Session Information
27 SES 02 C, Students Learning Trajectories and Ways of Knowing at School
Paper Session
Contribution
The objectives of this research project are to understand primary and secondary students’ affective dimension towards school subjects; to identify students’ and teachers’ perceptions regarding to the possible causes of school disaffection process; to identify possible solutions to improve the students’ emotional approach towards knowledge. This study has the aim to answer to the following research questions:
- How students’ affective dimension is organized towards school subjects in primary and secondary school?
- What are the disciplines that students have a difficult relation with? In which school years? For what reasons?
- What are main differences among three school stages (primary, lower and upper secondary school) regarding the affective relation between students and school subjects?
- What are the good interventions that can be done to improve the students’ emotional approach towards knowledge?
School learning process plays a key role all along students’ educational lives, and pupils’ difficulties have direct consequences on their disciplinary approach. Therefore, to be able to understand students’ perception it is not only important to consider the cognitive aspect but also the emotional one which is fundamental in the learning process. The connection between the emotional brain areas and the neocortex represents the possibility of emotional centers to influence all the brain work (Goleman, 1996). Moreover, this dimension has a basic role in the students’ learning process, in their perception and in their motivation towards a disciplinary subject. This process triggers an affection between pupil and discipline, and it reflects the student’s emotional experiences lived and built all along the school life. These experiences can condition either the conception of the single disciplines or the whole scholastic perception (Cappello, 2013a).
The students’ affective dimension towards knowledge cannot be put aside in the teaching-learning process. Though learning process divided into different school subjects, it is remains within a single knowledge system. For these reasons, the affective dimension has a basic role in the students’ learning approach, in their perception and in their motivation towards a discipline, and its importance it was demonstrated and highlighted (Contini, 1992; De Beni and Moè, 2000; Dweck, 1999; Goleman, 2000, 2007). Students’ affective relation towards knowledge was deeply studied on the mathematical school subject. Several studies have shown a particular emotional relation between students and Mathematics (Cappello, 2013b; D'Amore, 2001; D’Amore and Fandiño Pinilla, 2012; Zan, 2008). However, in this study the concept of school disaffection involves the various school subjects in the different school stages. School disaffection was recognized not as a school process but as a consequence of a negative process. For this reason it was identified with the issue of school dropout, while in other cases the term “disaffection” was connected with the political world. Actually, this term is defined as “Disappointed with someone or something and not supporting them as you did before” (Cambridge.org). Therefore this definition lets us explain with one word a big school process, not only a consequence.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Brophy J. (2010) Motivating Students to Learn. New York: Routledge Cambridge Dictionaries Online. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/englishpolish/disaffected Cappello S. (2013a) Apprendimento in matematica. Il cambiamento del rapporto tra gli studenti e la disciplina nel corso degli anni scolastici. RicercAzione. Ricerca educativa, valutativa e di studi sociali sulle politiche e il mondo giovanile, 5/2, 143-160 Cappello, S. (2013b). How the approach on Mathematics differs among students, considered their academic level gap over the time. Investigaciòn en el ambito escolar. Un acercamiento multidimensional a las variables psicològicas y educativas, 29-32 Contini M. (1992) Per una pedagogia delle emozioni. Firenze: Nuova Italia D’Amore B. (2001) Riflessioni sul triangolo allievo-insegnante-sapere nella didattica della matematica. L’educazione matematica, 3/2, 104-113 D’Amore B. and Fandiño Pinilla M.I (2012) Matematica: come farla amare. Miti, illusioni, sogni e realtà. Giunti Universale Scuola De Beni R. and Moè A. (2000) Motivazione e apprendimento. Bologna: Il Mulino Dweck C.S. (1999) Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development. Philadelphia: Psychology Press Goleman D. (1996) Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ. Maryland: Bantam Dell Publishing Group Goleman D. (2000) Lavorare con Intelligenza emotiva. Milano: Rizzoli Goleman D. (2007) Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. Maryland: Bantam Zan R. (2008) Matematica: un problema da risolvere. Azzano San Paolo: Edizioni Junior
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.