Philippine Basic Education

A post in this blog more than three years ago bears the same title, " Are the Poor Left Behind Or Are the Rich Simply Pulling Ahead? " It shows a correlation between income and achievement gaps. Children from poor families struggle academically. A recent study by Kalil and coworkers suggests that this is so much more than just a simple correlation. It is very likely a "cause and effect" relationship. Affluent families are simply providing more engaging and enriching activities to their young children. Consequently, these children enter kindergarten much more prepared than those coming from poor families. The previous post talks about Reardon's " The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor: New evidence and possible explanations ". Figures from this paper that tell the story are as follows: Above figure copied from  Reardon, S.F.  (2011).  The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor: New evidence a...

The social aspect of human life cannot be overstated. Thus, even education hinges on relationships. These relationships are between a parent and a child, and between a teacher and a pupil. It is through these connections that one may find technology enhancing basic education. In order to be useful, technology must facilitate, not replace, the engagement between a child and a parent, between a pupil and a teacher. In a recent editorial published in JAMA Pediatrics , Radesky and Christakis write: To be sure, it is important to understand that not all electronic toys—or for that matter apps—are the same, and content drives both the experience and the outcomes. For example, a randomized trial of Bedtime Math, an app that is intended to improve mathematical skills, showed benefits in first-grade students. Notably, the app is structured to promote parent-child interaction and provide a narrative with which to discuss simple mathematic problems. In other words, it drives triadic atten...

November is almost here. Once again, in Virginia, nature provides our eyes with an awe-inspiring scenery of autumn leaves. The green pigment chlorophyll has dominated all throughout summer but when the days get shorter, carotenoids, mostly orange or yellow, and anthocyanins, mostly red, begin to emerge. Schools have nearly finished through one quarter. Carving pumpkins coincide then with parent-teacher conferences being held inside classrooms. This is also a time for parents to sit down with their child's teacher. It is an opportunity for parents and teachers to join their heads together and examine how a particular child, their child, is doing in school. Every child is unique so it is no surprise that each child deserves a moment of reflection. Unlike examining results of standardized exams that provide for instance a nation's report card, these conversations are as individualized as possible. There are ways by which one can view basic education, through an overall lens or t...

Parental involvement is without doubt an important factor in basic education. Although gender specific roles remain in society, there is really no rule that says encouragement, support and inspiration are exclusively either feminine or masculine. Fathers are often mistakenly associated with discipline. On the other hand, mothers are frequently linked to warmth and support. It is therefore interesting to examine how much a father's involvement specifically influences a child's performance in school. A study to be published in the Journal of Educational Psychology  from researchers at Harvard and Oxford looks at research over the past thirty years in the hope of answering the question of how much does a father really contribute to his child's education. The authors indeed found a difference between a father's involvement from a mother's. The father is seen less inside the school. Although fathers score less in school involvement, there is really no significant diffe...

A child's success in education is every parent's dream. Parents are often willing to do as much as they can to help prepare their children for the future. In India, where stakes in standardized tests are so high, some parents apparently go as far as handing out answer sheets to their children during the exam. Above copied from Quartz India These are definitely extreme cases of parental involvement in a child's education but there is one aspect of basic education in which parental involvement is expected and normal: Homework. But even with homework, it is only logical to assume that there is a range in the quality of parental involvement. Dumont and coworkers in a study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology   have used the following criteria to assess parental involvement in their child's homework. Above copied from Quality of parental homework involvement: Predictors and reciprocal relations with academic functioning in the reading domain. ...