Page 295 - Štremfel, Urška, ed., 2016. Student (Under)achievement: Perspectives, Approaches, Challenges. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut. Digital Library, Documenta 11.
P. 295
s cooperative behaviour within the classroom and, last but not least, im- 295
proves academic achievement (Durlak et al., 2011).
In addition to attitudes, relationships, and social and emotional learning,
special attention in the monograph has also been devoted to other diverse
non-cognitive approaches to fostering student achievement.
Janja Žmavc highlights rhetoric and argumentation as significant content
elements that are, in the context of the subject matters within humanities and
social sciences, impossible to separate from other subject matters prescribed
by the curricula. However, the author presents them as methodological tools
that enable co-creation of the learning situation and knowledge in every ed-
ucational process, regardless of any specific characteristics of the subject mat-
ter, whereby they also leave a direct mark on student achievement. For a more
conceptually suitable use in practice, rhetoric and argumentation - as impor-
tant educational factors in student achievement - require mainly: a) teachers
who are sensitive to rhetoric and argumentation; b) long term and systematic
teaching with a special focus on practical activities; and c) a productive wider
public environment, where they could be performed effectively.
An important strategy for work with underachieving students, highlight-
ed by Blaž Zupan and Franc Cankar in their chapter, is the development of en-
trepreneurship, wherein the emphasis is on fostering creative and innovative
problem-solving as a universally applicable skill that everyone needs in every-
day life, and one that requires no broad knowledge of the conventional con-
tents taught at school or any great ability for retention or analytical thinking.
However, in spite of the significance that the development of entrepreneur-
ship may have for fostering academic achievement of Slovenian students, the
authors point to the data indicating that a certain deficiency of the education-
al system in this field is perceived by schools and students. The authors high-
light the need for a concrete incentive that could, based on practical activi-
ties, bring schools closer to the latest findings in relation to the development
of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and thus enable and accelerate
the emergence of best practice in this field.
The chapter by Polona Kelava is based on the presumption that non-for-
mal and informal knowledge is multicomponent and boasts certain advantag-
es that can be used to foster motivation for further school work. The author
links the fields of non-formal and informal knowledge with children’s, students’
and adolescents’ self-concept and shows how identifying, and subsequently
validating, adolescents’ non-formal and informal knowledge could be used to
reinforce their motivation for school work. She believes it would be advisable
to conceive recognition of the significance of non-formal and informal knowl-
edge and record it at a level that would make it possible for youths to assert
this knowledge, both in proving their qualifications and as a basis for broaden-
ing their knowledge and competencies.
student (under)achievement as a challenge in development of educational policies and practices: conclusion
proves academic achievement (Durlak et al., 2011).
In addition to attitudes, relationships, and social and emotional learning,
special attention in the monograph has also been devoted to other diverse
non-cognitive approaches to fostering student achievement.
Janja Žmavc highlights rhetoric and argumentation as significant content
elements that are, in the context of the subject matters within humanities and
social sciences, impossible to separate from other subject matters prescribed
by the curricula. However, the author presents them as methodological tools
that enable co-creation of the learning situation and knowledge in every ed-
ucational process, regardless of any specific characteristics of the subject mat-
ter, whereby they also leave a direct mark on student achievement. For a more
conceptually suitable use in practice, rhetoric and argumentation - as impor-
tant educational factors in student achievement - require mainly: a) teachers
who are sensitive to rhetoric and argumentation; b) long term and systematic
teaching with a special focus on practical activities; and c) a productive wider
public environment, where they could be performed effectively.
An important strategy for work with underachieving students, highlight-
ed by Blaž Zupan and Franc Cankar in their chapter, is the development of en-
trepreneurship, wherein the emphasis is on fostering creative and innovative
problem-solving as a universally applicable skill that everyone needs in every-
day life, and one that requires no broad knowledge of the conventional con-
tents taught at school or any great ability for retention or analytical thinking.
However, in spite of the significance that the development of entrepreneur-
ship may have for fostering academic achievement of Slovenian students, the
authors point to the data indicating that a certain deficiency of the education-
al system in this field is perceived by schools and students. The authors high-
light the need for a concrete incentive that could, based on practical activi-
ties, bring schools closer to the latest findings in relation to the development
of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and thus enable and accelerate
the emergence of best practice in this field.
The chapter by Polona Kelava is based on the presumption that non-for-
mal and informal knowledge is multicomponent and boasts certain advantag-
es that can be used to foster motivation for further school work. The author
links the fields of non-formal and informal knowledge with children’s, students’
and adolescents’ self-concept and shows how identifying, and subsequently
validating, adolescents’ non-formal and informal knowledge could be used to
reinforce their motivation for school work. She believes it would be advisable
to conceive recognition of the significance of non-formal and informal knowl-
edge and record it at a level that would make it possible for youths to assert
this knowledge, both in proving their qualifications and as a basis for broaden-
ing their knowledge and competencies.
student (under)achievement as a challenge in development of educational policies and practices: conclusion
