RECR 4400 provides a unique learning opportunity for engaged students. The Applied Major Project is your contribution to the Field of Community Recreation. It is a project that is inspired and created by you within an academic and scholarly context that will make a meaningful, relevant contribution to the field. The journey in developing your applied major project will challenge your reflective learning as well as the practical knowledge and skills of completing the assignments.
The Applied Major Project document will be important, but equally or perhaps more important will be the reflective learning that you will engage in throughout the course. This is something you need to engage in to make it work for you, and the results will have a strong impact on your work in the field. King describes
this learning process well in the following quote:
The act of learning is the result of reflection upon experience…Having an experience does not (necessarily) result in learning; you have to reflect on it. The purpose of learning is to gain something new and to put that new skill or information to the test of usefulness. In order to learn, one must be willing to risk exposing oneself to new things, (be) willing to test the validity of old things in relation to the new, and be willing to form new conclusions. I believe that to adventure is to risk exposing oneself to an unknown outcome. Therefore to learn is to venture into the unknown: to learn is to adventure!
Learning and adventure are both delving into the unknown…Everyone should have the opportunity to achieve self-fulfillment by engaging in learning that involves stress, striving, self-direction, sacrifice, goal-setting, perfecting skills, and working cooperatively with others to achieve goals. That is experiential learning….
The intensity of getting lost in the work of learning contributes in a unique way to the quality of one’s life. This occurs during the concentrated activity of perfecting a skill or serving others or protecting oneself from (risk). This type of experiential learning and its outcomes should be available to each person.
King, 1988
RECR 4400 is a learning opportunity for adventure. We hope that you will make time to engage and fully explore the learning opportunity in this course. Our goal in creating this course is that it encourages you to “get lost in the work of learning” to continue to build the knowledge and skills required to be thoughtful,
purposeful recreation professionals.