That Magical Power: High School Students’ Camping Service Experiences and Self-Concept Development

Abstract

In Taiwan, the recent education reforms and policies have drawn its focus on transforming ‘’spoon-feeding education’’ to “adaptive education” with the main purpose of cultivating our students to have multiple-competence development. Following such trend, there have been quite a lot of service camps organized for the youth to help them develop communication skills, social responsibilities, positive thinking and self-concept. This study was conducted by adopting a case-study approach with the use of semi-structured interviews with high-school students for data collection. The researcher, a junior college student also as a volunteer serving for a youth camp, has chosen her service summer camp as a research setting to consult the research participants. There were totally four high-school students participating in this research; two females (vocational high-school students) and two males (one general high-school student and one vocational high-school student). Based on the analysis of interview data, it was found: 1. High-school students’ camping service experiences will help them to have a sense of belonging and developing their competence; 2. High-school students’ negative experiences will have an influence on their self-concept; 3. High-school students’ camping service experiences will help them to construct self-concept positively.