Session Information
11 SES 09 A, Quality of School Education
Paper/Ignite Talk Session
Contribution
In recent decades, the sector of children’s extracurricular education or out-of-school activities has received new impulses for development and study (ECA). Various formats and contents of ECA organized and informal activities are associated with positive educational and development effects. Numerous empirical studies show a significant role of such activities in improving academic performance (Holland and Andre, 1987; Seow and Pan, 2014; Fisher, 2016; Tanner, 2017). Active involvement in traditional ECA programs provides social development and prevention (Eccles and Barber, 1999; Chambers and Schreiber, 2004; Kremer et al., 2015). ECA also correlated to self-discipline, character and social skills formation and development (Wilson, 2009; Feldman and Matjasko, 2005; Durlak et al., 2010). Finally, ECA allows overcoming barriers related to the participants’ socio-economic status and increasing access to educational services. There are also such benefits as promoting gender equality, helping children from disadvantaged families, and removing the difficulties of integrating migrants into a single educational space (Covay and Carbonaro, 2010; Ganz, Earles-Vollrath and Cook, 2011).
Despite many publications about the effects of extracurricular activities’ participation, empirical studies of the impact of extracurricular education have not been conducted in Russia until now. At the same time, there are no studies on the connection of participation in extracurricular activities with soft skills, although there is some fixation of the contribution of extracurricular activities to the development of creative thinking and going beyond the proposed circumstances (Charsky, 2010; Rajan, 2012).
Along with the key competencies of the 21st century, such a trait of students as curiosity acquires a special role in the modern world. Students’ curiosity is a strong intrinsic motivator to learn and a predictor of long-term academic achievement and innovative career choices, according to the first international comparative study of socio-emotional skills conducted by the OECD in 2021 (OECD, 2021). Studies of the effects of extracurricular activities on the development of curiosity and agency have also not been conducted. However, there are references to the role of extracurricular activities for the formation of agency as a personal characteristic in connection with the need to choose (Covay and Carbonaro, 2010).
The main research question of the work is how the participation of students in an extracurricular activity is related to their: academic achievement, curiosity, 4C skills: critical thinking (the ability to evaluate arguments and assumptions and to make judgments and inferences), creativity (the non-verbal aspect of divergent thinking), communication and cooperation, agency.
In our study, we rely on the conceptual framework of the positive effects of extracurricular activities, which researchers associate with development (positive youth development) and, first of all, with the growth of interpersonal competence (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, & Whalen, 1993), and also with the development of motivation and autonomy (Cordova & Lepper, 1996; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and for positive youth development (Eccles & Gootman, 2002; Mahoney, Larson, & Eccles, 2005).
In our study, we plan to collect data on the complex effects of participation in extracurricular activities and provide an analysis of the participation and involvement related to socio-economic and age characteristics of participants.
Method
The study is conducted on a sample of students in one of the Russian cities (Yaroslavl) with about 600,000 people. The sample is representative of the city schools: a random stratified selection was carried out at the level of schools, considering their size as a characteristic of the socio-economic status of educational organizations. In total, 31 schools and 3,000 students in grades 4-8 were selected for the study. At the data collection stage, students were tested and surveyed. The following information was collected: · Participation in an extracurricular activity, · Socio-demographic characteristics of students, · Self-report of academic achievement, · Curiosity (the scale consists of 10 questions and was tested on a sample of 642 students with a reliability index of 0.7), · 4C skills (computerized performance-based tasks). Following modern psychometric trends, assessment of 4C skills was realized in original format via computerized performance-based tasks (Care & Kim, 2018). The instrument includes gamelike scenarios with real-life or fantastic context (e.g. organizing a school party or building a house on an island) designed for each grade. Particular students’ actions within the scenarios are marked as indicators (items) that are automatically scored following scoring rules. The collected data will be analyzed with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to evaluate the relationships between latent constructs and other predictors.
Expected Outcomes
Preparation for the study began in the fall of 2021, the data collection stage (testing in 3 stages) will be held in February and March 2022. In the coming months, we plan to analyze the data. We expect to receive new data for the research and academic agenda on the relationship of participation in extracurricular activities with the level of curiosity and soft skills. We expect positive effects, especially in children in grades 4-5. The relationship with age has previously been shown in studies on participation in extracurricular activities and effects on academic results (Metsäpelto & Pulkkinen, 2014). At the same time, in general, we expect a weak positive relationship between involvement and participation in extracurricular activities and 4K skills and curiosity in the control of SES.
References
Care, E., & Kim, H. (2018). Assessment of twenty-first century skills: The issue of authenticity. In Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills (pp. 21-39). Springer, Cham. Cordova, D. I., & Lepper, M. R. (1996). Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning: Beneficial effects of contextualization, personalization, and choice. Journal of educational psychology, 88(4), 715. Covay, E., & Carbonaro, W. (2010). After the bell: Participation in extracurricular activities, classroom behavior, and academic achievement. Sociology of Education, 83(1), 20-45. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). The domain of creativity. Csikszentmihalyi, M. ; Rathunde, K. ; and Whalen, S. Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success and Failure. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., & Pachan, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of after-school programs that seek to promote personal and social skills in children and adolescents. American journal of community psychology, 45(3), 294-309. Eccles, J. S., & Barber, B. L. (1999). Student council, volunteering, basketball, or marching band: What kind of extracurricular involvement matters?. Journal of adolescent research, 14(1), 10-43. Eccles, J. S., Gootman, J. A. (Eds.). (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Feldman, A. F., & Matjasko, J. L. (2005). The role of school-based extracurricular activities in adolescent development: A comprehensive review and future directions. Review of educational research, 75(2), 159-210. Ganz, J. B., Earles-Vollrath, T. L., & Cook, K. E. (2011). A visually based intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. Teaching Exceptional Children, 43(6), 8-19. Holland, A., & Andre, T. (1987). Participation in extracurricular activities in secondary school: What is known, what needs to be known?. Review of educational research, 57(4), 437-466. Mahoney, J. L., Larson, R. W., & Eccles, J. S. (Eds.). (2005). Organized activities as contexts of development: Extracurricular activities, after school and community programs. Psychology Press. Metsäpelto, R. L., & Pulkkinen, L. (2014). The benefits of extracurricular activities for socioemotional behavior and school achievement in middle childhood: An overview of the research. Journal for educational research online, 6(3), 10-33. OECD (2021), Beyond Academic Learning: First Results from the Survey of Social and Emotional Skills, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/92a11084-en. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 54-67.
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