DSP- Extra-Curricular Activities and the Role of Positive Youth Development
Developmental Standards Paper
Logan Lee
EDPSY 251
Waite
Spring 2013
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DSP- Extra-Curricular Activities and the Role of Positive Youth Development
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Developmental Standards Paper
"The teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning
opportunities that support their intellectual, social and personal development" ~
INTASC2
The purpose of this presentation is to show my full understanding of how students
that participate in extra curricular activities exhibit higher physical and intellectual
growth than those who do not. In this work I will provide examples from numerous
studies but also from examples in educational journals, literature, and correlate them to
how students’ learn, develop and understand things throughout their educational lives.
This presentation will also serve as a way to show that I am capable of understanding the
educational concepts that I have learned or have been learning, and relating them to
extracurricular activities and how possible, future educators can use them in an everyday
school environment.
Since the dawn of time, humans have engaged in many activities outside of their
“work” time. This happened simply because humans were never keen of solely working
all the time and this helped discover pastime activities. Time has passed and we come to
present day, people are still engaging in activities outside of their primary, most
important, things they spend time on. Many people around the world have begun to
recognize the importance of extracurricular activities. Studies monitoring youths’
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development have recently begun to gain widespread recognition. Though few of the
studies may have been subjective, most of the results clearly show a positive correlation
in the engagement of extra-curricular activities, basically meaning that for the most part,
students tend to have an increase in almost every aspect of their lives, especially in
accordance to their classroom learning strategies (Bundick, 2011).
I must be able to understand how to promote an independent learning
environment for my students. In my classroom, I will make it extremely clear that I value
a student’s independent thinking. It will be my job to convey to these students that it
does not always matter what their classmates are thinking for the assignment. Rather it is
their independent thinking and thought processes that will help them complete their tasks
easier and effectively (SS 2.5). It might seem as a detriment, always having the students
review their peers’ work just to gain an idea of what to do.
Early on in a student’s education, they are asked what they want to be when they
“grow up”. Many of the students have far fetched answers such as; astronaut, policeman,
professional athlete, etc… Though at the time, we never fully understand why we are
being asked, the question itself may have more behind it than meets the eye. This
concept is known as a person’s imagined self, or what a person sees them selves as in the
future. Based on findings in multiple scholarly studies and reports, the involvement of
extracurricular activity was shown to heavily define a person in their imagined future
self. Basically saying that participating in those activities can have a positive affect on
how a person sees himself or herself in the future (Stevenson & Clegg, 2011). By doing
extracurricular activities, the students are more exposed to a whole new plethora of
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different activities that can spark their interest, thus leading them to many future
opportunities. I can truly speak on this having participated heavily in extra-curricular
activities my entire life and one thing I can say with a high level of certainty is, that every
extra-curricular activity I have ever been in, has help mold the person I am today and
almost always affected how I saw myself in the future.
EDIT BEFORE THIS!!!
As an educator of young minds that have yet to be fully molded, it is pertinent
that I understand how the student behaves and acts around their parents, as well as their
siblings. If I had a prior knowledge of their home life, it would be easier for me as an
educator to respond to the student rather than behave the same to every single pupil.
Having this environment in my classroom will make for a smoother running class and
will definitely help me in getting the absolute best out of every one of my students. Once
I have gained enough important information about my students, I can then start to build
my lesson plans that can cater to every single student that is in my class. I will have
skills that allow me to adapt for any cultural need of a student as well as being able to
bring out the best in all of my students every day. My main goal will be to use the
students’ best qualities to their advantage and tap into their unknown potential (SS 2.8,
5.3). This could be done by giving the students an aptitude test, helping figure out their
strengths and weaknesses, thus helping me as an educator create diverse lesson plans that
cater to all of my pupils.
Gaining leadership skills early on in a student’s academic life can have many
benefits. Developing these skills can help a person grow intellectually as well as improve
the way they interact with their fellow peers. With these learned leadership skills,
students can then make the right decisions on their own when they are outside of the
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classroom environment. Students that are active in band, choir, orchestra, or school plays
would typically be less likely to develop drug or alcohol problems later in life (Hancock,
Dyk, & Jones, 2012). These students that chose to involve themselves in extracurricular
activities were not immune to developing destructive habits later on. Those who
experienced mostly positive memories in these activities tend to have higher self-esteems
while those who had negative experiences with extracurricular activities were shown to
likely acquire an alcohol problem in their lifetime (Hancock et al., 2012).
