Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Michael A. Gass (Author) "We can compare the process of preparing effective outdoor leaders for the adventure programming profession to the process of alchemy..." (more)
Key Phrases: outdoor leadership preparation, coarse probe search, effective outdoor leaders, Outward Bound, Journal of Experiential Education, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, Second Edition, explains how the key elements of leadership work in theory and practice, and it helps train the next generation of adventure leaders—training that is paramount to developing the field.

Through this text, readers will enhance their understanding of this rapidly growing profession. Renowned authors Simon Priest and Michael Gass provide in-depth descriptions and real-world applications of the technical, organizational, instructional, and facilitative skills that are essential to adventure leadership. The authors also identify what they call the metaskills that superior leaders use to combine the other essential skills seamlessly and effectively.

The authors provide fully updated content and references, including new information on legal liability, risk management skills, and future research trends in adventure programming. They also do the following:

• Examine the historical and philosophical foundations of adventure programming • Provide safety and environmental guidelines that leaders should follow • Describe the organizational, instructional, and facilitation skills that outdoor adventure leaders should possess • Identify the importance of flexible leadership style, problem-solving and decision-making skills, experience-based judgment, effective communication, and ethical behaviors

The first edition of this book set new levels of excellence in leadership in adventure programming. The second edition preserves the comprehensive and classic nature of the original while raising the standard for the field in the 21st century. The authors’ skillful approach to integrating all aspects of effective outdoor adventure leadership makes this book an ideal text for adventure leadership and programming courses and an outstanding reference for practicing professionals. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Simon Priest, PhD, is president and chief executive officer of virtualTEAMWORKS.com, which specializes in experiential learning on the Internet. He is also a retired full professor from Brock University in Canada and the executive director of the Corporate Adventure Training Institute, a research center of excellence. He was an interim director of Canadian Tire’s corporate university. A member of the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) since 1983, he chaired their research task force, safety practices task force, and student research grants committee while also contributing on the journal editorial board, scholarship committee, conference steering groups, and journal editorships. Dr. Priest's contributions to the field of adventure programming have had an international impact. He has been a scholar in residence and has been awarded visiting fellowships in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, England, and several other European nations. He has studied and taught about outdoor leadership in more than 40 countries around the world. Dr. Priest has researched and written extensively on the topic of adventure programming. He has authored or edited several books and book chapters, and his articles have appeared in publications such as the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Leadership, the Journal of Experiential Education, Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Sciences, Leisure Studies, and the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Dr. Priest received his doctorate in outdoor recreation from the University of Oregon in 1986. Michael Gass, PhD, is a full professor and chair of the department of kinesiology and member of the award-winning outdoor education program at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). This accredited program is recognized as one of the best undergraduate and graduate training programs in the world, and its students are some of the finest emerging professionals in the field of adventure programming. Dr. Gass has helped to produce numerous pivotal books for the field, including Book of Metaphors: Volume II, Adventure Therapy: Therapeutic Applications of Adventure Programming, and Program Accreditation Standards for Adventure Programs with Jed Williamson. He has conducted numerous international workshops and trainings, and his writing has appeared in professional journals around the world. He currently directs several evidence-based research projects for the American Youth Foundation and Project Adventure to validate and promote best practices in the field of adventure programming.

Dr. Gass served as president of the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) in 1990 and was the chair of AEE’s Therapeutic Adventure Professional Group in 1992-93 and 1995-96. He also was the chair of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance’s Council for Outdoor Education in 1994. Currently he is the editor of the Journal for Therapeutic Schools and Programs and serves on the review board for the Journal of Experiential Education. He also served for 10 years on AEE’s Program Accreditation Council.

Dr. Gass received his PhD in experiential education from the University of Colorado at Boulder and completed postdoctoral studies in marriage and family therapy. When not with his family, he can be found climbing or wilderness running. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873226372
• ISBN-13: 978-0873226370
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #557,354 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Adventure Leaders 'Bible', October 6, 2000

By	Ian Steel (University College Chichester, UK) - See all my reviews

If you either are an adventure activities leader, or in training to be one Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming is an invalueable book to have at hand.

If you are already one it is usful for doing self reviews on your current performances, as it at the end of each of the 22 chapters it has a review box called 'effective adventure leaders should', a box containing a brief review of all the main points of that chapter which directly relate to the practical aspects of what leaders should be doing to ensure maximium safety within the group, while allowing the group to get the most out of the adventure experience they have been taken on. - I can almost garentee that every leader will pick up several tips from these sections no matter how experienced they re within the adventure leadership field.

If you are training to be an adventure leader, then each of the chapters guide you through different situations, highlighting not only the actions of the coach but in the ways the clients will react from these actions in different situations depending on there previous experience, motivation, and fears. Each chapter starts with a given relistic situation which directly relates to the theme of the chapter, which is then used to explode open the actions of the group and the leader in the given situation and analysis in small detail, the quality of the planning, leadership, and group advancement.

Due to the nature of the subject it can often feel like heavy reading (which it is), but it does have everything you could ever need to know within it's pages, and so makes it the best book on the subject I know of, and being on an B.A. Adventure Education course, I've read quite a few.

Also highly recommended by me to compliment it is the book Adventure Programming by John C. Miles(Editor), Simon Priest(Editor). Hardcover (December 1999)