Enhancing Psychosocial Wellbeing Through Extracurricular Activities

Introduction

Knowledge nourishes the human mind and physical exercise helps body to be in good shape. Knowledge and physical health both are necessary for young ones to prosper in their lives. With the passage of time youth may face different problems like substance abuse, indecent behavior, absenteeism from school and violence. All these problems may disturb parents, teachers and learning environment. To overcome these problems, schools, community and parents should work together.

Co-curricular Activities develops skills for Life and Career of students. Co-Curricular and Extracurricular Activities offer a forum beyond the daily classroom experience for students to develop, practice and demonstrate new attitudes and skills and to work at becoming both independent and interdependent in a variety of different contexts.

Psycho Social Skills

Psycho Social skills help the personality development which is not only the responsibility of parents and teachers as guidance but also the responsibility of the students themselves to be willing to accept advices and criticism which at the same time embedded within themselves. Among the main social skills are:

Building Relationship

Efficiency in building relationship means capabilities to create social network or constructing and maintaining the wide informal network, building beneficial relationship as well as constructing personal friendship through mutual respect and tolerance (Noriah, 2006). Unhealthy symptoms are caused by the weakness in building positive relationships in social environment such as relationships with parents, teachers and peers. The choosing of peers also gives a deep impact towards personal development. Relationship building skills are also important so that they are more confident and have a sense of respect.

Collaboration

Collaboration is the efficiency in working with others to achieve common goals based on the mission and vision of the organization or group. (Noriah, 2006). They must be willing to collaborate with each other and need to create a conducive atmosphere in achieving the same goal. When they can familiarize themselves with cooperation, depending on each other to gain knowledge hence, they can be categorized as a collaborative student.

Teamwork

Individuals who have these competencies will model teamwork qualities such as respect, cooperation and helpful as well as trust other’s abilities. They can also bring all team members to actively participate in building a group identity, team spirit and highly committed. With this skill, an individual will always prepare in protecting the group reputation as well as sharing the received appreciation together (Noriah, 2006). An excellent individual have to implement cooperative behaviour in every assigned task. Apart from that, they also need to have a sense of confidence for their friends, especially during tasks division either related to the education as well as co-curriculum activities.

Able to make a change

Students who are capable to catalyse changes will spark a change in an organization. Those who are efficient in developing changes will know the requirement to change, reducing obstacles as well as challenging the situation that could restrict the changes. In the context of school students, they need to have the strength to make a change towards a particular thing that need the changes especially when there is misconduct among their friends. They need to have the courage to point out their friend’s mistake politely as well as dare total the risk to be criticised by various parties especially their friends. They also need to be brave in speaking out their mind in giving out their rationale for discussion. In this case, the problems among two parties can be solved using the aspect of deep understanding. The ability to influent others involve the usage of effective tactics to persuade. Individual with this ability is skilled in influencing others via subtly presenting ideas to attract the listeners’ attention.

Communication

Students who have the communication skill will openly listen and convey a message in a convincing manner. They can tolerate and convey the emotions according to the message. The honest communication as well as mutual understanding when dealing with difficult issues will make them ready in sharing information completely. Those who have these skills encourage open communication, which states the norms explicitly, International Conference on Education and Regional Development 2016, Indonesia 776 expectations and as well as politely reprove other individual’s improper action. This individual is also willing to accept any good or bad news calmly.

Conflict management

Students who are competence to manage conflict are able to negotiate and resolve disputes. The skills in managing conflict enable them to handle others as well as managing intense situation brightly. In addition, they are also able to detect potential conflicts in an atmosphere, handle disagreements openly and help in easing it. Their attitudes which are encourage debate and open discussion leads to problems adjustment in win-win situation. The efficiency in conflict management can develop one’s personality. They not only become a peacemaker in a conflict but also able to detect potential conflicts among his colleagues as a result of an issue or problem. In this way any conflict can be avoided and keep the harmonious relationship among students.

Leadership

The leader have a role in inspiring and guide individuals and groups. A good leader will promote and raise enthusiasm among the members to achieve the mission and vision which are formulated together. An individual with a high emotional intelligence will step forward to lead when in need regardless of the position and guide other’s performances. Hence, a competent leader is a leader which can direct someone or the whole group towards the set goal. A good leader also has superior characteristics which make them respected by other organisation members. Any instruction and decision by a leader will be followed by the subordinates without any objection or doubt. In addition, a competent leader is also an educated leader which has a high understanding towards the aim, goal, approach and the requirement of its subordinates. A leader has to make a decision in accordance with the aim and set goal. They also must be able to communicate well with other individuals

Co-Curriculum and Its Influence

Importance of Co-curricular in Education Co-curricular activities involve various planned activities of the process teaching and learning in the classroom that gives students the opportunity to increase, strengthen and practice knowledge, skills and values learned in the classroom (BSSK, 2009).

