Aristotle

Aristotle:

“It is by playing the harp that men become both good and bad harpists, and correspondingly with builders and all the other craftsmen: a man who builds well will be a good builder, one who builds badly a bad one. For if this were not so, there would be no need for an instructor, but everybody would be born as a good or bade craftsman. The same holds true of the virtues: in our transactions with other men it is by action that some become just and other unjust, and it is by action in the face of danger and by developing the habit of feeling fear or confidence that some become brave and others cowards.”

“In general, choice seems to be concerned with the things that lie within our power.”

“It is difficult to get from youth up a right training for virtue if one has not been brought up under right laws; for to live temperately and hardily is not pleasant to most people, especially when they are young. For this reason their nurture and occupations should be fixed by law; for they will not be painful when they have become customary. But it is surely not enough that when they are young they should get the right nurture and attention; since they must, even when they are grown up practice and be habituated to them, we shall need laws for this as well, and generally speaking to cover the whole life; for most people obey necessity rather than argument, and punishment rather than the sense of what is noble.”

-Nichomachean Ethics

Aristotelian thought proposes that:

True learning has taken place when the student becomes better at a skill.
This learning takes place when a choice of action is presented to the student.

For further reading please see:

Wurdinger, S.D. (1997). Philosophical Issues in Adventure Education. (3rd ed.)Dubuque, IA: Kendall / Hunt Publishing.

Hunt, J. (1991). “Philosophy of Adventure Education.” In Adventure Education. Edited by John Miles and Simon Priest. Venture Press.