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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