Cooperative Stakeholding: Optimising Students’ Educational Practice through Need-Centred Self-Determination, Connectedness with Learning Environment and Passion

Abstract

The paper offers social-psychological options to solving the growing problems of educational decline in Nigeria. It takes a holistic view of educational practice in the country and asserts that quality education is achievable in Nigeria if everyone takes a position to contribute meaningfully to our presumably ailing educational system. The discourse explores three social-psychological strategies towards optimizing educational quality in the country. These include: engendering self-determination of educational practitioners and learners based on education as a felt need; feeling renewed and luscious connection with the educational environment, which goes beyond the physical environment; and creating opportunities for people to cultivate new sets of passionate behaviours towards educational activities. The paper also illustrates the beauty of Aron, Aron and Smollan’s (1992) Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale and how it can be adapted for self-expansion into the educational environment. In support of these strategies, seven salient principles for good practice in undergraduate education were also presented to ginger students’ in-school and out-school alliances towards excellence in learning. The paper concludes that selective internalization of autonomous, self-directed learning experiences; psychological expansion of self into the learning environment, and careful selection of harmonious rather than obsessive impulses when exercising passion for learning materials, will greatly impact educational performance and quality positively. As these, in consonance with responsible networking, academic sessility, time discipline, respect for individual differences and quality of expectations interact to brighten the paths of academic excellence, students have unlimited choices and orientations to achieve all round excellence in their academic explorations.

Keywords: Optimal educational practice, social-psychological strategies, need-centred self-determination, learning environment, passion, connectedness.