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A Study of the Changes in Students' Attitudes with the Enhancement of their Voices in Extra-curricular Activities in Secondary Schools

Posted on:2013-06-12Degree:Ed.DType:Dissertation
University:The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)Candidate:Kong, Man SingFull Text:PDF
GTID:1457390008489632Subject:Education
Abstract/Summary:
In recent years, the research on student voice has aroused many concerns in the western society. The researchers tried to dig the neglected yet valuable student voice in the curriculum inquiry aspect. This paper attempts to use extra-curricular activities as an intervention point, using student voice to construct their curriculum, and see if it would bring about changes in students' attitude towards self, teachers, classmates, activities and school.;Through collecting student voices in school, the researcher reveals that the most popular extra-curricular activity is "Electronic games". Therefore, the researcher proposed to establish the "Electronic Games Club" and recruited 13 students to form a committee. This paper has recorded how to use the student voices of the 8 active members in the committee, in organizing several functions. With semi-constructed interview, the changes in attitudes of the 8 members in different dimensions are measured through "Implicit Attitude Measurement". Besides, the key elements of using student voice in constructing activities are discussed.;This paper reveals that when students are using their voices to construct the activities, they will have a higher engagement in the activities. Some of the students even experienced "flow" and some recalled an increase in self-efficacy. However, negative influence can also be resulted if the students experienced frustration in the process, and they may have thoughts of giving up. This is the point when teacher needs to intervene and provide assistance. What rarely mentioned in other researches is the bipolar influence on the attitude of the student towards teammates -- either positive or negative when every student's voice conflicts with each other. Different extent of positive attitude changes of students towards teachers and school are also recorded. Finally, the three indispensable key elements, namely, teacher, student, and curriculum, of constructing activities with the students' voice are discussed. Students' voice can be greatly undermined if teacher does not trust the power of student voice, or the students are not ready to share the role of designing the curriculum, or both the teacher and students are pulled by demands of public exams or expectation of school etc.;We are educating "people". We see students lacking creativity, too shy to express their opinions and too self-centered despite high education attainment. Let us recall if there was a chance for our students to express their voices in school? Were their voices being heard and respected? This paper proposed to introduce student voice within the tight school curriculum and promote the mutual respect and growth between teachers and students. Nevertheless, to implement the essence of student voice in the curriculum, we should always pay attention in the three key elements -- teacher, student and curriculum.
Keywords/Search Tags:Student, Voice, Activities, School, Key elements, Curriculum, Attitude, Changes
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