Session Five

Understanding & Guiding Whole-person Development

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Session Five: Self-concept and self esteem

What do we know about adolescents' self and inter-personal development in the Hong Kong Chinese context?
- Understanding  adolescents’ personal and social development of adolescents
- The nature of self-concept and its relationship to students' academic achievement and social development.
- Understanding how teachers can influence the self-esteem of their students in the classroom.
- Acquiring the skills for enhancing students' self-esteem through the use of some practical strategies and activities.

Learning Outcomes

At end of the session, the participants will be able to:
  1.  Refer to theories and concepts while dealing with school-related adolescent problems
  2.  Evaluate the threats of the school performance that adolescents encounter
  3.  Comprehend the nature of self-concept and its relationship to students' academic achievement and personal and social 
       development
  4.  State the physical changes (in terms of puberty, nutrition and body image) that adolescents experience
  5.  Comprehend the cognitive changes that adolescents experience
  6.  Understand how teachers can influence the self-esteem of their students in the classroom
  7.  Acquire the skills of enhancing students' self-esteem through the use of some practical strategies and activities
  8.  Suggest appropriate strategies to enhance students' confidence in applying life skills in career and talent development
  9.  Apply theories and give sufficient rationales for any intervention plan
10.  Develop different skills (e.g. communication, helping, critical thinking and problem-solving skills) to tackle novel 
       situations and ill-defined problems

Task: Understanding self-esteem (see above)

Example: (The task below is just selected from those tasks assigned in the Learning Guides.)

In the eighth session, there will be an opportunity role play the use of rational emotive counseling with the following case. 
In the present, please focus on understanding  Tom's behaviour from the perspective of self-esteem.

Tom was a student in S.2 in a school that emphasized heavily on academic achievement. Most of the students in the school 
were of average ability. Tom's parents contacted Mr./Ms. Tsang, the class-teacher and Chinese teacher, for help. Tom's 
parents considered that Tom did not have any goals in life; he simply wasted time at home playing electronic games and 
did not care about study. Mr./Ms. Tsang interviewed Tom. Among other things, Tom revealed that he was a member of the 
school basketball team in P.6. He wanted to join the basketball team in this school. However, the secondary school basketball
team coach, Mr. Chu, did not think he was suitable for playing in the team so he was never chosen. He believed that Mr. Chu 
was not fair to him and he would not have any chance to play in sports in this school. He was also angry with his classmates 
and isolated himself from them. In the classroom, Tom seemed to be sleepy and withdrawn from learning activities.

a. What are Tom's strengths and weaknesses?

b. If you are Tom, how would you describe yourself? Are there any differences between your descriptions compared with 
    other's descriptions?

c. How do you comment about Tom's self-esteem? Do you think self-esteem is important for Tom? Why?

d. As Tom's class-teacher, how would you help Tom develop positive self-esteem?

References (see above)