The Role of Extracurricular Activities within Children's Palaces and Clubs in the Development Of Key Competences

Abstract

The extracurricular educational activities within the Children’s Palaces and Clubs are carried out on the basis of goals that are implemented through a student-centred educational strategy. The content, methods and tools used are studentcentred, differentiated according to the abilities and interests of the children. The activities are flexible, optional, and complementary to formal education and help to develop personality, creativity and competencies. The extracurricular activities are student-centred and focus on the formative side of learning by identifying effective ways of organizing and guiding student activity. The teacher must become a facilitator, a mentor – through his activities students will acquire knowledge, develop competencies and skills, aptitudes, attitudes through which the theoretical knowledge can be transposed into practical knowledge and helps in the integration into contemporary society. This questionnaire investigates the role, importance and complementarity of extracurricular activities. It studies the factors that influence the participation of the students in the extra-curricular activities offered by the Children’s Palaces and Clubs. The study was conducted on a national level among children, an online questionnaire with 19 questions was applied (N = 3945). The results show us the important role of non-formal activities, activities that together with formal education help to improve results and are complementary in the development of competencies. The study helps to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of extracurricular education, the results shed light on the children’s needs children, and to what extent the use of the student-centred educational strategy will help to achieve better results in education, and probably to reduce school dropout.