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Teachers and parents matter more than peers in keeping adolescents engaged in school, according to a new study that counters the widespread belief that peers matter most in the lives of adolescents.
"We were surprised to find that most adolescents continue to be influenced greatly by their teachers and parents when it comes to school engagement," said Ming-Te Wang, the lead author of the study, the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study, and a faculty research fellow at University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.
"Even though this is a stage when young people are moving toward establishing autonomy and independence, teachers and parents remain important in helping them stay involved in school, and in extracurricular activities. And this is true for all ethnic groups and races, and across all the economic groups we studied."
For the study, which was published in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal Child Development, Wang and co-author Jacquelynne Eccles analyzed longitudinal data on nearly 1,500 teens from 23 schools in the Washington, D.C., area. Students were interviewed in 7th, 9th and 11th grades, with researchers asking about four indicators of student engagement: compliance with school rules, participation in extracurricular activities, identification with one's school and value placed on education.
The researchers also asked about the support students received from teachers, parents and peers, and assessed school records and other information.
The analysis was funded by the Spencer Foundation. The data are part of the U-M Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study, also known as the Prince George's County Family Study, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and by the National Institutes of Health.
As the researchers predicted, school engagement declined from 7th to 11th grade, more steeply among boys than among girls.
"The overall declines may result from a mismatch between the student's developmental stage and the secondary school environment," Wang said. "In comparison to elementary schools, middle and high schools are larger, more departmentalized and more performance-oriented.
"This results in fewer opportunities for teachers and students to develop strong personal relationships, and fewer chances for students to participate in extracurricular activities at a time when they need relationships with adults outside their families to feel competent in their school work."
The greater engagement of girls may be a result of gender socialization and differential expectations of parents and teachers, according to Eccles.
"For instance, parents tend to monitor girls' progress more closely, correct girls' mistakes and make decisions for girls more than they do for boys," she said. "These practices may communicate to girls, more so than to boys, the importance of regulating progress toward one's goals and meeting those goals.
"Teachers also tend to respond differently to boys and girls in the classroom, in ways that may lead students to believe that certain behavior patterns associated with their gender are expected by their teachers."
For both boys and girls, the researchers found that social support from adults, particularly from teachers—in the form of encouraging engagement in school, emphasizing the value of an education and facilitating participation in extracurricular activities—could counteract the negative influence of peers. They also found that peers were just as likely to exert a positive rather than a negative influence on teen school engagement.
"Adolescence is a period when relationships with adults who aren't your parents become increasingly important," Wang said. "Our results suggest that supportive teachers play a particularly important role in keeping teens engaged in school."
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Examining Why Women Students Abandon Math and Science Majors
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Back when Roxanne Hughes was teaching high school science and coaching track, she noticed an inherent difference between boys and girls — both in the classroom and on the field. Boys, it seemed, were supremely more confident. Girls tended to doubt their own abilities.
“Even when I was coaching, I noticed that a boy could spend the season on the bench and still think he could get a college scholarship,” she recalled, “while a girl who was an MVP (most valuable player) might think she couldn’t get one.”
Hughes, who recently earned a doctorate in educational policy from Florida State University and now works as an educational outreach coordinator at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, ultimately explored her observations — though from a slightly different angle — in her doctoral dissertation.
That dissertation, “The Process of Choosing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Careers by Undergraduate Women: A Narrative Life History Analysis,” investigated the reason many undergraduate women abandon science and math for other majors.
And now that research is winning high praise.
Hughes was honored in February by Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK), the premier professional association for educators, which named her research one of five outstanding doctoral dissertations internationally.
“This year, PDK received more than 40 exceptional entries for its dissertation award, and Dr. Hughes’ research stood out to the review panel,” said William Bushaw, PDK International’s executive director. “Research is central to PDK’s mission, and we are thrilled to honor Dr. Hughes’ work. She has made an important contribution toward advancing the field of education.”
Hughes examined factors that influenced undergraduate women to stick with a degree in a STEM field. Her research focused on 26 women who attended Florida State between 2006 and 2010. Fifty percent of the women she studied — all of whom had Bright Futures scholarships, high SAT scores and were heading into STEM majors — decided to pursue other fields midway through their college careers.
