Investigating the long -term impact of adventure education: A retrospective study of Outward Bound Singapore's Classic 21 -day Challenge course.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to identify and understand the long-term impact that Outward Bound Singapore's Classic 21-day Challenge course has had on the personal and professional life of past participants who attended the course between 1997 and 2005. When these individuals participated in the course they belonged to one of three distinct groups: Singapore Airline pilot cadets, Singapore Police Academy cadets, and State Scholars offered a place on an Outward Bound course by the Public Service Commission.;This study utilized a dominant-less dominant design (Creswell, 1994). The first phase was a questionnaire sent to alumni to be completed either on paper or via the Internet. The second phase was 25 one-to-one personal interviews with alumni identified through the questionnaire. The purpose of the interviews was to illustrate and support information obtained on the questionnaire. All data collection was completed in Singapore between June and August 2005 by the researcher. A total of 318 questionnaires were successfully completed (209 by mail and 109 by the Internet) which resulted in an overall response rate of 34.29%.;Results from the questionnaire and interviews indicate there is long-term impact on past participants' personal and/or professional life, even if they participated in the course as far back as 1997. Individuals still draw upon their Outward Bound experience many years after the course. Many participants in this study were able to distinguish whether the influence was on their personal or professional life. Participants were also readily able to indicate what component of the course was responsible for certain influences on their personal and/or professional life and from what component they still draw lessons.