Abstract
Effective early education is essential for academic achievement and positive life outcomes, particularly for children in poverty. Advances in neuroscience suggest that a focus on self-regulation in education can enhance children’s engagement in learning and establish beneficial academic trajectories in the early elementary grades. Here, we experimentally evaluate an innovative approach to the education of children in kindergarten that embeds support for self-regulation, particularly executive functions, into literacy, mathematics, and science learning activities. Results from a cluster randomized controlled trial involving 29 schools, 79 classrooms, and 759 children indicated positive effects on executive functions, reasoning ability, the control of attention, and levels of salivary cortisol and alpha amylase. Results also demonstrated improvements in reading, vocabulary, and mathematics at the end of kindergarten that increased into the first grade. A number of effects were specific to high-poverty schools, suggesting that a focus on executive functions and associated aspects of self-regulation in early elementary education holds promise for closing the achievement gap.
Highlights
The 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking report, A Nation at Risk, serves as a powerful reminder of the persistence and growth of SES-related gaps in achievement [1] and signals the need for a renewed commitment to early learning, for children in poverty
Recent advances in neuroscience suggest that povertyrelated gaps in achievement are accompanied by poverty-related differences in brain structure and function [2,3,4] and differences in the regulation of attention, emotion, stress response physiology, and executive functions important for early learning [5,6]
Educational approaches that foster the development of the self-regulation system, including the regulation of attention, emotion, and stress response physiology can be expected to enhance executive functions and thereby promote learning and beneficial educational outcomes
Summary
The 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking report, A Nation at Risk, serves as a powerful reminder of the persistence and growth of SES-related gaps in achievement [1] and signals the need for a renewed commitment to early learning, for children in poverty. Recent advances in neuroscience suggest that povertyrelated gaps in achievement are accompanied by poverty-related differences in brain structure and function [2,3,4] and differences in the regulation of attention, emotion, stress response physiology, and executive functions important for early learning [5,6]. These findings support the hypothesis that SES-related gaps in academic abilities at school entry are in part attributable to effects of poverty on children’s self-regulation development [7,8,9]. Educational approaches that foster the development of the self-regulation system, including the regulation of attention, emotion, and stress response physiology can be expected to enhance executive functions and thereby promote learning and beneficial educational outcomes
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
