This thesis develops understanding in using outdoor adventure as a tool for learning for young people. It examines how adventure pedagogy may be applied in conjunction with classroom education to offer physical and visual means to enhance classroom theory. The core of the study was the examination of a local authority Adventure Team, identified by the Authority management as having strayed from its roots, although not perceived as ‘failing’. The researcher became insider-researcher to combine professional experience with research knowledge, envisaging this study as the pre-cursor to an action research team development project. The aims of the research were whether the Team was delivering the ‘learning’ mandated by its youth work location and whether it could strengthen its delivery. The study defines adventure, before exploring the underpinning concepts making up the elements of ‘The Adventure Team’ and its identity within the local authority. Literature advocates adventure as a powerful tool to develop social and emotional literacy, which dovetails into Government agendas on health and education. Although the study was undertaken prior to the current coalition Government, the principal agenda remains consistent with the previous regime. The Government at the time of the research promoted adventure as a means to help young people learn about the world in which they live, and the current Government has not rescinded this ambition. This work embodies learning as an interactive process whereby adventure can engage the individual on an agenda of personal and social awareness, as well as cognitive learning. Using case study as the research approach, data collection was achieved using interviews, participant observation and secondary data. The research found that the Team could achieve more by developing closer working relationships and by the Authority leadership being strengthened to offer greater direction and support. The framework of delivery was centralising the Team such that it had become isolated, with little governance and without partnerships to make the programmes as powerful as they could be. The conclusion is that the Team could fortify its delivery through alliances to provide visual and physical means to reinforce and support traditional learning, which enhances understanding. Informal learning helps young people to understand how they learn and how they can apply learning, which augments motivation and creates ownership of the learning. The research is a forerunner to at least two future research studies. Firstly an examination of the legacy of the ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’ Manifesto (2006) and secondly, an exploration of the influence of the coalition Government’s assumption of power on multi-agency partnerships, early intervention and targeted youth support, as was envisaged under the previous regime as the ‘Every Child Matters’ (2003) agenda. In addition to this, a book exploring how adventure can be used to address formal and informal learning as an ‘off the shelf’ resource to present activities and potential outcomes has enormous potential in the sustained delivery of outdoor learning as a valuable learning tool.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of West Florida, 2006. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 77 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

The title of this study refers to three different dimensions of goal orientation (GO), which is defined as the stable motivated pattern of cognition and action that results from the continued pursuit of mastery-approach, performance-approach, or performance-avoid goals in different situations over time. Individuals who are primarily motivated through high learning or mastery goals ("masters"), through high performance goals ("showoffs"), and by a high desire to find easy work or avoid failing their set performance goals ("slackers") will all interact on teams with varying degrees of goal completion. These differences in the likeness of GO of team members has implications for how they interact with team members, how individuals learn, and how the team performs. This study addresses this lack of attention by more explicitly examining how likeness on GO, a motivational trait associated with how individuals react to situations where they must achieve goals, can influence the degree to which individuals can effectively work with their fellow team members. In addition, this study also investigates how GO homogeneity at the team level influences team-level learning and performance. This study shows that at the individual level, GO congruence influences learning outcomes, contributions to the team, cooperative behaviors, and that this effect is mediated through metacognition and attraction to team members. This study also shows that psychological safety serves as the mechanism at the team level through which GO homogeneity influences team level performance and team-level learning behaviors.

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Der vorliegende Band wirft einen Blick in verschiedene Forschungsfelder, die an der Professur Interkulturelle Kommunikation der Technischen Universität Chemnitz in den letzten Jahren von Studierenden im Masterstudiengang ‚Interkulturelle Kommunikation – Interkulturelle Kompetenz‘ bearbeitet wurden. Die den sechs Artikeln zugrunde liegenden Studien nutzen Methoden der qualitativen Sozialforschung zur Datenerhebung und -auswertung. Die Artikel thematisieren interkulturelle Lernprozesse in internationalen Workcamps und interkulturellen Trainings, Erfahrungen während eines Auslandsstudiums und im interreligiösen Austausch sowie die Zusammenarbeit in multikulturellen Teams. / This volume gives insight into different research projects conducted by students in the master‘s programme ‚Intercultural Communication – Intercultural Competence‘ at the Chair of Intercultural Communication at Chemnitz University of Technology. All empirical studies on which the articles are based use methods of qualitative social research for data collection and analysis. The articles focus on intercultural learning processes in international workcamps and intercultural trainings, experiences during studies abroad and in interreligious dialogues as well as cooperation in multicultural teams.

Der vorliegende Band wirft einen Blick in verschiedene Forschungsfelder, die an der Professur Interkulturelle Kommunikation der Technischen Universität Chemnitz in den letzten Jahren von Studierenden im Masterstudiengang ‚Interkulturelle Kommunikation – Interkulturelle Kompetenz‘ bearbeitet wurden. Die den sechs Artikeln zugrunde liegenden Studien nutzen Methoden der qualitativen Sozialforschung zur Datenerhebung und -auswertung. Die Artikel thematisieren interkulturelle Lernprozesse in internationalen Workcamps und interkulturellen Trainings, Erfahrungen während eines Auslandsstudiums und im interreligiösen Austausch sowie die Zusammenarbeit in multikulturellen Teams. / This volume gives insight into different research projects conducted by students in the master‘s programme ‚Intercultural Communication – Intercultural Competence‘ at the Chair of Intercultural Communication at Chemnitz University of Technology. All empirical studies on which the articles are based use methods of qualitative social research for data collection and analysis. The articles focus on intercultural learning processes in international workcamps and intercultural trainings, experiences during studies abroad and in interreligious dialogues as well as cooperation in multicultural teams.