The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the volunteer activity education on validation of volunteer activities and improvement of students'' self-esteem..The volunteer activities are known to serve to cultivate mentality and attitude to...
The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the volunteer activity education on validation of volunteer activities and improvement of students'' self-esteem..The volunteer activities are known to serve to cultivate mentality and attitude towards humanity, develop a sound personality, a sense of responsibility, a potential of leadership and a sense of confidence and promote a sense of community, understanding of the community and affect leisure and hobby life positively.Students are encouraged to be engaged in volunteer activities to enhance their personality, but their volunteer activities are not substantial but formal in most cases.In order to test the following hypotheses, the researcher operated a volunteer experience learning program for the sample students;1. The volunteer activity education would awaken the students of the need of a volunteer activity.2. The volunteer activity education would conduce to improvement of students'' self-esteem.For this study, 140 middle school second graders were sampled to be divided equally into test and control groups.Both groups were educated with the program for an hour every week for 3 months. The results of this study can be summarized as follows;First, students'' motivation for volunteer activities changed.Namely, their motivation changed greatly from ''To spend the obligatory volunteer activity hours'' to ''To help others'' or ''To get an opportunity to get acquainted with friends''. After the program, the students were more spontaneous and positive for their voluntary activities rather than obligatory and passive.Second, the effects of voluntary activities expected by the students changed in a positive way.After the program, students were ''more grateful'', ''more pleased to help others'' and ''more active in loving neighbors''.Third, students'' mentality about volunteer activities changed much in terms of beneficiaries and contents.After the program, students were more concerned about social welfare facilities, being more willing to serve them. And they wanted to participate in more personal and professional volunteer activities such as laboring, conversation partner and massaging.Fourth, students'' self-esteem improved.After the program, students seemed to have found a potential for themselves and use the volunteer activities as an opportunity to renew their goal of life.Fifth, students'' sense of community improved. After the program, many students answered that they would be positive in helping others in trouble.Sixth, students were awakened of the relationship between ethics curriculum and volunteer activity education. Students supported volunteer activity education more than personality-centered one.All in all, the two hypotheses were supported positively by the survey.However, it is much regretable that the volunteer activities are educated only formally due to various environmental conditions.Today when more and more people work for only 5 days a week and education of personality through diverse experiences is emphasized, it is deemed required at the levels of school, home, community and even government to operate a volunteer activity special teacher system, organize and activate volunteer activity groups, develop a variety of volunteer activity programs for groups or families and explore diverse beneficiaries of volunteer activities.