Annales Universitatis Apulensis. Series Paedagogica-Psychologica
INSTRUCTIONAL – EDUCATIONAL WAYS OF PREVENTING SCHOOL
INADAPTATION IN PRE-ADOLESCENTS
Liana TAUSAN
Universitatea 1 Decembrie 1918 Alba Iulia
Abstract: One of the periods in which frequent difficulties in school adaptation appear is
represented by the beginning of pre-adolescence; a period which, in the area of school
activities, has as equivalent the shift from elementary to secondary education. The
difficulties in school adaptation which can manifest themselves at the beginning of the 5 th
grade can be generated by multiple and sometimes sudden transformations which happen
on two plans: the plan of bio-psychological development and the plan of the learning
activity.
From a pedagogical point of view, more important than the intervention to remedy school
inadaptation is the prevention of it. But this action of prevention must base itself on the
knowledge of the possible causes which can generate school inadaptation. These causes are
linked to certain malfunctions and distortions which can appear at the level of the factors
which favour school adaptation.
The group of factors presented, which lie at the base of school adaptation/inadaptation, are
in close interaction, and the situations in which only one factor is responsible for the low
school performances or inadequate student behaviour are very rare. The existence of an
unfavorable factor doesn't automatically bring the student's inadaptation, only creates
premises and its effects depend on the capacity of other factors to compensate and balance
it.
The problem of school adaptation and inadaptation represents a
fundamental aspect of the instructional – educational activity, being present in
school life in the everyday preoccupation of teachers, but also in numerous
research, national and international. Research done for this purpose is orientated
especially towards identifying the causes which might generate difficulty in school
adaptation, the factors which favour school adaptation, the forms of school
inadaptation, as well as ways of preventing and diminishing the phenomenon.
One of the periods in which frequent difficulties in school adaptation
appear is represented by the beginning of pre-adolescence; a period which, in the
area of school activities, has as equivalent the shift from elementary to secondary
education. The difficulties in school adaptation which can manifest themselves at
the beginning of the 5th grade can be generated by multiple and sometimes sudden
transformations which happen on two plans: the plan of bio-psychological
development and the plan of the learning activity. The possibility of the preadolescent student to adapt himself depends on the way in which the interaction
between the physical, intellectual, emotional and personality particularities of the
pre-adolescent and the conditions imposed by the educational activity is realised.
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From a pedagogical point of view, more important than the intervention to
remedy school inadaptation is the prevention of it. But this action of prevention
must base itself on the knowledge of the possible causes which can generate school
inadaptation. These causes are linked to certain malfunctions and distortions which
can appear at the level of the factors which favour school adaptation.
School adaptation is the result of the confluence, interaction of a multitude
of factors which can be grouped in two categories: internal factors (biopsychological) and external factors (educational, social and familial). Internal
factors refer to the anatomic-physiological characteristics and the variables of the
student's personality, being considered subjective conditions, while external once
independent from the student's, being objective conditions and solicitations,
external to the student.
Internal factors are related to the personal capacities of the each student to
react, to the physiological characteristics and variables of the student's personality.
In general there are grouped in two categories: biological and psychological.
Among biological factors an important place is occupied by the somaticphysiological: physical development, health and physiological balance. A faster
growth rhythm determines in pre-adolescents the apparition of certain moments of
distraction during classes, reverie, wasting the time destined to doing homework,
temporarily neglecting the family and school tasks. The transformations of puberty
are often accompanied by changes at emotional level: nervousness, intense
manifestations of emotions, sudden and unjustified shifts from one state to another,
agitation, restlessness, insecurity (Cretu, 2001). The moments of cheerfulness,
childish and exuberant behaviour alternate with apathy, indisposition, laziness,
fatigue, and a child will prolongue the breaks, relaxation, even if he hadn’t made
such a big effort. The reactions of punishment from adults are regarded with
hostility, giving birth to conflicts. Organizing the school activities and the living
regime within the family must take into account the possibilities and necessities of
the pre-adolescents related to growth: avoiding factors which lead to physical and
emotional overwork, imposing an adequate lifestyle (work, rest, sports, feeding).
