Session Information
15 SES 07, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
Nowadays, students are presented by a new image and a new sense of school experience. In fact, students are different as a consequence of modernization, globalization and actual knowledge society. Actually, knowledge is everywhere and quickly gives satisfactory answers (at least momentarily) to questions and problems of students’ everyday life.
This explains a certain feeling of weakness of classical teaching and learning process that is not in accordance with actual students’ needs and expectations. And that’s because the current educational system, that was designed and conceived for a different time is still trying to meet the future by doing what was done in the past.
It’s known that a new meaning for school implies responding to new demands of economy (qualifying and preparing good workers) and of society (teaching and socializing children and adolescents) promoting the education and the comprehensive development of citizens, allowing them with the opportunity to see lots of possible answers, and lots of ways to interpret a question. With the chance to have original ideas, with value, multiple perspectives, opinions and active creation, students want to learn and to be part in activities and projects in school. And this is the way to turn school experiences and the journey of learning more meaningful and a relational process that happens over a period of time in everyday life (Fletcher, 2005).
There is a vast research literature on the topic of motivation to learn, and one finding screams out loud and clear: controlling environments have been shown consistently to reduce people’s interest in whatever they are doing, even when they are doing things that would be highly motivating in other contexts (Dotterer & Lowe, 2011; Lam, Jimerson, Kikas et al., 2012; Wang & Holcombe, 2010; Wu, Hughes, & Kwok, 2010). Therefore, reframing times and spaces, school and teachers must enforce freedom to turn school experiences more meaningful for every student (Dotterer & Lowe, 2011; Wang & Holcombe, 2010).
In fact students' relationship with school, depending on their contexts of daily living and their personal experiences, has been considered a wide field of analysis. Indeed, in recent decades has been of common interest and concern to know and reveal the perceptions that students, parents and teachers have about what the school is and its mission. Such interest has aimed to a better understanding of school reality in order to know what to do for suppress any negative and devaluated feelings that may exist (Covell, Howe, & Polegato, 2011; Dotterer & Lowe, 2011; Dubet & Martuccelli, 1996; Gibbons & Silva, 2011; Lewis, Kim, & Bey, 2011; Osler, 2010; Swaminathan, 2004; Wang & Holcombe, 2010; among others).
This study is part of a larger case study research, following a critical and qualitative approach and allowed us a better understanding of the meaning of school for students' life, as well as their thoughts and feelings of their schooling experience.
The goals of this research were to know:
- students’ perceptions about their partnership with teachers in turning school a wellbeing space with a true established culture of citizenship and developer of creativity and meaningful experiences for everybody.
- if students are really aware and prepared to discuss and explain their point of view, criticizing and giving opinions about school decisions that directly affect their school experiences.
- if students’ perceptions about school and its mission are according to teachers perspectives about students sense of school.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Carspecken, P. (1996) Critical Ethnography in Education Research: A Theoretical and Practical Guide. London: Routledge Covell, K. (2010) School engagement and rights-respecting schools, Cambridge Journal of Education, 40, 1, pp. 39 – 51 Covell, K..; Howe, R. & Polegato, J. (2011) Children’s human rights education as a counter to social disadvantage: a case study from England, Educational Research, 53, 2, pp. 193 – 206 Dotterer, A. & Lowe, K. (2011) Classroom Context, School Engagement, and Academic Achievement in Early Adolescence, Youth Adolescence, 40, pp. 1649 - 1660 Dubet, F. & Martuccelli, D. (1996) A l’école. Sociologie de l’expérience scolaire. Paris: Seuil Fletcher, A. (2005) Meaningful Student Involvement Guide to Students as Partners on School Change. Seattle, WA: HumanLinks Foundation. [online in] http://www.humanlinksfoundation.org/PDFs/MSI_IncluGuideOnline.pdf Gibbons, S. & Silva, O. (2011) School quality, child wellbeing and parents’ satisfaction. Economics of Education Review, 30, pp. 312-331, [online in] www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev Lam, S.; Jimerson, S.; Kikas, E.; Cefai, C.; Veiga, F.; Nelson, B.; Hatzichristou, C.; Polychroni, F.; Basnet, J.; Stanculescu, E.; Wong, B.; Yang, H. & Zollneritsch, J. (2012) Do girls and boys perceive themselves as equally engaged in school? The results of an international study from 12 countries. Journal of School Psychology, 50, pp. 77 – 94 Lewis, L.; Kim, Y. & Bey, J. (2011) Teaching practices and strategies to involve inner-city parents at home and in the school, Teacher and Teaching Education, 27, 1, pp. 221 - 234 Osler, A. (2010) Students’ Perspectives on Schooling, London: McGraw-Hill, Open University Press Swaminathan, R. (2004) ‘’It’s My Place’’ : Student Perspectives on Urban School Effectiveness, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 15, 1, pp. 33-63, [online in] http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/sesi.15.1.33.27493 Wang, M. & Holcombe, R. (2010) Adolescents’ perceptions of school environment, engagement and academic achievement in middle school. American Educational Research Journal, 47, pp. 633 – 662 Wu, J.-Y.; Hughes, J. & Kwok, O.-M. (2010) Teacher-student relationship quality type in elementary grades: Effects on trajectories for achievement and engagement. Journal of School Psychology, 48, pp. 357 – 387
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