How Important is Personal/Social Development to Academic Achievement? The Elementary School Counselor's Perspective

Abstract

This study explored elementary school counselors’ perceptions of importance and implementation for state standards in support of academic achievement. Results indicate that Academic and Personal/Social standards are important to achievement with no statistical difference between the standards. Further, counselors implement Personal/Social standards at slightly higher levels in their programs compared to Academic standards. Counselors consistently rated principles of character and qualities of effort, hard work, and persistence as most important and of highest implementation. This article also discusses implications for elementary school counseling practice.

Les services éducatifs complémentaires mobilisés au Parcours de formation axée sur l’emploi (PFAE) : perceptions des principaux acteurs

“…Comme ces services couvrent les dimensions personnelle, sociale et professionnelle de l'élève (Barma et Brown, 2011;CSE, 1998), ils dépassent la sphère strictement scolaire en guidant l'élève dans la résolution de problèmes qui prennent leur source à l'école, mais aussi en dehors de celle-ci. Ouverts à tous les élèves, les services complémentaires s'intéressent de près aux EHDAA (MEQ, 2002).…”

“…L'efficacité des services pertinents a été démontrée au regard du développement d'attitudes et de comportements qui concourent à la réussite scolaire (Brown et Trusty, 2005;Fox et Butler, 2009;Young et al, 2009). D'ailleurs, un courant de recherche s'emploie actuellement à lier l'offre de services complémentaires et la réussite scolaire (Barma et Brown, 2011). Il s'agit d'une entreprise difficile compte tenu du fait, notamment, que les services complémentaires englobent des interventions qui ne visent pas explicitement la réussite scolaire, mais plutôt des attitudes et comportements qui l'entravent dans le but de les changer.…”

Gender, Emotional Intelligence, Aptitude and Mathematical Performance

“…The role of emotions in the educational context is one of the lines of investigation that most interest has generated in the past few years, as it is recognized that both the emotional and the social developments are important in the academic performance (Barna & Brott, 2011). Coll (1988 underlines that, in contrast to traditional conceptions when learning depended directly on teacher and his methodology, newly developed ideas remark the importance of the role played by the student´s processes of thought.…”

Self-Advocacy; The Importance of Building Interpersonal-Communication and Help-Seeking Skills in Elementary School Children

“…In classrooms where teachers were perceived by their students as being emotionally supportive, students demonstrated greater selfregulatory responsibility, prosocial behaviors, and positive interpersonal interactions (Merritt, et al, 2012). The analysis provided by Merritt et al (2012) was matched by the research carried out by Barna and Brott (2011) which examined the correlation of social/emotional support on academic success. Evidence gathered in their study reinforces the importance of social and emotional support on academic enablers.…”

“…In classrooms across the country, academic standards, more often than personal/social standards, are perceived as more important by teachers, students and parents alike (Barna & Brott, 2011). Teacher evaluations are administered through standardized academic testing of core academic subjects, therefore the amount of time for social and emotional learning is typically limited (Durso, 2012).…”