Diversity of associations established shall be based on subjects taught in schools, hobbies and recreation, sports and games, uniformed bodies and any other approved association by the registrar as well as the diversity of activities capable of benefitting the students in enhancing discipline and unity, building knowledge, interests and talent, forming the personality, strengthening religious holdings and so forth.Co-curriculum comprises some important aspects that provide opportunities for students to train themselves tin strengthening the interaction between students as well as building students communication skills.

It was agreed by Azmi and Hamsiah (2000) which stated that the actual function of the co-curriculum is to enhance and strengthen interaction and communication among students. Extra-curricular learning environment outside of the classroom play an important role in influencing a person’s behavior and also one of the important elements in the formation of student’s social skills. This statement was also supported in Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory (1979, 1989) which states that extra-curricular activities played a major role in influencing the development of students’ social skills. According to him, the children development is a result of the interaction between the natural environments with the children. Children development is the environmental impact on the children as well as the children’s characteristics towards the environment.

A social skill is one aspect of emotional intelligence which will define the excellence of students in any situation. Intellectual intelligence alone is not enough for a person to be excellent. Co-curricular activities can help a person to build social skills in everyday life by interacting individually or collectively. It will also help them to be brave in accepting the challenge as well as easily exposing their hidden talents. They need social skills competencies to help them interact and connect with the surroundings. Extra-curricular activities are important because it serves as a key benchmark in fulfilling the national education policy which is unity among students of various races.

In line with the opinion of Che Aziz and Aminuddin, (2002) which stated that extra-curricular activities are capable to promote the spirit to serve, cooperation and helping each other which are vital aspects in establishing a harmonious society. Each student must a uniformed body, sports and one of the clubs or societies in school. Students who are active in extra-curricular activities tend to have better grades and attendance record and are not easily involved with disciplinary problems as compared to the less active students in extra-curricular activities. Thisis reinforced by the findings of Mahoney (2000), which examines the relationship between student participation in extra-curricular activities at school from social view. His research found that students who are actively involved in several extra-curricular activities for a long time is capable to reduce students’

International Conference on Education and Regional Development 2016, Indonesia 779 involvement in crimes and dropout problems. Students who are involved in this extra-curricular activity are able to improve their personality such as self-confidence, social collaboration and leadership skills.

According to Ruhaiza (2007), the government's effort in promoting the implementation and student s’participation in co-curricular activities is a positive step as the younger generation today should have the consist balance both in their academic and co-curriculum as well as personality skills. Most employers today prefer the workers who have the ability to interact, competent, have high moral integrities and can work as a team. Extra-curricular activities are complementary to the needs and requirements of the curriculum which is providing opportunities for the students to add, measure and practice the skills, knowledge and values that were being integrated in the classroom (Mohd Arif & Amla, 2008).

Conclusion

This article has only been able to touch on some aspects of Co-curricular activities. It’s a group activity where the planned activities more advanced than teaching and learning in the classroom that provide the opportunity to add, strengthen and practice the knowledge, skills and values learned in the classroom. It is a physical, emotional and spiritual construction platform in line with the aims of the National Education Philosophy aimed at forming a balanced generation.

Adolescence is a phase of emotional and psychosocial transition and yoga, a co-curricular activity and a technique of mind control, which could potentially help in improving holistic personality. The efficacy of a 7-day yoga intervention as a co-curricular activity in improving psychosocial fitness was evaluated and showed that the feeling of empathy increased significantly. There was a sporadic increase in altruism, social competence, and parent relationships in some cohorts while peer relationship deteriorated. Parents providing data on their children's perceived level of altruism, empathy, and relationship with parents and peers, before and after 3 months of intervention highlighted the discrepancy in their understanding of their children and also their ability to perceive the changes while the children could not. Design and implementation flaws, as a result of resources, limit from stating the findings of these studies as conclusive evidence but helps to plan more robust and intricate studies to assess the specific benefits of yoga and its mechanisms.