Poor children and education

A new research paper was sent to me by Linda Brownlow at Strathclyde University which you may find useful in your research.

The paper from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation “The importance of attitudes and behaviour for poorer children’s educational attainment” makes interesting but disturbing reading as it explains its finding into why children for poorer family backgrounds have low educational attainment. The study focused on the broad range of factors under the umbrella term ” aspirations, attitudes and behaviours” and seeks to give the reader a deeper insight into what the differences  are  between poor and affluent families that create this gap; belief in themselves, aspirations for HE, parental engagement in early years, the parents own cognitive abilities.

The study draws on research from four rich large scale longitudial sources of data capturing groups of children growing up in the UK today.

Some of the key point raised about why children do well at school include ; belief in their own ability, understanding that their  behaviour and actions are self driven, pupils see school as worthwhile. It made me think along two routes that we are pursuing in Scotland at present ;  if we continue to drive forward the enterprising pedagogy and approaches within Curriculum for Excellence then a greater percentage of under achieving children from poorer families will raise their aspirations and at the same time begin to see a value in the school curriculum – parents of these children will also have an understanding of what schools are trying to achieve and it may raise their cognitive ability. The other area that the paper is strongly supporting is that of early intervention where it reports that  investment of time in the early years can begin to close the gap with the children’s cognitive scores. The findings suggest that government policies aiming to change mothers’ and children’s attitudes and behaviour during primary schooling could be effective in reducing the growth in the rich-poor gap that takes place during this time.  This supports the extensive research and findings of Prof James Heckman USA who has carried out numerous studies in this area.

://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/educational-attainment-poor-children paper link  – March 2010

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The Spirit of Malawian Entrepreneurship

Picked up this amazing book as a going away present from my colleagues at Learning and Teaching Scotland – The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. An amazing story of a teenage boy, William Kamkwamba,  who at aged 15 built his own windmill to put electric power into his home…inspired  by reading a book in the school library – true education.

In the book a quote that should make us in the western world stop and think – Africans bend what little they have to their will every day. Using creativity, they overcome Africa’s challenges. Where the world sees trash, Africa recycles. Where the world sees junk, Africa sees rebirth ”

His profile was raised when he asked to present his story at TEDGlobal 2009 where he talked to an audience of over 450 delegates from around the world about his idea and what he hoped to achieve.

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A view of Scottish Education

Scottish education is changing at a rapid pace and the main impact is for it to focus on the child at the centre. This inspirational video Proud shows these children at the centre and asks the question – as we should all be asking the children that we are teaching ” What have you done today to make yourself proud?”

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Collaboration – Why Penguins Have No Commanding Officer

 Interesting article I picked up from NESTA Why Penguins Have No Commanding Officer about the need for collaboration and how leadership in our world is led by a small group of people.  Ken Thomson gives an insight into the really smart teams that we have in the nature world. He mentioned the smartness of the goose and I have used this presentation The Flight of the Geese on several staff training sessions…especially the need to honk to the one in front !

We all need to collaborate more via blogs, Twitter etc…it makes the sharing of information so much more meaningful and targeted.

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Scotland – A New Reflection in Education Through Enterprise

Scotland has been at the vanguard of countries developing Enterprise in Education and looking at a new curriculum for the 21st century – a  Curriculum for Excellence aiming to have the child at the centre. This paper of professional reflection ” Focusing on Enterprise in Education”seeks to layout for all teachers the need for enterprise to be one of the main areas of the new curriculum and sets out its rationale for its inclusion. It’s unique style sets out the new curriculum  and asks teachers several probing questions throughout the chapters to encourage professional engagement.

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Education 2020

A group of people met recently on the island of Islay in what was called an unconference. Being an older new comer to the areas of blogs this unconference really had me thinking in a new dimension and it was interesting to read first of all about its organisational structure and then the theme for the day – what would education be like in 2020 ?

Have a look at this new development Education 2020

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