EDUCATION
High-quality child care contributes to later success in science, math
Children with caregivers who provide warmth, cognitive stimulation do better in STEM subjects in high school
Peer-Reviewed PublicationChildren who receive high-quality child care as babies, toddlers and preschoolers do better in science, technology, engineering and math through high school, and that link is stronger among children from low-income backgrounds, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
“Our results suggest that caregiving quality in early childhood can build a strong foundation for a trajectory of STEM success,” said study author Andres S. Bustamante, PhD, of the University of California Irvine. “Investing in quality child care and early childhood education could help remedy the underrepresentation of racially and ethnically diverse populations in STEM fields.”
The research was published in the journal Developmental Psychology.
Many studies have demonstrated that higher quality caregiving in early childhood is associated with better school readiness for young children from low-income families. But not as many have looked at how the effects of early child care extend into high school, and even fewer have focused specifically on STEM subjects, according to Bustamante.
To investigate those questions, Bustamante and his colleagues examined data from 979 families who participated in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, from the time of the child’s birth in 1991 until 2006.
As part of the study, trained observers visited the day cares and preschools of all the children who were enrolled for 10 or more hours per week. The observers visited when the children were 6, 15, 24, 36 and 54 months old, and rated two aspects of the child care: the extent to which the caregivers provided a warm and supportive environment and responded to children’s interests and emotions, and the amount of cognitive stimulation they provided through using rich language, asking questions to probe the children’s thinking, and providing feedback to deepen the children’s understanding of concepts.
The researchers then looked at how the students performed in STEM subjects in elementary and high school. To measure STEM success, they examined the children’s scores on the math and reasoning portions of a standardized test in grades three to five. To measure high school achievement, the researchers looked at standardized test scores and the students’ most advanced science course completed, the most advanced math course completed, GPA in science courses and GPA in math courses.
Overall, they found that both aspects of caregiving quality (more cognitive stimulation and better caregiver sensitivity-responsivity) predicted greater STEM achievement in late elementary school (third, fourth and fifth grade), which in turn predicted greater STEM achievement in high school at age 15. Sensitive and responsive caregiving in early childhood was a stronger predictor of high school STEM performance for children from low-income families compared with children from higher income families.
“Our hypothesis was that cognitive stimulation would be more strongly related to STEM outcomes because those kinds of interactions provide the foundation for exploration and inquiry, which are key in STEM learning,” Bustamante said. “However, what we saw was that the caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness was just as predictive of later STEM outcomes, highlighting the importance of children’s social emotional development and settings that support cognitive and social emotional skills.”
Overall, Bustamante said, research and theory suggest that high-quality early care practices support a strong foundation for science learning. “Together, these results highlight caregiver cognitive stimulation and sensitivity and responsiveness in early childhood as an area for investment to strengthen the STEM pipeline, particularly for children from low-income households.”
ARTICLE: “Quality of Early Childcare and Education Predicts High School STEM Achievement for Students from Low-income Backgrounds,” by Andres S. Bustamante, PhD, Vanessa N. Bermudez, MA, Karlena D. Ochoa, PhD, Ashlee B. Belgrave, MA, and Deborah Lowe Vandell, PhD, University of California Irvine. Developmental Psychology, published online June 15, 2023.
CONTACT: Andres S. Bustamante can be reached at asbustam@uci.edu.
JOURNAL
Developmental Psychology
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
“Quality of Early Childcare and Education Predicts High School STEM Achievement for Students from Low-income Backgrounds
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
15-Jun-2023
New research shows the benefits of teaching pupils about mental health in the classroom
Giving schools the right resources and training to teach pupils about mental health really can have a positive impact on young people’s wellbeing
Peer-Reviewed PublicationGiving schools the right resources and training to teach pupils about mental health really can have a positive impact on young people’s wellbeing.
New research by Welsh academics has just been published demonstrating the benefits of improving pupils’ mental health literacy and reducing the stigma around mental health issues at a crucial stage in a young person’s life.
Most mental health problems start in the teenage years with a recent survey identifying that two in five young people report mental health symptoms. However, due to poor knowledge of mental health issues, and stigma about mental health, most young people do not seek help.
Against this background, the team from Swansea and Cardiff universities worked with charity Action for Children to develop mental health literacy programme The Guide Cymru which consists of training for teachers, access to online resources and videos and classroom modules.
For the research a group of almost 2,000 pupils aged 13 to 14 from across Wales were divided in two for a 10-week randomized control trial with half of them experiencing The Guide, delivered by specially trained teachers.
Its findings, which have just been published by online journal BMC Public Health, showed the pupils given access to The Guide demonstrated improvements in nearly all areas, including mental health knowledge, better mental health behaviours, reduced mental health stigma and increased intentions to seek help for problems.
