The impact of extra-curricular activities on student engagement: in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students' engagement in English?
<p>During my second year of teaching, the OFSTED report specified that my school needed to develop its provision for higher ability students. Even though they are a small group of the whole school cohort (12%), they were not being challenged adequately in the classroom or beyond. In addition t...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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2017
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| _version_ | 1826309991149076480 |
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| author | Nelson-Addy, L |
| author_facet | Nelson-Addy, L |
| author_sort | Nelson-Addy, L |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>During my second year of teaching, the OFSTED report specified that my school needed to develop its provision for higher ability students. Even though they are a small group of the whole school cohort (12%), they were not being challenged adequately in the classroom or beyond. In addition to the whole school initiatives I formed as a part of my new leadership role as Higher Prior Attaining (HPA) Lead Teacher, I collaborated with a Deputy Head teacher at another school within the county to create <em>Symposium</em>.</p> <p><em>Symposium</em> is an extracurricular activity comprised of six 1.5-hour sessions taught by a variety of speakers. This culminates into a final presentation evening held at an Oxford University College, led by the students. In this project, I seek to explore the impact <em>Symposium</em> has on high ability students from a deprived area – more specifically on their engagement within the classroom. Even though most of the research on extracurricular activities has been carried out using quantitative methods, I have used qualitative methods to gain a deeper insight into the ten students' perspectives.</p> <p>American researchers dominate this area of research. American research into the impact of extracurricular activities explores the overarching impact a combined range of extracurricular activities has on the student's social, behavioural and academic development. In contrast, I have narrowed this focus by investigating the efficacy of <em>Symposium</em> as an <em>academic</em> extracurricular activity.</p> <p>Due to the small group of participants, it is difficult to generalise. There are groups of students who seem to be excluded from the benefits I will explore, for example the lower prior attaining deprived students and the students who do not hold a strong enough interest in English Language, Literature or Media prior to their participation. However, significant findings include the importance of the school's role to developing deprived students' cultural capital; the impact extracurricular activities have on students' interest and confidence within lessons, which subsequently help them to engage more in lessons and the social benefits that can also be accrued. The development of students' relationships with both their peers and their teachers, seems to increase their sense of belonging within the school, which also seems to filter down into their classroom engagement.</p> <p>Ultimately, this project seeks to explore whether extracurricular provision can begin to meet the needs of disadvantaged, higher ability students. In light of this research, I hope that <em>Symposium</em> can be offered across all subject areas within the school, so that a greater number of higher ability students can be selected to partake in and benefit from this challenging academic project.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:43:58Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:767def3c-5eb8-4d17-be3d-8d691717d52d |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:43:58Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:767def3c-5eb8-4d17-be3d-8d691717d52d2023-05-22T14:35:23ZThe impact of extra-curricular activities on student engagement: in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students' engagement in English?Thesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_bdccuuid:767def3c-5eb8-4d17-be3d-8d691717d52dEducationORA Deposit2017Nelson-Addy, L<p>During my second year of teaching, the OFSTED report specified that my school needed to develop its provision for higher ability students. Even though they are a small group of the whole school cohort (12%), they were not being challenged adequately in the classroom or beyond. In addition to the whole school initiatives I formed as a part of my new leadership role as Higher Prior Attaining (HPA) Lead Teacher, I collaborated with a Deputy Head teacher at another school within the county to create <em>Symposium</em>.</p> <p><em>Symposium</em> is an extracurricular activity comprised of six 1.5-hour sessions taught by a variety of speakers. This culminates into a final presentation evening held at an Oxford University College, led by the students. In this project, I seek to explore the impact <em>Symposium</em> has on high ability students from a deprived area – more specifically on their engagement within the classroom. Even though most of the research on extracurricular activities has been carried out using quantitative methods, I have used qualitative methods to gain a deeper insight into the ten students' perspectives.</p> <p>American researchers dominate this area of research. American research into the impact of extracurricular activities explores the overarching impact a combined range of extracurricular activities has on the student's social, behavioural and academic development. In contrast, I have narrowed this focus by investigating the efficacy of <em>Symposium</em> as an <em>academic</em> extracurricular activity.</p> <p>Due to the small group of participants, it is difficult to generalise. There are groups of students who seem to be excluded from the benefits I will explore, for example the lower prior attaining deprived students and the students who do not hold a strong enough interest in English Language, Literature or Media prior to their participation. However, significant findings include the importance of the school's role to developing deprived students' cultural capital; the impact extracurricular activities have on students' interest and confidence within lessons, which subsequently help them to engage more in lessons and the social benefits that can also be accrued. The development of students' relationships with both their peers and their teachers, seems to increase their sense of belonging within the school, which also seems to filter down into their classroom engagement.</p> <p>Ultimately, this project seeks to explore whether extracurricular provision can begin to meet the needs of disadvantaged, higher ability students. In light of this research, I hope that <em>Symposium</em> can be offered across all subject areas within the school, so that a greater number of higher ability students can be selected to partake in and benefit from this challenging academic project.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Education Nelson-Addy, L The impact of extra-curricular activities on student engagement: in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students' engagement in English? |
| title | The impact of extra-curricular activities on student engagement: in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students' engagement in English? |
| title_full | The impact of extra-curricular activities on student engagement: in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students' engagement in English? |
| title_fullStr | The impact of extra-curricular activities on student engagement: in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students' engagement in English? |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of extra-curricular activities on student engagement: in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students' engagement in English? |
| title_short | The impact of extra-curricular activities on student engagement: in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students' engagement in English? |
| title_sort | impact of extra curricular activities on student engagement in what ways does participation in symposium affect higher prior attaining students engagement in english |
| topic | Education |
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