Students’ perception of the impact on learning of different informal extracurricular activities

Abstract

Young people learn both inside and outside of school; the latter through extracurricular activities developed in real, multiple and complex social and cultural contexts that contribute to lifelong learning, and these traits are shared by the STSE approach. Most studies consider that extracurricular activities are positive, because they develop interest and motivation towards learning. However, there are hardly any studies that explicitly investigate students’ perception of the effectiveness of extracurricular activities for learning science and technology, which is the objective of this study, along with the identification of the most and least effective activities and the genre differences. The analysis applies a mixed method, quantitative and qualitative, to the responses of 670 15-year-old Spanish students to a questionnaire displaying 14 extracurricular activities, which are quantified in percentages and weighted averages, and qualitatively organized and interpreted. The results indicate that students value positively the overall effectiveness of extracurricular activities for learning science, although they score visits to science centers and planetariums and the use of digital media and social networks to be more effective, while television, digital games, scientific journals and clubs score lesser effectiveness. There are no differences between girls and boys, so that the extracurricular activities included in this study may institute a gender-equitable content for science and technology education. Finally, implications and recommendations for educational practice, as well as some limitations of this study are discussed.