My Experience and Understanding of Adventure-Based Counselling Essay

According to Neill (2004), ‘Adventure therapy is the use of adventure-based activities and/or adventure-based theory to provide people with emotional and/or behavioral problems with experiences which lead to positive change in their lives.’ Adventure therapy is also â€Å"programming aimed at changing [specified] dysfunctional behavior patterns, using adventure experiences as forms of habilitation and rehabilitation† (Priest & Grass, 2005). The underlying philosophy of adventure-based counseling (ABC) is experiential education and it stresses on one’s personal improvement through full value contract, adventure wave and challenge by choice (Schoel, Prouty & Radcliffe, 1988). After several lectures, different skills were explained and even applied on ourselves. In this essay, these theories and experience will be discussed. Adventure-based counseling is part of the means of experiential learning. Educational psychologists usually define learning as â€Å"a change in the individual caused by experience† (Slavin, 1986, p.104). Through various experiences, people can learn from them and gain personal growth. Kolb (1984) suggested an experiential learning cycle, pointing out four essential elements of experiential learning, which are experience, review, conclusion and planning. Applying to Adventure-based counseling, experience means some challenging activities for groups or individuals. Review means encouraging individuals to reflect, describe, communicate and learn from the experience. Conclusion means concluding past and present experiences and planning means applying new learning in the future. There are several learning theories explaining how experiences can lead to learning, which means behavioral changes or cognitive developments. Operant conditioning proposed by Skinner states that successes, praise, positive feedbacks or rewards can act as positive reinforcers so that the subjects would be reinforced to act the same way again. Similarly, failures, punishments or negative comments would act as negative reinforcers which deter the subjects to act again (Skinner, 1968). In adventure-based counseling, participants would face some challenges and act. Some actions would lead to positive results, which would further reinforce participants to act in the same way when they face similar situations again. Some actions lead to negative results, which make them aware and change their behaviors next time. This can be applied also to changing of personalities and problem-solving skills. Undesirable personalities will be discouraged by failures or negative feedbacks while desirable personalities will be reinforced. Bandura suggested social learning theory that people can learn through observational learning and modeling (Bandura, 1986). Through observational learning, people would imitate others’ behaviors and learn from others’ successes or failures. In adventure-based counseling, when participants face the challenges individually, they would imitate what other participants do, or take others’ successes and failures in dealing with the challenges as example. So when they face the challenges, participants would improve along the sequence. When encountering group challenges, participants would imitate the socially desirable behaviors of their group mates or remind themselves not to behave socially undesirably after observing their group mates’ failures. This can enhance participants’ social skills. In cognitive aspect, James Coleman (1977) differentiates between the information assimilation process of the regular classroom and the experiential learning process. In traditional classrooms, knowledge is taught to students through direct instruction and they simply memorize the knowledge. Through information assimilation, the learners are expected to move from cognitive and symbol-processing sphere to the sphere of action through applying the general principles learned into novel situations. Experiential learning is in a reversed order, which involves actions sufficiently repeated that the learner is able to generalize from the experience. However, it is more etched into the brain as the learning can be associated with concrete actions and events, not just abstract symbols or general principles (Mllre, & Priest, 1990). There are some important principles of adventure-based counseling, namely â€Å"Full Value Contract† and â€Å"Challenge by Choice† (Schoel, Prouty & Radcliffe, 1988). â€Å"Full Value Contract† means an agreement among group members to value one’s own ideas and needs without ignoring or discounting others. â€Å"Challenge by Choice† means ‘individuals can choose their level of participation in any activity.’ (Neill, 2007) During our lectures, our lecturer Lau Sir has explained different theories by involving us to play games. After playing games, Lau Sir would explain how the games worked, the meaning of different procedures, and what can we learn throughout them. In the first lecture, a game ‘throwing the chicken’ was played. It is an ice-breaking game, aim at knowing the names of group members. Although it is a very easy game, it has lots of micro-skills included. At the beginning, Lau Sir has asked did anyone feel afraid of the chicken, which could show his caring to the participants, in order to build up the relationship between the leader and the participants. After one round of the game, Lau Sir required the participants to repeat the process, but with a faster speed, the participants would then move their chairs towards the center. This is using indirect intervention method, helping them to get closer and involve more into it, without directly telling them to sit closer or involve more. The other micro-skill ‘Challenge by Choice’ was also frequently used during lectures. For example, the ‘throwing the chicken’ game in the first lecture, the ‘trust ladder’ in the second lecture and different games during the overnight camp. All of these may only be just simply asking the participants that whether they want to play, but it was vital as it shows the respect to the participants. These skills were the easiest thing being omitted, but without it, the counseling work may be affected or even have some adverse effects. Although half of the lectures have passed, there is one more High-event Challenge Day and several lectures. I am looking forward to learn more different skills in counseling and leading games. Reference List Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social-cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Coleman, J. A. (1977). Differences between experiential and classroom learning. In M. T. Keeton (Ed.), Experiential learning: Rationale characteristics, and assessment, pp. 49-61. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Mllre, J. C. & Priest, S. (1990). Adventure education. State College, DA: Adventure Publishing. Neill, J. (2004). Adventure therapy definitions. Retrieved from http://www.wilderdom.com/adventuretherapy/adventuretherapydefinitions.html Neill, J. (2007). Adventure-based counseling (ABC). Retrieved from http://wilderdom.com/ABC/ Priest, S., & Gass, M. (2005). Effective leadership in adventure programming (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Schoel, J., Prouty & Radeliffe,P. (1988). Islands of healing. A guide to adventure based counseling. U.S.A: Project Adventure. Skinner, B. F. (1968). The technology of teaching. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Slavin, R. E. (1986). Educational psychology: theory into practice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.