Swansea PhD student and co-author Nicola Simkiss said: “It is devastating to see children and young people struggling with mental health difficulties that go both unreported and untreated.
“We believe The Guide is an effective intervention that can help both children and teachers understand that mental health problems are common-place, just like physical health problems, and that they should seek help and not try to hide the problem.”
Swansea University’s Professor Nicola Gray, who is also consultant clinical and forensic psychologist for Swansea Bay University Health Board, said: “The Guide is important as it can be easily delivered as part of the school curriculum by teachers who know the students.”
She now hopes this will be the start of the process of embedding mental health education and intervention in schools: “The Guide can be the beginning of a process of open discussion about mental health and emotional challenges in schools, and how best our young people can learn about these problems and the most effective ways of seeking help when this is needed.”
Brigitte Gater, Action for Children’s Director for Wales, said: “To be able to show the benefits and impact of programmes like The Guide through academic research is incredibly important. The intervention programme is a significant tool in improving the mental health of our children and young people in Wales.”
Chris Dunne, Children’s Services Manager at Action for Children, added: “Children’s mental health remains a priority area and we hope that the results of the research will encourage schools to use it as part of their curriculum.”
Dr Dave Williams, Adviser to Chief Medical Officer and Welsh Government - Child & Adolescent Mental Health, said: “The Guide has proved an excellent resource to enable professionals to raise understanding and awareness of emotional and mental health and wellbeing. It plays a part in the Welsh aim of normalising emotional reponses while building the capacity of communities to support children and young people who require specialist help.”
Now the authors say they want to look to the future. Professor Robert Snowden, from Cardiff University, said: “The Guide did exactly what we had hoped it would. However, we need to follow up this research to see if these changes in knowledge and attitudes can translate into better mental health outcomes as these children develop from adolescents to young adults.”
JOURNAL
BMC Public Health
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Randomized controlled/clinical trial
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
A randomised controlled trial evaluating the Guide Cymru mental health literacy intervention programme in year 9 (age 13–14) school pupils in Wales
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
15-Jun-2023
COI STATEMENT
The authors declare no competing interests.
Research findings „Study on Adult Learning and Education“
Report from eight countries worldwide and recommendations
Reports and ProceedingsIMAGE: STUDY ON ADULT EDUCATION IN EIGHT COUNTRIES 2023, UNIVERSITÄT HAMBURG ET AL. THE DIAGRAM SHOWS THE DIFFERENT LEVELS THAT INFLUENCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADULT EDUCATION. view more
CREDIT: GROTLÜSCHEN, ERTNER 2023
From August 2022 until October 2022, interviews with 25 experts from the selected countries were conducted and then analyzed trough a Ground Theory approach. From this, a model emerged, showing how factors and actors at different societal levels - mega, macro, meso and micro - interact to shape adult learning and education in different contexts.
Mega level comparisons show that overarching issues such as war and conflict, historical and systemic discrimination, disease and extreme poverty as well as political authoritarianism act both as an impetus and as barriers to ALE activities.
Comparative analysis shows that at the macro level, with a few exceptions, ALE features as a ‘stepchild’ or ‘poor cousin’ to the school education sector. Within ALE, formal credentialed programs focused on compensatory education or workforce development attract more policy interest and support while non-credentialed, informal and non-formal learning initiatives struggle to receive more than lip service. This makes the sustainability of ALE initiatives other than the credentialed programs highly vulnerable.
The meso level is where the key driving force for the implementation of ALE in the policy arena is found. Advice to government from democratically structured associations with elected chairs have greater gravitas than advice from less formally constituted groupings. However, their effectiveness can be limited by factors such as lack of resources, funding and professional expertise.
At the micro level, informal and nonformal ALE activities are provided by companies as in-service training, and by commercial providers, governmental organisations or civil society organisations that run training centers. Activities at the micro level are highly flexible. This is complemented by grassroots activists mobilising community members in response to local issues and needs. ALE at the micro-level includes responding to the localised impact of severe weather events, improving the quality of life for the elderly, and challenging the prevalence of sexual harassment as acceptable behaviour.
The report presents examples of successful, micro level and grassroots projects from each country. Many of these projects are carried out by DVV International, the main German organization fostering adult learning and education worldwide, together with local partners. The insights from the study led to recommendations about ways in which ALE could be strengthened within the framework of lifelong learning. The recommendations to associations and policy makers are:
- Build and support sustainable networks and associations
- Build coordination across stakeholders and within sectors that engage with ALE.
