Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2021 Transference of Emotional Intelligence and Self-Efficacy Observed Through Adventure West Virginia Student Trip Leaders Ashley Irene Fox West Virginia University, aif0001@mix.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.edu/etd Part of the Leadership Studies Commons, Leisure Studies Commons, and the Sports Studies Commons Recommended Citation Fox, Ashley Irene, "Transference of Emotional Intelligence and Self-Efficacy Observed Through Adventure West Virginia Student Trip Leaders" (2021). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports.edu/etd/8003 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact researchrepository@mail. Transference of Emotional Intelligence and Self-Efficacy Observed Through Adventure West Virginia Student Trip Leaders Ashley I.
Fox Thesis submitted to the Davis College of Natural Resources at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources Steve Selin, Ph., Chair Dave Smaldone, Ph. Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources Morgantown, West Virginia 2021 Keywords: Outdoor Orientation; Leadership Development; Student Development; Outdoor Education; Outdoor Leadership; Emotional Intelligence; Self-efficacy Copyright 2021 Ashley Fox Abstract Transference of Emotional Intelligence and Self-Efficacy as Observed Through Adventure West Virginia Student Trip Leaders Ashley I. Fox Since the creation of university sponsored outdoor recreation trips, research studies have been conducted to examine the impact of this programming on participants. These studies have typically assessed impacts through measuring common components used to quantify overall leadership abilities such as emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and transference.
In this study, researchers utilized a quasi-experimental approach to attempt to measure the impact of leading outdoor orientation trips on leader ability to transfer leadership skills to other areas of life. A sample (N = 29) of undergraduate student trip leaders of West Virginia University’s Adventure West Virginia (AWV) program was surveyed and divided into groups based on varying experience levels. These groups were based on experience related to physical time (number of seasons as a leader) and immersion (additional positions held within AWV). Researchers hypothesized that more experienced leaders would demonstrate higher levels of confidence and transference of skills.
Fisher’s Exact Tests was used to compare differences across groups. Results show that more experienced leaders believed their leadership skills are above average compared to other students at WVU. Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel Test was used to compare changes in groups’ confidence in using skills during and outside of leading trips (transference). Results indicated that three skills were consistently the least transferred to settings outside of trip leading: managing my emotions, managing other’s emotions, and setting and reviewing long term goals.
Finally, Kappa Coefficient as a test of agreement and Bowker’s Test of Symmetry were utilized to analyze transference of individual skills. The results show that in several cases, more experienced leaders were better able to transfer skills than their lesser experienced peers. The results also showed that leaders holding additional positions within the broader AWV program demonstrated significant transference of leadership skills compared to those that only led First Year Trips (FYTs). Limitations of the research study as well as implications for future research and practice are discussed.
Keywords: Outdoor Orientation; Leadership Development; Student Development; Outdoor Education; Outdoor Leadership; Emotional Intelligence; Self-efficacy iii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction. 1 Purpose of Study. 5 Definition of Terms. 5 Chapter 2: Literature Review.
7 Outdoor Leadership Development. 21 Gaps in Current Research. 34 Student Leader Demographics. 35 Leadership Questions – Descriptive Results.
79 Implications for Research and Practice. 84 Appendix A: Survey Instrument. 89 1 Chapter 1 Introduction Outdoor leadership in an experiential education context is more than just knowledge and performance of technical skills. It is the combination of this with theory and social skills that include interpersonal communication, behavioral science, and emotional awareness (Dack, 2010).
While experiential education participants grow in both technical and social skill areas during their experiences, social skills are what tend to transfer to other areas of life and remain with an individual for a longer period of time (Propst & Koessler, 1998). The transference of these skills from the outdoors to daily life allow individuals to become more resilient when faced with new challenges. This provides strong reasoning for implementing experiential education programs into higher education settings (Bell & Starbuck, 2017). Students that are more adaptable and resilient to challenge are better able to take on the difficulty of college than those who are not.
Experiential education programs such as outdoor orientation programs have thus been shown to support higher retention rates and increased academic performance among first- year college students (Bell & Starbuck, 2017). Experiential education is a philosophy in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and intentional reflection to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities (Gass, Fillis & Russell, 2012). With more higher education institutions recognizing the positive impacts of experiential education on student empowerment and retention, it is important to examine how these skills are obtained and later transferred to other aspects of life and the differences among students and their abilities to transfer those skills. The development of leadership skills in trip 2 participants has long been a subject of research within outdoor journals (Propst 1998; Bell & Starbuck, 2017).
