Abstract:

When a student enters school, they go through a process of enculturation, leaving different from how they entered. They adopt a culture through recognized models, insights, interactions, and feedbacks that give them helpful instructions for ongoing learning. The school is thus fundamental in the process of development, education, enculturation and formation of children and youths. But is it just the formal curriculum that interferes with youth development? More and more authors argue for the need to implement non-compulsory extracurricular activities, considering that they foster the cognitive, physical, social and even emotional development of students. Student participation in these activities contributes to self-regulation of learning and, consequently, to the development of intrinsic motivational orientations. The present study aimed to characterize the preferences of students about the school, teachers, colleagues and the various subjects taught, as well as the characterization of extracurricular activities that these participants attend. On the other hand, the goal was to understand the relationships between these two aspects: students' interest in the topics addressed at school, in teachers, school, and classmates, and attendance at extracurricular activities. A total of 1300 of 3rd year students from the districts of Lisbon and Porto participated in the study. The participants' involvement in extracurricular activities and their preferences about the school, teachers and peers, as well as about the topics addressed in the classroom context were evaluated through a questionnaire built within the scope of the present research.

The results seem to demonstrate that students enjoy the subjects they learn at school, as well as their peers, teachers and the school itself. On the other hand, only half of the participants attended extracurricular activities, with sports predominating as an activity. If they were allowed to choose a new extracurricular activity, they would also opt for a sport.

There were also several associations between students' preferences and their involvement in extracurricular activities with their sociodemographic variables, which indicates the relevance of the context in children's perceptions and daily life. The results attained will be discussed in the light of the most recent literature on educational psychology, and its practical and research implications are also discussed.

Keywords:

Students’ interests, Primary school, Education, Students, School success.