Paper Title
Campus Amazing Race As Teaching Tool: Sport Students’ Perceptions Of Skills Developed And Applied
Abstract
Industry demands that graduates possess specific hard and soft skills when entering the work environment.
Universities across the globe are increasingly required to produce highly-skilled graduates who are able to respond to the
ever changing and complex needs of the workplace. Owing to the pressure and demands of industry, tertiary institutions
constantly seek to employ new and innovative teaching and learning methods to develop students’ much needed diverse
skills. The objective of this study was the identification of the skills developed and applied by sport students during an
outdoor adventure program in the form of an on-campus Amazing Race event. Full-time students enrolled in sport and
recreation curriculums at a South African university in the Gauteng province participated in this innovative teaching and
learning opportunity, which incorporated physical, social and cognitive outcomes. For the study, 99 students aged between
18-24years, voluntarily completed three open-ended questions regarding the skills they applied and developed during the
event participation. Qualitative techniques were utilised to analyse the data inductively and rendered 121 meaning units,
grouped together into 11 categories, which grouped into six primary skill themes, namely: management, cognitive, social,
knowledge, physical and fun. Students identified more soft skills than hard skills. Tertiary institutions could employ this
outdoor innovative teaching and learning method to develop students’ hard as well as soft skills.
Keywords- Students, Development, Soft Skills, Hard Skills, Amazing Race