Personal and Social Development

Recent advances in the study of the brain have enhanced our understanding of the way that active engagement with music may influence other activities. The cerebral cortex selforganises as we engage with different musical activities, skills in these areas may then transfer to other activities if the processes involved are similar. Some skills transfer automatically without our conscious awareness, others require reflection on how they might be utilised in a new situation.

Boarding life is a concept where an individual lives in a dormitory or shared living space with others for an extended period. This concept is generally applied to students who study outside their city or country. Boarding life has a significant influence on personal and social development. It offers a unique learning environment that encourages independence, selfreliance, and the development of important life skills. Students attending boarding schools have the opportunity to develop important life skills such as independence, self-reliance, and time management. Living in a boarding school with their peers, students learn how to build relationships, work together, and support each other. Faculty, dormitory supervisors, and advisors act as mentors and role models, providing guidance and support as they navigate the challenges of adolescence.

The aim of this study is to introduce the topic of the Personal and Social Development as part of the educational programs in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic. We studied this theme as a part of an extracurricular education. In comparison to foreign education programs, the Slovak and Czech education programs include fewer topics.In our research, we focused on how pupils in Slovakia in their hobby groups perceived the selected topics of the cross-sectional theme of Personal and Social Development, how the topics were understood and how this theme was reflected in their behavior.

O insucesso e o abandono escolar evidenciam-se como problemas sociais prioritários que não se devem apenas a fatores individuais ou familiares. O projeto PertenSer foi concebido como uma resposta educativa de base comunitária com o objetivo de oferecer aos jovens mais vulneráveis oportunidades de desenvolvimento de competências pessoais, sociais e profissionais, reforçando a sua motivação para a aprendizagem e a sua confiança e capacidade para construírem trajetos de vida. Participaram neste projeto 13 jovens dos 14 aos 18 anos, a frequentar o 8.º e o 9.º anos de escolaridade, enquadrados no Programa Integrado de Educação e Formação. A avaliação qualitativa do projeto considerou o envolvimento dos participantes nas ações implementadas e as mudanças no autoconceito e desenvolvimento pessoal e social, no envolvimento escolar e nas perspetivas de futuro. Os resultados destacam melhorias ao nível da autoconfiança e comportamento na escola, assim como na relação com os adultos e na capac...

There is a long-standing call for robust empirical evidence that a residential experience of outdoor adventure activities (OAA) is beneficial for the personal and social development (PSD) of young people. This call reflects the fact that consistently strong anecdotal and qualitative evidence of positive benefit is not mirrored in quantitative measures. To date, statistically significant measures of benefit, almost entirely made outside Scotland, range from negative to medium positive effect sizes. This quantitative research measures the benefit of a residential week of introductory OAA for the PSD of upper primary school children, with the overarching aim of contributing to the argument for full funding of a "residential" for every Scottish school pupil. In the absence of suitable questionnaires, a questionnaire tailored to the project was created and tested for validity and reliability. Despite poor reliability, but encouraged by the repeatability of the distribution of pupils' mean scores across administrations, the research was continued. Scores from over 300 pupils yielded a small, statistically significant improvement in their perception of their PSD skills from immediately before to immediately after their "residential", but then a large decline measured two-three months later. Underlying this trend, low-scoring pupils perceived greater benefit and retained this into the delayed test, girls demonstrated a more positive view of their skills than boys, and all pupils had greater belief in their social competence than in their confidence. Socioeconomic data clearly supported the presence of a school effect, there was some evidence of a euphoria effect around the time of the "residentials", and some evidence of improved understanding of the concepts embodied in the questionnaire over successive tests. Regarding the implications of these results for research methodology, it is suggested that inconsistency in quantitative measures of benefit relates, in part, to the presence of numerous variables and survey effects that are often poorly constrained. For teachers, it is suggested that the observed loss of benefit 2-3 months later might be overcome if the experience is better integrated into the curriculum. For education policy makers and funders, the implication is that only if the experience is available free of charge to all pupils will it be fully integrated and its full benefit realised. Outdoor centre managers are encouraged to maintain quantitative records of pupils' and teachers' feedback on benefit to strengthen the case for full funding.