Learning Styles of College Students Enrolled in an Exeerience-Based Outdoor Leadership Program

The purpose of this study was to further the understanding of factors that may influence learning and, more specifically, how certain learning environments may affect individual learning style preferences. As is often the case with many outdoor programs, the emphasis is placed on experiential learning, or learning by doing. This is in contrast to more traditional college learning, which often relies heavily on didactic teaching where the instructor spends much of the time teaching in a lecture format. For this study, the learning style preferences of college students enrolled in an experientially-based outdoor leadership program were compared with those of college students enrolled in more traditional courses.