Those who ultimately completed STEM degrees had some important confidence builders in common, including positive support from parents and educators, strong peer networks with other STEM students, and the opportunity to conduct research at the undergraduate level.
Meeting role models was also a factor, probably because it put a human face on potential career paths, according to Hughes’ findings. So was having a genuine — and deep — interest in the academic subject.
“Choosing the field for the money or because you wanted to help others wasn’t enough,” said Hughes, whose articles on women in STEM fields have been published in several peer-reviewed journals including the International Journal for Gender Science and Technology.
Back when Roxanne Hughes was teaching high school science and coaching track, she noticed an inherent difference between boys and girls — both in the classroom and on the field. Boys, it seemed, were supremely more confident. Girls tended to doubt their own abilities.
“Even when I was coaching, I noticed that a boy could spend the season on the bench and still think he could get a college scholarship,” she recalled, “while a girl who was an MVP (most valuable player) might think she couldn’t get one.”
Hughes, who recently earned a doctorate in educational policy from Florida State University and now works as an educational outreach coordinator at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, ultimately explored her observations — though from a slightly different angle — in her doctoral dissertation.
That dissertation, “The Process of Choosing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Careers by Undergraduate Women: A Narrative Life History Analysis,” investigated the reason many undergraduate women abandon science and math for other majors.
And now that research is winning high praise.
Hughes was honored in February by Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK), the premier professional association for educators, which named her research one of five outstanding doctoral dissertations internationally.
“This year, PDK received more than 40 exceptional entries for its dissertation award, and Dr. Hughes’ research stood out to the review panel,” said William Bushaw, PDK International’s executive director. “Research is central to PDK’s mission, and we are thrilled to honor Dr. Hughes’ work. She has made an important contribution toward advancing the field of education.”
Hughes examined factors that influenced undergraduate women to stick with a degree in a STEM field. Her research focused on 26 women who attended Florida State between 2006 and 2010. Fifty percent of the women she studied — all of whom had Bright Futures scholarships, high SAT scores and were heading into STEM majors — decided to pursue other fields midway through their college careers.
Those who ultimately completed STEM degrees had some important confidence builders in common, including positive support from parents and educators, strong peer networks with other STEM students, and the opportunity to conduct research at the undergraduate level.
Meeting role models was also a factor, probably because it put a human face on potential career paths, according to Hughes’ findings. So was having a genuine — and deep — interest in the academic subject.
“Choosing the field for the money or because you wanted to help others wasn’t enough,” said Hughes, whose articles on women in STEM fields have been published in several peer-reviewed journals including the International Journal for Gender Science and Technology.
Teachers’ effectiveness rises during first four years of career,
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The most dramatic gains occur in chemistry and physics
The Effects of Experience and Attrition for Novice High-School Science and Mathematics Teachers in the March 2 issue of Science demonstrates that while teacher effectiveness rises during the first four years of a teacher’s career in all subjects, the gains are most dramatic in chemistry and physics.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Georgia State University studied results from North Carolina’s exemplary program of end-of-course exams (which was recently cut due to budget considerations). They compared “Teachers’ Average Value-Added Test Score Gains” in units of “Standard Deviation Units” (SDU), the one-sigma spread in student test scores in a particular EOC exam.
During teachers’ first four years in the classroom, biology teachers’ gains are about 0.10 SDU, while those in Geometry, Algebra 2 and Physical Science are near 0.15 SDU. In contrast, the corresponding gain for chemistry teachers is near 0.27 SDU, and the physics gain is an astounding 0.37 SDU.
The authors conclude:
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The most dramatic gains occur in chemistry and physics
The Effects of Experience and Attrition for Novice High-School Science and Mathematics Teachers in the March 2 issue of Science demonstrates that while teacher effectiveness rises during the first four years of a teacher’s career in all subjects, the gains are most dramatic in chemistry and physics.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Georgia State University studied results from North Carolina’s exemplary program of end-of-course exams (which was recently cut due to budget considerations). They compared “Teachers’ Average Value-Added Test Score Gains” in units of “Standard Deviation Units” (SDU), the one-sigma spread in student test scores in a particular EOC exam.
During teachers’ first four years in the classroom, biology teachers’ gains are about 0.10 SDU, while those in Geometry, Algebra 2 and Physical Science are near 0.15 SDU. In contrast, the corresponding gain for chemistry teachers is near 0.27 SDU, and the physics gain is an astounding 0.37 SDU.
