The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between children's participation in school and adaptation to school. This paper looks at the areas in school in which children exercise their right to participation, the difference in children'...
The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between children's participation in school and adaptation to school. This paper looks at the areas in school in which children exercise their right to participation, the difference in children's participation based on their background variables, and the relationship between children's participation in school and adaptation to school.
For this research, a survey was conducted among 380 children in Grades 5 and 6 from 3 elementary schools in Seoul. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS statistics program. The mean and standard deviation were calculated to measure children's participation in school, and the t-test was conducted to study the difference in children's school participation based on background variables. Correlation analysis was applied to find out the relationship between children's participation in school and adaptation to school, and multiple regression analysis was used to examine the influence of children's participation in school on their adaptation to school. The results of this research are summarized as follows:
First, the areas in school where children actively participate are in the order of class, school administration and extracurricular areas. In particular, they show high levels of participation, and express their opinions actively in class representative elections and school policy-related matters. In contrast, children do not much exercise their right to participation in using the official media of the school, expressing through appearance, and the administration of class meeting.
Second, in terms of children's participation in school based on background variables, children show different levels of participation depending on gender, grade, whether they have a position in class and whether they take special aptitude courses. Female students tend to participate more in extracurricular areas, rather than curricular, class administration and school administration areas, than male students do. Grade 5 students participate more in all areas (curricular, extracurricular, class administration and school administration areas) than Grade 6 students. Also, children who have a special position in class participate more in extracurricular areas than children who don't, and children taking special aptitude courses participate more in extracurricular areas than those who don't.
As children's participation in school and adaptation to school are shown to have static correlation, we can see that children showing high levels of participation in school adapt to school better. The curricular area in which children participate in school focuses on free exchange and expression of ideas between teachers and children, and it has the highest correlation with the relationship with teachers in adaptation to school. The extracurricular area shows the highest static correlation with academic achievement in adaptation to school, and the lowest correlation with compliance with rules. The class administration area shows the highest static correlation with academic achievement, and the lowest correlation with peer relations. The school administration area shows the highest correlation with academic achievement and the lowest with peer relations.
Third, children with high levels of participation in school tend to adapt to school better, as it is shown that children's participation in school has a significant meaning in adaptation to school. The subordinate factors of school participation affecting children's relationship with teachers are curricular and school administration areas. In particular, the curricular area is more closely related to the relationship with teachers. The subordinate factors affecting peer relations are extracurricular and class administration areas.
From these results, we can see that children who participate more in school adapt to school better, have better peer relations, show higher academic achievement, comply with school rules better and participate in school activities more.