To make the activity more efficient, the pre-adolescent must be supported and
guided for a good organisation of intellectual work, as well as free time (the time
for sleeping and resting and the time destined to others activities). The approximate
time units of a regular day for the pre-adolescent can be divided as follows: □ time
spent in school: 5-6 hours; □ time for preparing lessons: 3-4 hours; □ time for
sleeping and resting: 9 hours; □ time destined to personal needs: 1-2 hours; □ free
time: 2 hours; □ other activities: 1-2 hours (Cosma, 2001).
Among psychological factors which influence school adaptation the
intellectual and non-intellectual factors were determined. Intellectual factors refer
to particularities of intelligence and cognitive processes (thinking, memory,
imagination, language, attention).
The new particularities of thinking influence all cognitive processes,
especially the pre-adolescent’s learning activity. The diversity of school subjects
studied and the increase in the degree of complexity of their content determine a
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development of the system of knowledge an notions acquired by the
preadolescent. In order to put the whole potential of the student to value and to
organise efficiently the educational activities, it is necessary to identify the
cognitive style for each student. The task of the teacher, related to the diversity of
learning styles, is to know the students’ learning styles, to help them become aware
of the characteristics of their own styles and to support them in solving learning
tasks, according to each individual’s style.
Knowing the varieties of the students’ learning styles and recognizing the
need to use a wide variety of didactic strategies create the premises for obtaining
superior school performances, regardless of the learning style developed (Neamtu,
2003).
Concentrating on the use of predominant didactic methods, at the expense
of a variety of methods, which would develop more learning styles, could
determine difficulties of school adaptation, especially at the beginning of the
secondary cycle, when the students are a forced to adapt to different teaching styles
used by each teacher. The use of varied and adapted didactic methods make the
chances of success equal.
Taking into consideration the new particularities of the pre-adolescent
student’s memory as well as the new educational requirements which the student
confronts once he goes to the secondary cycle, the teacher must permanently train
and stimulate a logical memory of the students and create optimal condition which
ensure the students’ proper learning, avoiding situations in which some students are
privileged or disadvantaged. To facilitate the integration of the new knowledge in
the system of the existing ones, the following are recommended (Salavastru,
2004:62):
- realising and using schemes to represent the relation or hierarchy of
concepts;
- using analogies with similar contents acquired before;
- using pre-established organisers, which represent the ideas presented
by the teacher before the system of knowledge which is to be
assimilated, having a superior level of abstraction and generality, with
the purpose of realising a pre-established orientation, making ideas
more accessible, offering a general image on what is next to be
learned.
To keep the knowledge its repetition is required, through an active
participation of the student, which supposes:
- understanding thoroughly by realising associations with previous
knowledge;
- establishing precise and varied goals for each revision;
- solving problems, doing applications, practical work, which require the
use of the information assimilated.
One of the conditions of the development of students’ creativity is
stimulating independent thinking, through the use of heuristic didactic strategies,
by encouraging students to formulate, analyse and solve problems, discover
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knowledge. The effects of this type of learning are felt not just at the level of
creativity, of the creative solving of problems, but also at the level of the student’s
entire personality (inter-personal relations, communication, trust in own forces,
etc). Using didactic methods such as: brainstorming, Phillips 6-6, panel discussion,
the method of creative solving of problems, favour the free association of ideas, by
removing critical spirit and using the unconscious’ resources to the fullest.
The enrichment and development of language facilitate the social
integration of the student, give security, develop thinking, imagination, sensitivity,
contributing to the achievement of superior school results. But, an exclusive and
obsessive orientation of the pre-adolescent towards reading by the parents and
teachers risks to generate a decrease in the interest for learning. In order to favour
the enrichment and development of language, it is recommended, both for teachers
and parents (Cozma, 2001):
- to orientate the pre-adolescent’s desire for reading towards wellknown, valuable works;
- to put the student in situations of communication as varied as possible;
- to have patience to listen to him every time until the ending of the
message he wants to transmit;
- to encourage him in the desire to communicate his thoughts or narrate
events or films;
- to offer a model of neat ways of expressing himself.