The authors conclude:
Different high-school subjects show different impacts of teacher turnover. For courses with steeper effectiveness growth curves – physics, chemistry, and geometry – the loss of these experienced teachers has the greatest consequences for student performance. For courses with less steep growth curves – algebra 1, algebra 2, biology, and physical science – the loss of more experienced teachers has less severe consequences. But both cases call for recruiting more able, motivated, and committed teachers. Could these teachers be better screened by evaluating their academic performance, persistence, ability to engage audiences, and projected commitment to teaching, specifically teaching STEM courses to high-school students? Would incentives, such as higher salaries, assignment to fewer courses per year, or paid opportunities for research with university faculty during summers or semester leaves, help retain more of the experienced teachers?
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Diagnosis of ADHD on the Rise
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Ten million American children diagnosed with ADHD during doctors’ visits
The number of American children leaving doctors’ offices with an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis has risen 66 percent in 10 years, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. Over this same timeframe, specialists, instead of primary care physicians, have begun treating an increasing number of these young patients, the study found.
The study, which will be published in the March/April issue of the journal Academic Pediatrics, analyzed ADHD trends from 2000 to 2010 among children under the age of 18 who were diagnosed and treated by office-based physicians. Researchers analyzed changes in the diagnosis of ADHD and treatment of the disorder over this 10-year time period.
“ADHD is now a common diagnosis among children and teens,” said Craig Garfield, M.D., first author of the study. “The magnitude and speed of this shift in one decade is likely due to an increased awareness of ADHD, which may have caused more physicians to recognize symptoms and diagnose the disorder.”
Garfield is an assistant professor in pediatrics and medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Children’s Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Symptoms of ADHD, such as trouble paying attention and controlling impulsive behaviors and being overly active, can affect children and teens both academically and socially, Garfield said.
In the past decade several important regulatory and clinical changes regarding ADHD and the medications used to treat it have occurred, yet it was unknown how these factors have affected ADHD management, Garfield said.
For the study, Garfield and his team of researchers quantified ADHD diagnosis and treatment patterns among people under 18 using the IMS Health National Disease and Therapeutic Index. This is a nationally representative sample of office-based visits and included 4,300 office-based physicians in 2010.
According to the study, in 2010, 10.4 million children and teens under age 18 were diagnosed with ADHD at physician outpatient visits, versus 6.2 million in 2000.
Researchers also found that psychostimulants have remained the most common medication prescribed to children with ADHD. Psychostimulants were used in 96 percent of treatments in 2000 and 87 percent in 2010. The exact reason for the decrease is unclear, but there was not an increase in treatment with other, substitute medications, Garfield said.
While the majority of children and teens with ADHD are still managed by primary physicians, the study found that there has been a substantial shift away from primary doctors and towards specialists, such as pediatric psychiatrists.
“Recently, there’s been more public health advisories issued about problems or side effects of different ADHD medications,” Garfield said. “It may be that general pediatricians are shying away from treating patients themselves and instead rely on their specialist colleagues to provide the treatment and management of these medications.”
Given the short supply of psychiatrists specializing in pediatric ADHD, Garfield said this trend might make it difficult for many children to receive medical treatment of ADHD in the future.
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Ten million American children diagnosed with ADHD during doctors’ visits
The number of American children leaving doctors’ offices with an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis has risen 66 percent in 10 years, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. Over this same timeframe, specialists, instead of primary care physicians, have begun treating an increasing number of these young patients, the study found.
The study, which will be published in the March/April issue of the journal Academic Pediatrics, analyzed ADHD trends from 2000 to 2010 among children under the age of 18 who were diagnosed and treated by office-based physicians. Researchers analyzed changes in the diagnosis of ADHD and treatment of the disorder over this 10-year time period.
“ADHD is now a common diagnosis among children and teens,” said Craig Garfield, M.D., first author of the study. “The magnitude and speed of this shift in one decade is likely due to an increased awareness of ADHD, which may have caused more physicians to recognize symptoms and diagnose the disorder.”
Garfield is an assistant professor in pediatrics and medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Children’s Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Symptoms of ADHD, such as trouble paying attention and controlling impulsive behaviors and being overly active, can affect children and teens both academically and socially, Garfield said.
