.