Examining the effect of artificial wall climbing as a leisure time activity on undergraduate's problem-solving skills

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to determine the effects of university students' artificial climbing wall experiences, which is considered among experimental learning (learn by doing) activities and defined as "high activity", on their problem solving skill levels. Artificial wall climbing emerges as a learning point which is both a game as of its content and an activity providing people to be active, not passive, through experimental learning activities and creating people opportunities to know better about themselves and others as well as their limits. Pretestposttest control group experimental model was used in this study. Experiment group participated into the practice twice in a week, totally for eight weeks. During this time, the control group continued their normal daily routines and not joined any activity. To collect data, Problem Solving Inventory developed by Heppner and Peterson (1982) was used. As a result of statistical analysis, statistically significant differences (p <0.05) were found between subscales and total scores of hasty approach, confident approach and planned approach. Consequently, activities done during artificial wall climbing have been causing positive development in problem solving skills & perception levels of university students. Keywords: Problem solving skills, experimental learning, artificial wall climbing IntroductionIndividuals learn from their own lives, their own experiences and they can evaluate learning outcomes safely. The process based on learning of individuals from their own lives & their own experiences and then evaluating the learning outcomes safely is called "experimental learning method (learn by doing)" (Kolb, 1984).The whole activities that held in educational institutions providing participants to move out their comfort zone lead them to change by acting as a catalyzer which is designed for encouraging the participants to understand both themselves and others. One of the most effective tools used during this process is climbing wall which is among the artificially high activities used for moving participants out of their comfort zone (Kenzie, 2000). It has been indicated that such kind of activities provide a good opportunity both for personal development and socialization. Additionally, this experience will create opportunities for participants to explore their leadership characteristics as well as positively develop social patterns on their problem solving, communication, confidence, and locus of control abilities (Çelebi and Özen 2004 Experimental learning is based on a student-participant oriented learning process instead of a traditional teacher-trainer learning process and it should be a combination of experience, perception, cognition, and behavior. Even if most of the open-field and adventure programs focus on physical challenges in the natural environment, experimental learning is defined as a holistic method (Hopkins and Putnam, 1993).In the penetrated pedagogical philosophy, the safety of all points including the existence of percei...