In the past decade several important regulatory and clinical changes regarding ADHD and the medications used to treat it have occurred, yet it was unknown how these factors have affected ADHD management, Garfield said.
For the study, Garfield and his team of researchers quantified ADHD diagnosis and treatment patterns among people under 18 using the IMS Health National Disease and Therapeutic Index. This is a nationally representative sample of office-based visits and included 4,300 office-based physicians in 2010.
According to the study, in 2010, 10.4 million children and teens under age 18 were diagnosed with ADHD at physician outpatient visits, versus 6.2 million in 2000.
Researchers also found that psychostimulants have remained the most common medication prescribed to children with ADHD. Psychostimulants were used in 96 percent of treatments in 2000 and 87 percent in 2010. The exact reason for the decrease is unclear, but there was not an increase in treatment with other, substitute medications, Garfield said.
While the majority of children and teens with ADHD are still managed by primary physicians, the study found that there has been a substantial shift away from primary doctors and towards specialists, such as pediatric psychiatrists.
“Recently, there’s been more public health advisories issued about problems or side effects of different ADHD medications,” Garfield said. “It may be that general pediatricians are shying away from treating patients themselves and instead rely on their specialist colleagues to provide the treatment and management of these medications.”
Given the short supply of psychiatrists specializing in pediatric ADHD, Garfield said this trend might make it difficult for many children to receive medical treatment of ADHD in the future.
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'Look at me' toddlers eager to collaborate and learn
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Attention-seeking children's development is fostered by favorable response
Parents should think twice before brushing off their child's calls to "look at me!" A Concordia study published in the journal Child Development is the first to show that toddlers' expectations of how their parent will respond to their needs and bids for attention relate to how eager they are to collaborate and learn.
Collaboration in toddlers has been linked to the acquisition of social rules and norms later in childhood.
Understanding what contributes to more collaboration can help improve conscience development in children.
Marie-Pierre Gosselin, a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University and lead author of the study explains that "toddlers whose parents have consistently responded positively to their attention-seeking expect interactions to be fulfilling. As a result, they're eager to collaborate with their parents' attempts to socialize them."
While scientists and caregivers alike have long theorized that toddlers have certain expectations of their parent's behavior, no one had provided a reliable measure of those expectations. By observing the quality of toddlers' attention-seeking, Gosselin and co-author David R. Forman, currently at the State University of New York at Geneseo, were able to quantify toddlers' expectations.
In the first part of the study, parent and child were put in the same room and the parent was asked to fill out a long survey with questions that required attention and focus. This usually provoked attention-seeking behaviors in the child. Some toddlers pointed at and shared objects with their parent, laughed and smiled while talking to the parent, and used phrases like, "excuse me mommy." This constituted high-quality behaviour in the researchers' eyes. Low-quality attention-seeking behaviour was shown by toddlers who cried, screamed, or even took the parent's pen and threw it across the room.
Gosselin says that they expected to find that parents who had been attentive, sensitive and responsive to their child in a variety of contexts would have children who showed more positive, high-quality attention-seeking behaviours than children of less responsive parents because these behaviors reflected the child's expectations of a parent's response.
In the second part of the study, the child had to watch his or her parent perform a series of actions (such as, how to retrieve a ball using three specific movements) and then try to imitate them. Gosselin found that toddlers who showed positive attention-seeking behaviours collaborated more with the parent in this task than those who showed more negative attention-seeking behaviours when the parent was busy.
According to Gosselin, the study shows that it is important to encourage positive or high-quality attention-seeking in toddlers because it predicts their motivation to collaborate and participate in skill building activities.
"For parents it's important to know that it's not the amount of attention seeking but really the quality of attention seeking that their toddler displays that matters for their development," says Gosselin.
Gosselin is now in the process of analyzing data on what happens when the parent is busy on the phone. She says that with the spread of cell phones it is important to see what kind of attention-seeking behaviors children resort to in this situation, how parents respond, and what are the implications for their development. She also plans to look into how toddlers seek attention from teachers and day-care workers.
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Attention-seeking children's development is fostered by favorable response
Parents should think twice before brushing off their child's calls to "look at me!" A Concordia study published in the journal Child Development is the first to show that toddlers' expectations of how their parent will respond to their needs and bids for attention relate to how eager they are to collaborate and learn.
