Generic skills promotion and the influence of participation of the life-wide learning model: 2008 Camp Adventure Youth Services Program in Hong Kong

Life-wide learning can be viewed as the conjunction between formal and informal education. The Camp Adventure Youth Services (CAYS) program was first launched in the 2006 summer in Hong Kong. It represents an integrated life-wide learning model of recreation and leisure services, physical activity, and language learning to accomplish the goal of improving participants' learning. This study aimed to determine the impact of CAYS on four generic skills, namely, collaboration, communication, creativity, and problem solving. The Camp Adventure Scale (CAS) was designed to measure changes in the four generic skill areas before and after completing the CAYS program. In summer 2008 160 children (99 males and 61 females) between 9 years and 14 years from grades 3 to 8 of one secondary school (59 participants) and one primary school (101 participants) in Hong Kong participated in the study. Among the participants, 93 joined CAYS for the first time and the remaining 67 had prior experience. Participants responded to a self-administered questionnaire under the supervision of the researchers and teachers. The pair-wise t-tests show that there were significant gains in participants' collaboration, communication, creativity and problem solving competencies after the CAYS program. These findings suggest that there is potential for the promotion of generic skills in operating a recreation and leisure services program emphasizing program elements that are aligned and consistent with the educational framework found in formal school settings. Copyright © 2009 Talyor & Francis.