- Recognize and encourage grassroots efforts that support adult learning in ALE and other sectors
- Support the collection and use of high quality (quantitative and qualitative) data on ALE at both the national and cross-country levels to both advocate for and strengthen provision at the local, state, and national levels
- Highlight and strengthen the role of ALE in lifelong learning by reinforcing the importance of a lifelong and lifewide (across the full spectrum of adult learning needs and interests) approach to learning
- Leverage the flexibility and responsiveness of ALE to build on its strengths
- Ensure that ALE meets the wide range of educational, training, and civic needs that learners, employers, and governments have for learning in adulthood
- Provide meaningful support for ALE at the micro, meso, and macro levels
The research findings and recommendations will be presented for the different entities of DVV-International in countries and thereby opened for influences on the macro and meso level in different countries all over the world. Within that, a direct influence on policy makers and practitioners is implied.
Findings will be launched online by 15.06.2023 as No. 81 in the Publication series International Perspectives in Adult Education (IPE). https://www.dvv-international.de/en/materials/publications/international-perspectives-in-adult-education-ipe
DVV International invited the authors to present the findings at their annual Conference with their Regional Directors on 20.06.2023 in Bonn. The Universität Hamburg invites for a webinar on 19.9.2023, more information can be found here. https://www.conferences.uni-hamburg.de/e/studyonale
ARTICLE TITLE
Adult Learning and Education within the Framework of Lifelong Learning
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
15-Jun-2023
Dialogues across language and culture
Contextualizing theories of classroom dialogue in language education
Book AnnouncementTeacher talk seems intuitive – the expert imparts knowledge onto novices, who passively receive expertise like a car or machine receives parts at every station on an assembly line. In reality, an effective teacher in an era of dynamic and higher literacies is less of a factory worker and more of an active negotiator who tries to understand where their students are coming from in order to reach them. The language classroom amplifies this challenge where the negotiation not only centers on the knowledge itself but the means of communication for that knowledge. When teacher and student come to the classroom with different languages and cultures, successful dialogue becomes all the more important.
A classroom dialogue is not merely the act of teacher and student talking with each other. In an effective dialogue, they negotiate meaning together, resolving any differences in understanding to explore ideas and create new knowledge. A dialogic classroom that accomplishes these objectives can be more inclusive and welcoming of all students’ perspectives and knowledge bases. All that said, scholarship on classroom dialogue has largely overlooked the language learning context, where gaps in linguistic and cultural knowledge require the functions of dialogue for mutual understanding.
Whether the goal is to understand theories of interpersonal dialogue or to receive guidance on effective teaching, a new book entitled Dialogue in the Language Classroom: Theory and Practice from a Classroom Discourse Analysis provides a comprehensive framework for educators and researchers alike. Longtime language teacher and sociocultural researcher Dr. Roehl Sybing analyzes data from a classroom ethnography involving an English-speaking teacher and his Japanese-speaking students to explore what makes teacher talk and classroom interaction dialogic. Using various theories in teaching and learning, linguistic anthropology, and language teaching, Dr. Sybing examines classroom dialogue in depth to find out how teachers can cross the language gap and engage their students in a meaningful dialogue that advances their learning.
The book looks at classroom dialogue from multiple angles, exploring multiple discussions in research and pedagogy. What role does the students’ first language play in the language classroom? How do teachers mitigate classroom power dynamics to empower students and validate their knowledge? How does the negotiation of meaning in dialogue affect the knowledge being taught in the classroom? These questions and more deserve greater focus in the scholarship on language teaching, leading Dr. Sybing to discuss these issues in extensive detail in his newest book.
Researchers will benefit from the theoretical development provided by a fresh new look at dialogic teaching. Dialogue in the Language Classroom not only explores the meaning-making processes traditionally discussed in scholarship on classroom dialogue but also the affective and critical dimensions of teaching and learning. Where the language classroom deals with issues of language ownership and the nature of expertise, this book argues for the importance of validating students and the knowledge they can share in dialogue in ways that can be useful at classroom and policy levels.
Practitioners will get an extensive guide for how they can approach their classroom engage in a meaningful dialogue with students of all subject-matter disciplines and backgrounds. By deconstructing the myth of the successful teacher as the all-knowing expert, Dialogue in the Language Classroom argues that good teaching requires a dynamic negotiator who can understand the knowledge and cultural bases of their students and co-construct new knowledge through dialogue.
Ultimately, Dr. Sybing’s Dialogue in the Language Classroom seeks to challenge the prevailing paradigms in language education scholarship and in theories of classroom dialogue. Building on existing discussions, this research provides a new lens on multilingual and multicultural interaction to benefit scholars and educators in various fields.
Roehl Sybing is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Global Communications in Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He has been a language educator in Japan and the United States for nearly two decades. His current research examines the sociocultural dimensions of classroom dialogue. He has written extensively on language classroom teaching and learning and qualitative research methodology.
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