Collaboration in toddlers has been linked to the acquisition of social rules and norms later in childhood.
Understanding what contributes to more collaboration can help improve conscience development in children.
Marie-Pierre Gosselin, a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University and lead author of the study explains that "toddlers whose parents have consistently responded positively to their attention-seeking expect interactions to be fulfilling. As a result, they're eager to collaborate with their parents' attempts to socialize them."
While scientists and caregivers alike have long theorized that toddlers have certain expectations of their parent's behavior, no one had provided a reliable measure of those expectations. By observing the quality of toddlers' attention-seeking, Gosselin and co-author David R. Forman, currently at the State University of New York at Geneseo, were able to quantify toddlers' expectations.
In the first part of the study, parent and child were put in the same room and the parent was asked to fill out a long survey with questions that required attention and focus. This usually provoked attention-seeking behaviors in the child. Some toddlers pointed at and shared objects with their parent, laughed and smiled while talking to the parent, and used phrases like, "excuse me mommy." This constituted high-quality behaviour in the researchers' eyes. Low-quality attention-seeking behaviour was shown by toddlers who cried, screamed, or even took the parent's pen and threw it across the room.
Gosselin says that they expected to find that parents who had been attentive, sensitive and responsive to their child in a variety of contexts would have children who showed more positive, high-quality attention-seeking behaviours than children of less responsive parents because these behaviors reflected the child's expectations of a parent's response.
In the second part of the study, the child had to watch his or her parent perform a series of actions (such as, how to retrieve a ball using three specific movements) and then try to imitate them. Gosselin found that toddlers who showed positive attention-seeking behaviours collaborated more with the parent in this task than those who showed more negative attention-seeking behaviours when the parent was busy.
According to Gosselin, the study shows that it is important to encourage positive or high-quality attention-seeking in toddlers because it predicts their motivation to collaborate and participate in skill building activities.
"For parents it's important to know that it's not the amount of attention seeking but really the quality of attention seeking that their toddler displays that matters for their development," says Gosselin.
Gosselin is now in the process of analyzing data on what happens when the parent is busy on the phone. She says that with the spread of cell phones it is important to see what kind of attention-seeking behaviors children resort to in this situation, how parents respond, and what are the implications for their development. She also plans to look into how toddlers seek attention from teachers and day-care workers.
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More than Half of States Increased Graduation Rates
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Number of “Dropout Factory” Schools Declined by 23% Since 2002
Graduation Rate Topped 75% in 2009 with Tennessee and New York Leading the Progress
With one in four U.S. public school students dropping out of high school before graduation, America continues to face a dropout epidemic. Dropping out makes it harder for these young people to succeed in life, our economy loses hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity and our communities suffer enormous social costs. The nation continues to make progress to end the dropout crisis, according to a report released today by Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center, America’s Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report found that 24 states increased their high school graduation rates by modest to large gains, while the number of high schools graduating 60 percent or fewer students on time—often referred to as “dropout factories”— decreased by 457 between 2002 and 2010, with the rate of decline accelerating since 2008.
The number of “dropout factories” totaled 1,550 in 2010, down from 1,634 in 2009 and a high of 2,007 in 2002. The number declined by 84 between 2009 and 2010. As a result, 790,000 fewer students attended dropout factories in 2010 than 2002. These numbers and additional analysis are detailed in the 2012 Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, an annual report authored by John Bridgeland and Mary Bruce of Civic Enterprises and Robert Balfanz and Joanna Fox at the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University. The report is sponsored by AT&T with additional support from the Pearson Foundation.
Other findings include:
The national graduation rate increased by 3.5 percentage points between 2001 and 2009 from 72 percent to 75.5 percent in 2009.
- 20 states made the most significant gains in graduation rates (+3 to +17 percentage points). Tennessee (+17.8) and New York (+13) saw double-digit gains.
- 12 states were responsible for the majority of progress during the past decade: New York, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Kentucky. Combined, these states added nearly 109,000 additional graduates in 2009.
- Nine of these 12 states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas) were also among the top 15 states with the biggest declines in students attending “dropout factories.”
- The following states actually saw declines in their graduation rates during this period: Nevada (-15.6), Connecticut (-4.3), New Mexico (-2.6), Arizona (-2.2), California (-1.7), Utah (-1.1), Nebraska (-1.0), Arkansas (-0.8), New Jersey (-0.5) and Rhode Island (-0.4).
