Page 79 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Cooperation Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 79
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Local Community Support
in Students' Self-concept Development,
Academic Achievement and ESL Prevention
Ana Kozina, Maša Vidmar and Tina Vršnik Perše
Synopsis
Through high-quality, community-based activities open to all stu-
dents (including high-risk students), the community can play a sig-
nificant role in building students’ positive academic self-concept and
promote overall positive development that can, in turn, lead to low-
er levels of ESL.
Summary
This paper applies the strength-based approaches (positive self-con-
cept development and overall positive youth development (Lerner,
2007)) to the promotion of young people’s success within the school
environment and ESL prevention. It introduces the role of the local
community in overall (student personal) development and the de-
velopment of a positive self-concept. A positive self-concept is a val-
uable resource for favourable developmental outcomes since being
socially constructed it can play a significant role in preventing ESL.
The paper builds on theoretical findings on changes in the self-con-
cept. Potential ESLers can be influenced by building their positive
self-concept (especially academic self-concept), first by significant
others providing positive feedback (a positive change in a low aca-
demic self-schema) and, second, by introducing and focusing on ed-
ucational goals (combining educational goals with non-education-
al goals in a congruent way). Further on, when analysing the role
79
Local Community Support
in Students' Self-concept Development,
Academic Achievement and ESL Prevention
Ana Kozina, Maša Vidmar and Tina Vršnik Perše
Synopsis
Through high-quality, community-based activities open to all stu-
dents (including high-risk students), the community can play a sig-
nificant role in building students’ positive academic self-concept and
promote overall positive development that can, in turn, lead to low-
er levels of ESL.
Summary
This paper applies the strength-based approaches (positive self-con-
cept development and overall positive youth development (Lerner,
2007)) to the promotion of young people’s success within the school
environment and ESL prevention. It introduces the role of the local
community in overall (student personal) development and the de-
velopment of a positive self-concept. A positive self-concept is a val-
uable resource for favourable developmental outcomes since being
socially constructed it can play a significant role in preventing ESL.
The paper builds on theoretical findings on changes in the self-con-
cept. Potential ESLers can be influenced by building their positive
self-concept (especially academic self-concept), first by significant
others providing positive feedback (a positive change in a low aca-
demic self-schema) and, second, by introducing and focusing on ed-
ucational goals (combining educational goals with non-education-
al goals in a congruent way). Further on, when analysing the role
79
