Expeditionary education is often associated with adventure education

Adventure education

Adventure education focuses on participating in activities with perceived risks and does not necessarily occur outdoors.Adventure education includes cooperative games, trust building activities, problem solving initiatives, high adventure activities and...

, outdoor education

Outdoor education

Outdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...

, environmental education

Environmental education

Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. The term is often used to imply education within the school system, from primary to...

, or experiential education

Experiential education

Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. The term is mistakenly used interchangeably with experiential learning...

 and refers specifically to learning associated with exploration

Exploration

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...

 and journey

Travel

Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...

-based experiences or expeditions within these fields. Usually involving elements of challenge, adventure

Adventure

An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...

, and leadership

Leadership

Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...

, expeditionary education can take place in a variety of settings including wilderness

Wilderness

Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...

, classrooms, and even virtual spaces (the internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

). Participants in expeditionary education can be directly involved in the expedition, or may be linked to expeditions undertaken by others.

Definitions

Webster's online dictionary defines expeditionary as "of, relating to, or being an expedition." Expeditionary education is of, relating to, or being an expedition within an educational framework. Expeditionary education may be mistakenly defined as a subset of or synonymous to outdoor education

Outdoor education

Outdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...

, adventure education

Adventure education

Adventure education focuses on participating in activities with perceived risks and does not necessarily occur outdoors.Adventure education includes cooperative games, trust building activities, problem solving initiatives, high adventure activities and...

, or experiential education

Experiential education

Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. The term is mistakenly used interchangeably with experiential learning...

. While many expeditionary education programs of, or being an expedition could be defined under these existing fields (such as Outward Bound

Outward Bound

Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...

, or NOLS

NOLS

Several different organisations use the acronym NOLS:*The National Outdoor Leadership School of the United States.*The National Organisation of Labour Students of the United Kingdom.*The National Organisation of Labor Students of Australia....

), educational programs relating to expeditions may take place in the classroom and not outside, requiring adventure, or experiential in nature are becoming more prevalent as explorers and expedition based researchers strive to connect educational content to their projects.

Related Disciplines

experiential education

Experiential education

Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. The term is mistakenly used interchangeably with experiential learning...

adventure education

Adventure education

Adventure education focuses on participating in activities with perceived risks and does not necessarily occur outdoors.Adventure education includes cooperative games, trust building activities, problem solving initiatives, high adventure activities and...

outdoor education

Outdoor education

Outdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...

environmental education

Environmental education

Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. The term is often used to imply education within the school system, from primary to...

environmental studies

Environmental studies

Environmental studies is the academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. It is a broad interdisciplinary field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them...

Summary of Program Types

Expeditionary education can be:



1. An educational expedition one participates in (Programs of or being expeditionary education).

2. An expedition with educational agendas of various involvement levels for non-expedition members (Programs relating to expeditions).

History

The origins of expeditionary education could be thought to extend far back into early human history through hunting and gathering expeditions where traditional ecological knowledge was learned. Potentially one of the first formal applications of expeditionary education were the field trips conducted through Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...

 and his brother John's Concord MA grammar school in 1838. Later in the 19th century a summer camping movement was established in response to anxieties about urban and industrial influences on children. During this time, expeditions into "nature" were combined with informal educational pursuits. Scouting

Scouting

Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....

, a movement started in 1907 by Robert Baden-Powell iniatiated widespread development of practical outdoor skills which often incorporated expeditionary components like camping

Camping

Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...

, backpacking

Backpacking (wilderness)

Backpacking combines the activities of hiking and camping for an overnight stay in backcountry wilderness...

, and canoeing

Canoeing

Canoeing is an outdoor activity that involves a special kind of canoe.Open canoes may be 'poled' , sailed, 'lined and tracked' or even 'gunnel-bobbed'....

 and has grown to 38 million members in 216 countries 100 years after its inception. By the late 20th century expeditions were being used as educational vehicles by many private and public sector groups and has grown into large groups such as outward bound

Outward Bound

Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...

, serving over 200,000 students in 2006 and National Outdoor Leadership School

National Outdoor Leadership School

The National Outdoor Leadership School , is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, safety and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions...

 who have trained over 120,000 people. Various contemporary groups and programs are discussed in #Programs 

Psychology and Philosophy

Expedition as a mode of educational pursuit has its theoretical and applied roots in many soils. Many people, theories, and practices can be identified as influential.

People

Kurt Hahn

Kurt Hahn

Kurt Martin Hahn was a German educator whose philosophies are considered internationally influential.-Biography:...

: Founder of the Gordonstoun

Gordonstoun

Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray in North East Scotland. Named after the estate originally owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 1600s, the school now uses this estate as its campus...

 school and outward bound

Outward Bound

Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...

Willi Unsoeld: Facilitator of outdoor, experiential, and expeditionary education

Paul Petzoldt

Paul Petzoldt

Paul Kiesow Petzoldt was one of America's most accomplished mountaineers. He is perhaps best known for establishing the National Outdoor Leadership School in 1965. Paul made his first ascent of the Grand Teton in 1924 at the age of 16, becoming the youngest person at the time to have done so...

: Founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School

Will Steger

Will Steger

Will Steger is a prominent spokesperson for the understanding and preservation of the Arctic and has led some of the most significant feats in the field of dogsled expeditions; such as the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole in 1986, the 1,600-mile south-north traverse of Greenland...

: Arctic Explorer and educator

John Dewey

John Dewey

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...

: Philosopher, educational reformer and proponent of experiential learning

Experiential learning

Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience. Simply put, Experiential Learning is learning from experience. The experience can be staged or left open. Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." David A...

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...

: Philosopher, naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

, transcendentalist, tax resister, surveyor

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

, writer.

John Muir

John Muir

John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...

: Philosopher, naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

, conservationist

Conservationist

Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...

, inventor writer and wilderness traveller.

Theories

Experiential education

Experiential education

Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. The term is mistakenly used interchangeably with experiential learning...

 theories

group development

Group development

The goal of most research on group development is to learn why and how small groups change over time. To do this, researchers examine patterns of change and continuity in groups over time...

 theories

The outward bound process model

Stress, optimal arousal, comfort zone

Comfort zone

The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk . A person's personality can be described by his or her comfort zones...

, and Flow (psychology)

Flow (psychology)

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of...

 theories

Psychoevolutionary theory and the Biophilia hypothesis

Biophilia Hypothesis

The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book entitled Biophilia.- Love of living systems :...

Research

Research has been conducted on various aspects of expeditionary education. Correlations between a controlled exposure to challenge and psychological resiliency have been found by researchers James Neill and Katica Dias in their study of young adult Outward Bound participants. In a review of 150 research studies conducted between 1993 and 2003, general findings of positive impacts from outdoor learning In another meta analysis, focus areas such as self concept, leadership, and communications skills were shown to have positive gains during the educational experience, and in contrast to many educational interventions, significant ongoing gains in follow up reviews. While these and other studies point to positive results, the difficulty of drawing causality between psychologically gained elements and these programs in empirically based studies exist in the number of variables to control for and the strength of experimental designs.

See also

Education

Progressive education

Educational philosophies

Alternative education

Alternative education

Alternative education, also known as non-traditional education or educational alternative, includes a number of approaches to teaching and learning other than mainstream or traditional education. Educational alternatives are often rooted in various philosophies that are fundamentally different...

Groups