In the category of non-intellectually factors we have included:
motivational factors, affection and attitude factors, and volitional-character
factors. Although the stimulation of the learning motivation is considered an art,
which depends on the tact and didactic skill of the teacher (Salavastru, 2004:90),
knowing and respecting certain motivational strategies guide him towards the
achievement of this goal:
- drawing attention on the practical use of the subject taught;
- expressing faith in the capacities of each student;
- improving the perception of the student regarding his own potential
and competences by formulating adequate tasks and learning activities,
which have a degree of difficulty which corresponds to the possibilities
of the student;
- avoiding the involvement of students with learning difficulties in
competitive situations, whose results could contribute to the increase
of discouragement and decrease in motivation;
- measuring the optimal intensity of motivation according to the nature
of the learning task;
- involving the students actively in the didactic activity , through the
frequent use of active-participative methods, centered on the student,
which make his cognitive and operational structures active, making
him co-participant to his own education and contributing to putting his
psycho-physical potential to value;
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-
stating the operational objectives of the lesson, which will justify the
following efforts;
- forming a positive attitude towards learning tasks and new content by
creating problem situations, presenting contrast elements to create
cognitive conflicts, organising experiences, presenting attractive
materials, interesting examples and analogies, presenting content in a
schematic form to point out the links between concepts;
- using a stimulating, progress evaluation, centered on emphasising
performances, progress made by the students from one stage to
another, especially for those who encounter difficulties in the school
activity;
- evaluating the areas of interest, the preferences of students in order to
establish a link between the subject taught and these areas.
External factors are independent from the student, being objective
conditions and solicitations, external to the student. They act though through the
internal once which will positively or negatively reinforce the action of the external
factors, becoming on a certain level their effect. From the category of external
factors we have: school factors and social and family factors.
School includes a multitude of variables which can act as favouring or
causative factors of school adaptation or inadaptation, out of which we mention:
the learning process content (didactic information), teaching methods, evaluation
methods and the teacher's personality.
Didactic information included in school documents influences the
students’ performances according to: the way in which it is adapted and arranged in
the school documents, the degree of accessibility, the level in which it is adapted
from the point of view of quantity and quality to the age level of the students to
whom it is destined, the degree in which it is related to practics, the degree in
which an excessively abstract character is avoided and the degree in which it is
correlated with the needs of society.
Regarding the instructional-educational methods an extensive appeal to
stimulative methods, to methods which ensure a differentiated education of
students and which contribute to the formation of critical thinking, constitutes
another fundamental condition of school adaptation. Active-participative methods
are based on the real activity of the student and cause an active learning, which will
lead to the authentic psychic development. The student becomes an active
participant to the formation of his own intellectual structures by manifesting
initiatives, he expresses his own ideas, satisfies his interests and curiosities, acts for
the purpose of discovering new knowledge. The task of the teacher is to create
situations which facilitate the active participation of the student in the learning
process, meaning the effective engagement of his potential to achieve learning
tasks. In relation to this, E. Claparede says: “To make your student act, place him
in such circumstances, in which he feels the need to fulfill the action which you
expect of him” (in Kulcsar, 1978:77).
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Another variable of the learning process related to the students’ school
adaptation or inadaptation, regards the way in which their performance evaluation
and progress evaluation is realised. In relation to this, the use of formative
evaluation at optimal intervals is recommended, in such a way as to permit the
early discovery of flaws and difficulties to perform the necessary remedies.
Evaluation must be stimulative, centered on the idea of removing mistakes, not
punishing them. The evaluation style based mainly on punishing failure generate
the student’s permanent fear of punishment sanction, failure, feelings which slow
down the capacity to concentrate and which cannot represent a motivation to
mobilise the school efforts of students.