- Only one state, Wisconsin, has a graduation rate of 90 percent.
- The following 13 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Washington have to graduate the largest number of students and be most aggressive in accelerating their graduation rate to reach a 90 percent graduation rate by 2020.
The South and the suburbs saw the largest declines in the number of “dropout factory” schools with 410 and 171, respectively, between 2002 and 2009.
- The number of “dropout factory” high schools declined by 98 in cities in 2009-2010 while suburbs saw a decrease of 41.
- Between 2002 and 2010, the Northeast had the second largest decline of 43 while the West decreased by 35.
- The Midwest increased their number of “dropout factory” schools by 33 during 2002-10.
Contrary to 2008-09, progress in towns and rural areas stalled in 2009-2010.
- School districts in towns and rural areas saw an increase in the number of “dropout factory” schools between 2009 and 2010. Towns increased the number of these schools by 42 and rural areas by 33 schools.
- This slight increase does not diminish progress between 2002 and 2010 where towns decreased their dropout factory schools by 33 percent, slightly behind their suburban counterparts at 36 percent.
The following states saw the greatest change, decreasing the number of “dropout factory” schools by more than 50 between 2002 and 2010: Texas (-122); Florida (-62); and Georgia
(-54). These states increased graduation rates during this period as well.
If each state had a graduation rate of 90 percent, 580,000 additional students would have graduated in the class of 2011, increasing the GDP by $6.6 billion and generating $1.8 billion in additional revenue as a result of increased economic activity.
The report used the best and most recent data available: the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) and Promoting Power for 2010. Although all states were expected to use the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate starting in the 2010-11 school year, not all states are reporting these data at this time.
The report also includes updates on progress on the 10 Civic Marshall Plan benchmarks, such as grade-level reading, chronic absenteeism, early warning systems, and state compulsory school age requirements. As highlighted by President Obama in his 2012 State of the Union Address, state laws dictate the minimum and maximum age that all youth must attend school. While the majority of states have a compulsory school age of 17 or 18, a total of 18 states still permit students to drop out before age 18 or the age students drop out.
The report also features states and school districts that are making significant gains, serving as a challenge that others can too. It also shares promising practices from nonprofits, businesses, media, educational and governmental institutions across the country, and five case studies in: Dothan, AL, the State of Georgia; Henry Grady High School in Atlanta, GA; Houston, TX; and Washington County Public Schools in Maryland.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Learning from the best school systems in East Asia
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As the economic centre of the world is shifting from West to East, so is the centre of high performance in school education. Four of the world’s five highest-performing systems are Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai and Singapore, according to OECD’s 2009 PISA assessments of students. In Shanghai, the average 15-year old mathematics student is performing at a level two to three years above his or her counterpart in Australia, the USA and Europe.
In recent years, Australia and many OECD countries have substantially increased education expenditure, often with disappointing results. Grattan Institute’s new report, Catching up: learning from the best school systems in East Asia, shows how studying the strengths of these systems can improve our children’s lives.
Success in these systems is not determined by culture – by Confucianism, rote learning, Tiger Mothers and so on – nor is it always the result of spending more money. Instead, these systems focus on the things that are known to matter in the classroom, including a relentless, practical focus on learning and the creation of a strong culture of teacher education, collaboration, mentoring, feedback and sustained professional development.
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As the economic centre of the world is shifting from West to East, so is the centre of high performance in school education. Four of the world’s five highest-performing systems are Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai and Singapore, according to OECD’s 2009 PISA assessments of students. In Shanghai, the average 15-year old mathematics student is performing at a level two to three years above his or her counterpart in Australia, the USA and Europe.
In recent years, Australia and many OECD countries have substantially increased education expenditure, often with disappointing results. Grattan Institute’s new report, Catching up: learning from the best school systems in East Asia, shows how studying the strengths of these systems can improve our children’s lives.
Success in these systems is not determined by culture – by Confucianism, rote learning, Tiger Mothers and so on – nor is it always the result of spending more money. Instead, these systems focus on the things that are known to matter in the classroom, including a relentless, practical focus on learning and the creation of a strong culture of teacher education, collaboration, mentoring, feedback and sustained professional development.
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