I Feel Good at School! Reducing School Discomfort Levels through integrated Interventions

Abstract

Early school leaving is a real social emergency across Europe. Literature and field experience show that the factors leading to the decision to drop out of school are different: family problems, economic distress, territorial discomfort. In addition, there are individual characteristics such as: psychological dimensions, ease/difficulty of learning, ability/disability that may contribute to the rejection and to the school resistance, generating perception of inadequacy and failure. The school, in the short term, cannot affect in a profound way on non-school factors, but it can provide a positive atmosphere at school, allowing children to grow up in a serene environment, where relationships are proposing and stimulating. Aiming to make students feel comfortable at school is a way to diminish their risk to drop out. In this way, "going to school" becomes a choice "to feel well" and not a compulsory requirement. The NoOut project, which is presented here, was created with the main objective to model interventions for recovery and development, to be held during school hours, designed to prevent school dropout from primary school. The actions combine synergistically a teaching of basic skills, guidance, reading aloud (teaching of skills, direct experience, deployment of stimulating and engaging learning environments, personal narratives, narrative guidance paths, narrative training, and educational gaming). This article analyses the results outlined through the TVD test (discomfort evaluation test), which presents a drop on test outcome (that means reduction of risk of school dropout) for the first cycle of education in the first year of the NoOut project. The TVD is a tool that can provide a representation of the perceived school discomfort levels at individual and group level.

Keywords

• active learning
• early school leaving
• drop-out
• discomfort
• distress perceived