Paper presented at, the 1 st international Conference on Adventure and Ecotourism 2014, The Regency Jerai Hill Resort, Gurun, Kedah, Malaysia, 5-8 December 2014. Outdoor Education: A Path to Greater Group Cohesion Mazuki Mohd Yasim¹ Azlizam Aziz ² , Siti Suriawati ² , Abdullah Mohd ² 1 Department of Exercise Science, Faculty of Sports Science and Coaching, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 35900 Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia. ²Department of Recreation and Ecotourism, Faculty of Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. *Corresponding author: azlizam@upm.edu.my Abstract Outdoor education is a form of learning process conducted either in the outdoor or indoor settings, which involves challenging or adventure activities as a medium to foster individual personal and social growth. Many literatures have suggested that outdoor education camp is beneficial to the personal and social development as it generates positive results in group cohesion which is a critical component to the experience of outdoor education programs. At present, numerous existing research and writings have recommended for the improvement of group cohesion. This paper provides an explanation on the roles of outdoor education in developing greater group cohesion and to identify techniques that are most effective based on the results on group cohesion. Keyword: Outdoor education, group cohesion, camping, personal and social development. Introduction Outdoor education is a form of education which benefits in overall aspects of the individual, including academic, physical, emotional, social and psychological wellbeing. Typically, the stated objectives of outdoor education are improving group cohesion, leadership skills, improving problem-solving skills, self-conceptualization, increasing trust, and improving communication (O'Bannon, 2000; Shivers-Blackwell, 2004; Williams, Graham, & Baker, 2003). In other words, the emphasis on interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships is frequently considered to be the primary focus of outdoor education (Priest & Gass, 2005; Zink & Boyes, 2006). One of the most popular programmes in outdoor education is outdoor camp. The main goal of these generally focuses on their personal and social development, environmental education and adventure education (Law, 1998; Neill, 2003a; Orford, 1973). A review on literature related to personal and social development benefits has suggested that outdoor education camp may generate positive results in group cohesion (Boyle, 2002; Chang & Bordia, 2006; Eys, Ritchie, Little, Slade, & Oddson, 2008; Gass, 1987; Gass, Garvey, &