This study set out to analyze the current state of extracurricular activities at elementary school from the perspective of elementary school students since the beginning of the Seventh Curriculum, as well as to suggest some improvement measures.
The...
This study set out to analyze the current state of extracurricular activities at elementary school from the perspective of elementary school students since the beginning of the Seventh Curriculum, as well as to suggest some improvement measures.
The following research questions were asked:
First, what fields of extracurricular activities are elementary school students aware of at their school?
Second, what do they think of extracurricular activities in terms of their operation?
Third, what kind of opinions do they have for each of the fields?
Fourth, what do they think of the evaluations for their extracurricular activities?
As for the investigation tool, the investigator made up of a questionnaire consisting of 23 items based on the theoretical background and previous literature. The subjects were 952 elementary school students randomly sampled from all over the nation. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS statistics program in frequency, percentage, and test.
The results were as follows:
First, the students showed a high level of interest in extracurricular activities and an active attitude toward their participation in them. Moreover, they regarded extracurricular activities as important as the subject lessons and believed that extracurricular activities were helpful in their harmonious development of body and mind.
Second, their evaluations were positive for time allocation for extracurricular activities, the teachers' participation, and equipments and materials. They also felt that their demands were reflected in the contents and operation of extracurricular activities relatively much. The factor that they considered to have practical influences on the operation of extracurricular activities at school was the students themselves. But they answered that the use of local figures or parents was very poor.
Third, they showed particular interest in the events activities and development activities among the five fields of extracurricular activities while being only slightly interested in the rest of the fields. This calls for the need to increase the opportunities for experience and expand the scope of choices so that students can engage themselves in each of the fields evenly and improve their relevance and interest in the rest.
Fourth, they thought that the evaluations for their extracurricular activities were fair. The teachers seemed to inform them of the evaluation plans at the beginning of each semester. Still a lot of the respondents said thatthey had no idea of when an evaluation would be and that the assessments depended on the products or records. Thus it's necessary to devise more feasible and reliable evaluation tools and collect comprehensive, multilateral evaluation data, thus enhancingthe quality of evaluations.