THE IMPACT OF EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL. A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbeag.70.sp.iss.1.26Keywords:
extracurricular activities, academic success, personality development, collaboration, sportAbstract
Introduction: The holistic approach to the educational process involves, in addition to the transmission of theoretical notions, the development of students’ social, emotional and physical skills. These dimensions are fundamental for a healthy and balanced development. In this context, extracurricular activities (EA) at the university level create the premises of an extended framework, in which students explore, cooperate, improve their self-image and achieve better results in exams. In a competence-oriented educational system, EA provide relevant contexts for experiential learning, for character formation and for the development of transversal skills: teamwork, responsibility, communication skills. Unlike curricular activities, which have clearly defined objectives, EA offer students a greater degree of freedom, choice and voluntary involvement, which favors intrinsic motivation and the assumption of an active role in the learning process. Objective: to present the relationship between students’ involvement in EA and different aspects of their lives. Materials and methods: A systematic review of the scientific literature was conducted for 21 articles, selected from the Google Scholar platform, in which the impact/effect of EA on students was presented. Results: Following the analysis, positive correlations were found between the participation of students from different fields in EA and the improvement of indicators such as self-confidence, collaboration, academic performance, etc. Conclusions: The involvement of students in EA is not only a goal of international forums in terms of education, but also represents a way to improve the academic, physical and emotional situation of students.
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