Affective Outcomes of Experiential Education: A look at Study Abroad, Outdoor Eduaction, and Service Learning

Abstract

Experiential education has exploded on American horizons in recent years. This paper aims to bring awareness to the affective outcomes of experiential education and encourage the collaboration of research between different fields within experiential education. Study abroad, outdoor education, and service learning all fall under the experiential education heading and are discussed in this paper. Affective outcomes gained from study abroad experiences are largely absent from current literature. Outdoor education literature is overflowing with affective outcomes and studies to back them up, and service learning literature seems unable to even agree on a common set of goals let alone begin to discuss outcomes with any measure of uniformity. Student affective outcomes resulting from the above mentioned experiential education fields remain separate in existing literature within each respective field, but several close connections can and should be drawn between fields.