Re-Thinking Group Development in Adventure Programming: A Qualitative Examination

The purpose of the study was to re-examine the efficacy of Tuckman’s (1965) model of group development in adventure programming. More specifically, the researchers were interested in comparing Tuckman’s traditional sequential model to more contemporary non-sequential and integrative models that have emerged as alternative ways to conceptualize the process of group development. The researchers used a case study approach (Merriam, 2001) and techniques characteristic of naturalistic inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) to explore the nature of group development among participants in a weeklong sea kayaking expedition. The researchers concluded that more contemporary models of group development more accurately explained the process of group development in this case study than Tuckman’s (1965) traditional model of group development.