Abstract:

At the official level, in Romania, the educational policy documents structurally integrate the eight key competences proposed at the level of the European Union, through which the formation of the young people’s righteous and active personality in the social life, through the school institution, is aimed. Thus, the lines of educational intervention are supported, lines through which desirable values, such as: respect, tolerance, honesty, etc., can be transmitted to young people, values that involve both the acquisition of knowledge, and the formation of skills and attitudes to be found in behaviors. In addition, the realization of extracurricular educational activities is supported by the results of numerous researches, including experimental ones, for the way in which the formation and development of social interaction is realized, including within groups of friends and personal development through self-knowledge. The present paper presents research data from an extensive investigative approach, through which we propose to identify and experimentally test the efficiency of some extracurricular educational sequences that support the optimization of relations of high school students with parents, the improvement of their attitude towards the school institution and the development of a positive attitude towards life. The data were collected after an educational experiment in which 20 high school students participated in extracurricular activities that mainly targeted objectives in the field of moral-civic education, regarding the relationship with oneself, but also with others. The educational activities were designed and carried out in order to support self-knowledge, personal development and interpersonal knowledge. An important part of the data presented in this article was collected using a questionnaire administered at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. By comparing the data, it can be observed that the involvement in the respective activities influences the positive emotional state, which increases from 40% to 75%, the participants indicating the openness to collaboration and the joy between the feelings experienced constantly during the experiment. At the same time, self-esteem, the image of oneself, increased from 45% to 60%, participants noting that they felt understood and appreciated. Also, the relationship with others has improved, reaching a level of 95% of situations in which high school students choose who to collaborate with. If 10% of them initially stated that involvement in these types of activities does not influence them in any way, in the end they stated that they noticed changes both in the personal level and in the relationship with others, especially through the disappearance of preconceptions and a better knowledge of colleagues. Important data were also obtained through observation. The conclusions of the research show that those who initially claimed that they never have initiative (15%) or that most of the time they prefer to work alone (45%), at the end of the activities stated that it is more pleasant and more useful for them to work in a team, to learn to solve new situations (65%).

Keywords:

Extracurricular activities, personal development, education, responsibility.