Chapter 1: Should Schools Be in the Business of Enhancing Student Self-Perceptions?

Should Schools be in the Business of Enhancing Student Self-Perceptions?

Should it be part of the school’s purpose to help students to enhance their self-perceptions and clarify their values? Is it, in any way, the school’s job to help students to clarify their self-understanding? If we agree that it is, at least in part, the school’s job, is this goal actually achievable? What does the research evidence suggest with regard to the wisdom, necessity, and/or effectiveness of enhancing student self-perceptions? In this chapter, I address these questions primarily within the context of the middle level school.

Middle level education in the United States is situated within the current climate of No Child Left Behind, with its emphasis on improving student performance, teaching to the test, drill-and-practice, and teachers’ accountability for their students’ learning outcomes. Given this climate and environment, a focus on self-perceptions appears, at least on the surface, to be misplaced and a waste of time that could be better spent covering material that will be on the test(s).