While there are several studies that examine the growth of leadership skills in student participants, there are few that investigate leadership development among student trip leaders themselves (Dack, 2010). This gap in research is emphasized further when considering how those trip leaders transfer their skills based on their level of experience. Experiential education has theories based in several other historical sciences including physiology, ecology, psychology, sociology, and political sciences. Dewey along with Kurt Hahn with the Salem School in 1920 laid the groundwork for many experiential education theories we know and use today.
In 1938, John Dewey released his work Experience and Education. Studying student development beyond the classroom, Dartmouth created the first outdoor orientation program for its incoming students. Several other outdoor leadership development programs came to fruition in the following decades, including Outward Bound in 1941 which played a pivotal role in the outdoor education movement, and helped set standards for adventure programming in terms of safety, program design, and leadership (Miner, 1999). From the fundamentals of Outward Bound grew the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in 1965.
As of 2010, there are more than 164 outdoor orientation programs in the United States alone, with an average of ten new programs being created each year (Bell, Holmes, & Williams, 2010). In order to examine how well student trip leaders transfer skills from the outdoors to everyday society, we must take into account current higher education trends and culture. As the need for a college education becomes more common for job applicants, colleges have experienced the largest growth of student enrollment in history (Berger & Lyon, 2005). In order to maintain certain institutional standards, colleges have become more selective of students they admit creating a new level of expectations for incoming students.
This shift has put extra strain 3 on students which combined with less financial support and student support programs, has led to a dramatic drop in student performance and retention. Most higher education institutions have found that it is more cost effective to retain students than replace those that withdraw, so to combat this drop, institutions have created new strategies to increase student retention (Berger & Lyon, 2005). One of these strategies was to implement orientation programs, specifically outdoor orientation programs. Outdoor orientation programs are experiences designed to assist incoming students in transitioning to college (Bell et al, 2010).
These programs involve small groups of first-year students going on weeklong excursions that include adventure-based activities and are led by peer mentors. These programs instill a sense of place and belonging among their participants which plays a key role in student success (Strayhorn, 2012). With this supporting evidence, a majority of higher education institutions try to incorporate developmental growth as a goal of their programming (Bell et al. Institutions have also been interested in better preparing their students for careers post-graduation.
Programs such as outdoor orientations not only help with student retention, but they instill qualities and skills that are highly transferable to students’ work skillset which is even more reason to fund and implement them (Bell & Starbuck, 2017). The term leadership has gone through several iterations of constructs. Initially, leadership was linked to self-efficacy, itself a construct linked to three components: goal attainment, mentorship, and positive feedback (Propst, 1998). Self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief in his or her ability to perform within a given domain effectively and it fosters leadership identity development (Bandura, 1977, 1986, Komives et al, 2006).
Later, this construct of leadership came to include emotional intelligence, which is the ability to be aware of, control, and express 4 one’s emotions (Hayashi, 2006). Using these measurable constructs of leadership, studies have been done on experiential education participants and their leadership development. Purpose of Study Leadership qualities attained through guided outdoor experiences have been observed being transferred to other parts of the participants’ lives and there is support that they are retained much longer than initially thought (Benson, 2018). However, more research on how these student leaders are transferring leadership skills to their daily lives can give key insight into how experiential programs benefit the student population and their local communities years down the road.
This study will attempt to close the gap in current research by examining how well trip leaders are able to transfer their learned leadership skills to other aspects of life. Furthermore, this research will attempt to compare that level of transference among leaders of varying experience and program involvement. Background research for this study was used to examine three main content areas: 1) What leadership skills are the most transferable, 2) How are these skills measured, and 3) How is transference of these skills measured. Research results will provide techniques to facilitate higher levels of transference among student trip leaders in higher education institution outdoor programs.
Research Questions In order to expand on current research of leadership growth in experiential education and outdoor orientation programs, researchers developed research questions that focused on leadership growth among student trip leaders at Adventure West Virginia. These research questions examine self-perceived emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and transference. R1) Does leading outdoor trips for Adventure West Virginia improve leaders’ self-perceived emotional intelligence and self-efficacy across levels of experience with the program? 5 R2) Do Adventure West Virginia leaders demonstrate a transference of leadership skills to areas outside of AWV across levels of experience with the program? R3) Does the level of involvement across other Adventure West Virginia program areas impact leaders’ ability to transfer leadership skills to life outside of AWV? Hypotheses In order to statistically test the above research questions, researchers developed three hypotheses that focus on student trip leader self-perceived emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and transference. Null hypothesis were either accepted or denied, and are discussed in Chapter 4.
H1) Leaders with more experience leading First-Year trips will demonstrate higher levels of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy than leaders with less experience. H2) Leaders with more experience leading First-Year trips will demonstrate a higher level of transference of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy to life outside of AWV. H3) Leaders that hold additional positions within AWV will demonstrate a higher level of transference of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy to other areas of life than those that only lead First-Year Trips.