Likewise, an evaluation made in a competitive manner, realised by
comparing the performances of each student with the others’, will disadvantage the
same students who encounter difficulties in school activity, by permanently placing
them in the lower part of hierarchy. Therefore, especially for this category of
students, a progress evaluation is more advisable, evaluation which will measure
progress registered from one stage to another, which will also constitute a
motivational support for further efforts (Salavastru, 2004).
The teacher’s personality represent another valuable in the educational
process which has its role in establishing the student’s school results, meaning that
the psycho-pedagogical training but also certain personality traits (like affection)
correlates with the students’ learning results. A solid psycho-pedagogical training
allows the teacher to adapt the teaching process to the individual particularities of
the students, to identify and diagnose the causes of the difficulties in learning and
to project the intervention to improve them. In what regards the relation between
teacher and student, all pedagogical experiments lead to the same conclusion: a
personalised relation between the teacher and the student is a condition for
obtaining superior school results. Despite all these, in practics things are generally
the other way around: teachers have personalised relations especially with the
students who obtain superior results. This fact disadvantages once again those who
encounter difficulties in the school activity, those who need attention the most,
leaving them without stimulative attitude from the teachers, and without situations
which would allow them to achieve success, in order to increase self-confidence
(Salavastru, 2004).
Family, as determinant educational environment, as the most important life
context with a special role in the child's socialization, influences of his attitudes
and school performances through: the family climate (cultural and affective) which
is formed inside of it, family structure and its degree of social integration and the
degree of collaboration with the school.
Family climate represents the functional expression of all the relations
established among the members of the family. The cultural family climate
influences the student’s school performances, especially by: the level of the
parents’ aspirations, their attitude towards school and education, their proper
cultural baggage (language, cultural practices) and the system of values promoted
by the parents. The affective family climate constitutes another variable, which,
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under unfavorable circumstances, can generate the students’ inadaptation. Between
the cultural and the affective climate, there is usually a tight connection of
reciprocal conditioning. But there are situations when, despite favorable sociocultural conditions, as well as good intellectual capacities, certain students obtain
mediocre school results or even find themselves in a situation of school failure. In
this situation, the causes must be searched at the level of the affective climate in the
family, which is probably unfavourable.
The collaboration of family and school represents another variable which
influences the results and school progress of students, because relaxed atmosphere
between the two educational agents, the existence of common rules, known and
established together, enhance the efficiency of learning. The collaboration between
school and family supposes a communication through collaboration, a unity of
requirements, unification of the system of values and a unity of action (Vrasmas,
2002). Establishing direct relations between parents and teachers to know the
school requirements is an essential condition to be able to support the children
fulfill them and to have a permanent control over their school evolution. Also, the
collaboration of the family with the school is a premise for an adequate decision for
school and professional orientation, corresponding to the possibilities and interests
of the child.
Together with the school, the family must support permanently the
students’ efforts to adapt successfully to the new conditions. To realise this support
the family should (Cosma, 2001):
- not dramatise the difficulties normal for the beginning of the new
school cycle;
- collaborate with the school actively to know and understand the
requirements of the new school stage;
- elaborate together with the child a schedule for work and rest time
according to the new requirements, taking into account the psychophysiological particularities specific to the age, as well as the child’s
individual particularities;
- help the child when he encounters difficulties, without taking harsh
measures when the first unsatisfying results occur, end without helping
the child more than it is necessary in preparing lessons;
- not induce the feeling of inferiority, nor the conviction of superiority,
because this could make his integration more difficult.
The group of factors presented, which lie at the base of school
adaptation/inadaptation, are in close interaction, and the situations in which only
one factor is responsible for the low school performances or inadequate student
behaviour are very rare. The existence of an unfavorable factor doesn't
automatically bring the student's inadaptation, only creates premises and its effects
depend on the capacity of other factors to compensate and balance it.
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