During the teen years, a student’s self-esteem is usually at the lowest any person
will ever experience. This time in a person’s life is usually one of the first memories that
get erased as the person ages, mainly because of the troubled times they experienced due
to low self-esteem, poor self-image and high insecurity. As an educator, it is my job to
be able to understand that not all students come from the same backgrounds as well as
knowing that each person is subject to different levels of self-esteem (SS 1.3). At an age
when many have lowered self-esteems, any young person that decides to participate in
extracurricular activities is automatically raising their chances of increasing their selfesteem (Kort-Butler, 2012). One reason for a spike in self-esteem due to extracurricular
activities could be attributed to the fact that when a person is successful at the activity
they chose, their self-confidence increases substantially, which will ultimately lead to an
increase in a person’s self-esteem.
In the past, almost every single study done on extracurricular activities and youth
development typically showed a positive correlation between the two. Though most of
activities chosen all contribute to growth in self-esteem, no one activity has been found to
increase self-esteem the “most” (Kort-Butler, 2012). Even though there is a positive
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correlation, some students have far different life experiences than others and their selfesteem might not ever reach its full potential. This indicates that a small amount of these
results in the studies are subjective for different people.
While learning in the class room and teacher-student relationships are beneficial
to the growth of a student, nothing is as important in this day and age to a student than
extracurricular activities. Adults seldom remember fully the time that they spent in the
classroom compared to them being able to pick out exact times and moments they spent
when doing extracurricular activities (Kronholz, 2012). Even though classroom
instruction is necessary for the student, he or she cannot fully express their inner feelings
in that type of environment the same way they can whilst participating in extracurricular
activities. As more and more schools in today’s age are becoming poorer and poorer,
many of these activities are getting cut due to funding. So without activities being
available to the youths after school, there is now a higher risk of them committing crimes
in their free time, compared to being in a safe, welcoming, growth-oriented environment
(Kronholz, 2012). This just goes to show how important extracurricular activities can be
to the young students, their parents, as well as the rest of the community.
Instructional Decisions
The information I have reviewed and dissected will benefit my practice as a future
professional educator. When I become a teacher I will happily engage my students into a
mindset that has them know and believe extracurricular activities are great ways to
improve overall academic success. I will again and again stress the importance of doing
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more things outside of the classroom and that any sort of extracurricular activity whether
it be athletic, musical, or academic activity, is beneficial for all students (SS 5.3).
According to the results, evidence suggests that participating in leadership based
programs and volunteering in the community fosters growth and helps youths flourish as
they enter young adulthood (Bundick, 2011).
This project has allowed me to understand that extracurricular activities are more
than just sports and the arts, but rather very useful tools that play an enormous role in the
development of the students. The content that I observed and reviewed will be important
information that I will use in the future. I believe that before reading these studies, I had
no idea that the engagement and the importance of extracurricular activities could be so
essential to young students as they complete their educational journey.
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Works Cited
Bundick, M.J. (2011). Extracurricular activities, positive youth development, and
the role of meaningfulness of engagement. The Journal of Positive
Psychology, 6(1), 57-74.
Hancock, D., Dyk, P., & Jones, K. (2012). Adolescent involvement in
extracurricular activities: Influences on leadership skills. Journal of
Education Leadership, 11(1), 84-101.
Kort-Butler , L. (2012). Extracurricular activity involvement and adolescent selfesteem. Prevention Researcher ,19(2), 13-16.
Kronholz, J. (2012). Academic value of non-academics: The case for keeping
extracurriculars. Education Digest, 77(8), 4-10. Retrieved from
http://educationnext.org/academic-value-of-non-academics/
Stevenson, J., & Clegg, S. (2011). Possible selves: Students orientating
themselves towards the future through extracurricular activity. British
Educational Research Journal, 37(2), p. 231-246.