Background/Purpose
Students claim to be bored by traditional pedagogical methods (Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde & Wahlen, 1993). Adventure education advocates espouse the authenticity of the moment, because students are engaged and attentive (Priest & Gass, 1997). The study was designed to examine if concentration levels of university age students would be affected by a specific adventure experience, as documented by their responses to the Total Concentration subscale of the Flow State Scale (Jackson & Eklund, 2004). Bryson and Hand (2007) investigated the role of student autonomy and the goal of improved student learning, and found that the more engaged students are, the more they learn. Appropriate challenges, therefore, are crucial to engage the students to improve learning.
Method
Two groups of university students enrolled in a three week study abroad course were included in this study, a total of 60 students (35 females and 25 males). The Flow State Scale is a series of 36 statements which establishes how one feels at that moment on a five point Likert Scale; responses range from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Flow is defined as when “… one is totally focused in the present on as specific task being performed …” (Jackson & Eklund, 2004, pg. 9).
Analysis/Results
Mean concentration scores obtained immediately following a rappelling/canyoning experience were compared using t-tests to published scores from Jackson and Eklund's 2002 and 2004 studies of 800 sport activity participants. Total concentration scores of participants in non-competitive exercise programs had a mean response of 3.62 (SD = 0.89), sport activities 3.73 (SD = 0.78), and individual activities 3.70 (SD = 0.80). The adventure participants had a mean concentration score of 4.38 (SD = 0.58, p<.017). This mean score was significantly higher than for the traditional sporting activities.
Conclusions
Since concentration scores were higher, it would seem logical that adventure based activities could be a method in educational environments to augment the overall learning experience. A broader venue of adventure based experiences need to be investigated to determine the impact on concentration of undergraduate students. Incorporating adventure based theory and practice into a more traditional pedagogical setting may be a method to enhance learning, or at least increase the attention level of the students teachers are attempting to teach.