Development of Emotional Intelligence During an Adventure and Experiential-Based Learning Course

The United States Air Force Academy's Center for Character and Leadership Development developed the ‘Adventure and Experiential Based Learning’ (AEBL) course—a new experiential education summer course intended to develop interpersonal leadership skills in 1,100 sophomore cadets. Improving cadet emotional intelligence (EI) is of particular focus due to its value in leader effectiveness. Rather than rely upon the more common military pedagogy of lecture-based learning or a military handbook that prescribes exactly what participant success looks like, the aim of the course examined in this study was to improve participant EI via a combination of experiential education methods including interactive classwork, challenge course experimentation, and a capstone 28-h adventure comprised of uncertainty and stressful team dynamics. To measure the effect the experiential education curriculum had on participant EI, the Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP) was used in a pre/postsurvey method. The results indicated a significant increase in EI among AEBL participants as measured by the WEIP. Outdoor experiences like the one described in this article may be an effective way to train EI skills.