Diversify thematic organization, extracurricular activities to improve the effectiveness of social skills education for junior high school students

Abstract

This article proposes an essential solution to improve the quality and effectiveness of social skills education for students at public junior high schools in Ho Chi Minh City, which is the fastest developed city in Vietnam that is demanding better human resources coming out from schools, by analyzing the status quo of managing and conducting these educational activities in 20 schools across the city via mixed-method data collections. The authors approached issues and created that solution from the perspective of practical school leadership and management, due to the fact that most of the recent studies about social skills education focused on concepts and assessment of social skills, or educational practices to deliver and train these skills to students. Based on the concrete theories about the correlation between school leadership and educational effectiveness, as well as the strengths and drawbacks of targeted schools and Vietnamese education, the managerial solution proposed is diversifying thematic organizations and extracurricular activities about social skills for students.