Personal Growth Through Adventure

First Published in 1994. Hopkins and Putnam hold a questioning and healthily sceptical attitude towards the theory and practice of adventure education, something they claim has received insufficient reflection by practitioners on the nature of the process of adventure education. This title outlines their claims that a clear and simple exposition of principles and, consequently, practice has not been well enough informed. Written to stimulate debate, the critical stance that prompted the authors’ way of thinking, and so ultimately the book, has a great deal to do with the pervading attitudes at the Outward Bound schools.

David Hopkins is a tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education and has previously worked as an Outward Bound Instructor, school teacher and university and college lecturer. He has a Ph.D from Simon Fraser University, Canada, and directs, or has directed, a number of national and local research and evaluation projects. Roger Putnam was a Town Planning officer with Middlesex County Council and, in 1962, he became an instructor at the Outward Bound Mountain School at Eskdale. Since 1990 Roger has been Chairman of the National Association for Outdoor Education.