Impact Analysis of Experiential Education

Impact Analysis of Experiential Education

Prof. Dr. Janne Fengler together with Prof. Dr. Thomas Eberle and Stefan Markus, both Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg

Experiential education as an action-oriented form of education has, from the very beginning, been shaped by the triad of head, heart, and hand. This pedagogical complex is generally referred to and organized as a “challenge” – “head” as a mental, cognitive challenge with regard to a specific task; “heart” as an emotional challenge; “hand” as a behavioral and physical challenge.

The effects of experiential education activities have repeatedly been examined empirically; however, specific interactions between intervention characteristics and personal characteristics have received little research attention. – What effects do cognitive, emotional, and physical challenges have on the respective specific as well as general self-efficacy expectations of participants in experiential education interventions, and how are possible changes related to other personality variables of the participants? This overarching research question was investigated within the framework of a quantitative empirical study.

For this purpose, 483 students in grades 8 to 11 who had taken part in experiential education school trip programs were surveyed using a pre-inter-post design; among the instruments used were scales measuring general self-efficacy expectations (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1981, rev. 1999) as well as cognitive, emotional, social, and physical self-efficacy expectations (Stiller, Würth & Alfermann, 2004, Schmitz, 2002, Satow & Mittag, 1999, Stiller, Würth & Alfermann, 2004).

The results allow conclusions to be drawn about how the impact impulses of the program components examined (intervention variables), depending on characteristics of students’ personality (person variables as traits and states), contribute to changes in personality. For example, contrary to theoretical concepts, self-assessment regarding one’s own success is accorded greater importance than the variable “challenge.” Through a series of noteworthy findings, this research project makes an important contribution to impact research on experiential education interventions.

Cooperation partner: Prof. Dr. Michael Jagenlauf (formerly Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg), Prof. Dr. Werner Michl (formerly Nuremberg Institute of Technology Georg Simon Ohm), erlebnistage

Third-party funding provider: Staedtler Foundation

Selected publication:
Fengler, J., Markus, S. & Eberle, T. (2016). Poster: “What Impact do Experiential Education Programs in the Outdoors have on Participants’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs?” 2nd World Conference on Personality in Búzios, Brazil, 31 March to 4 April 2016.