In this document, you will find a comprehensive summary of the literature that is subject matter for the subject: Learning at School. Dutch literature is summarized in Dutch, English literature in English.
Leren op School
Literatuur Hoorcollege 1 – School als pedagogische context
Article 1 – Season of birth and school success in the early years of primary
education (Verachtert)
Introduction
Age differences within classrooms
In school, children are usually grouped in grade age groups (contain children who are
born within the same period of 12 months). The age-based grouping mechanism is
intended to result in homogenous classes by putting together pupils with a similar
developmental level. That way, it is assumed that children within a grade age group
have corresponding levels of maturation and experience and they can, therefore, be
educated together. This assumption of homogeneity, however, is not entirely correct,
as a grade age group leaves intact small individual differences in age.
Within their grade age group, all children take up a certain age position. The applied
cut-off date determines whether a particular month or season of birth corresponds to
a high or low age position.
Season of birth effects
Several studies have shown a relationship between children’s seasons of birth and
their success in school – older children are generally found to outperform younger
children within the same grade age group. This season (or month) birth effects have
been found for different indicators of school success.
a) Reading, spelling and mathematics achievements in Grades 1 and 4.
b) Autumn-born children are generally over-represented in the higher streams of
secondary education, whereas the lower streams of secondary education
contain higher proportions of summer-born children.
c) Disproportionately high numbers of summer-born children in referrals for
special education needs and for academic or behavioral problems.
d) Summer-born children are at increased risk of being incorrectly identified as
having learning difficulties.
There is some evidence that season of birth effects in education diminish as children
grow older. However, the evidence is mixed. Finally, season of birth effects have not
exclusively been found in education (e.g. also in sports).
Explanations for the season of birth effect in education
a) Medical factors – increased frequency of infections and vitamin D deficiency
during winter months may lead to a relatively higher frequency of neurological
problems in children who are born in the late spring or summer.
Unlikely – season of birth effects can also be found in education systems
where autumn-born children are the youngers within their grade-age groups.
b) Length of schooling – summer-born children tend to enter infant school one or
two terms later than many of their peers. This may cause them to perform less
, well on achievement measures.
More likely.
c) Age position effects (most likely explanation)– the youngest children within a
class are disadvantaged when compared to their older classmates. Several
possible reasons:
- They might be developmentally less mature than their older classmates.
Hence, they might be less well equipped than their older peers to meet
cognitive demands in school.
- Some evidence that teachers tend to underestimate younger children’s
academic and social skills, because they see them as developmentally
immature. This might influence their actual achievement.
- Level of instruction in the classroom is often tailored to the ability level of the
‘average’ child. therefore, instruction might sometimes be too difficult for the
youngest children.
- Youngest children may suffer from low self-esteem.
The current study
Research questions:
1. Can we find a relationship between season of birth and grade retention?
2. Do the relatively large age differences between children within same cohort
result in different levels of mathematical abilities at the start of 1st grade?
3. How do these age-related achievement differences evolve between the start of
first grade and the end of second grade?
4. Does this achievement gap develop differently in classrooms with frequent
differentiated instruction practices than in classrooms where there is less
attention for children’s individual needs?
Results
Conclusion
Younger children have a higher chance of being held back in the early years of
schooling (grade retention) than older children. Although the season of birth
achievement gap narrowed significantly during the first two years of primary
education, important achievement differences remained at the end of second grade
(on basis of the mathematics achievement).
Discussion
In Flanders, autumn-born children (generally among the youngest in their grade age
groups), were retained more than 3 times as frequently as winter-born children. This
parallels results of similar research conducted in the USA (→raises strong concerns
about the educational inequalities that may stem from a trivial fact like month of birth).
Possible explanations
1. Teachers may underestimate the developmental levels of the youngest
children in their classrooms, and therefore, too often recommend that these
children should be retained.
, 2. The cognitive standards children have to meet in order to be allowed to enter
first grade may be too high for autumn-born kindergartners.
In this study, a relationship was also found between season of birth and mathematics
achievement at the start of primary education. Winter-born children enter first grade
with a higher level of mathematics ability. 22 months after children had entered first
grade, the mathematics achievement gap had decreased by 50%. Strikingly, a
reversed season of birth effect in the group of delayed children was found in Grade 4.
Within this group, younger children tended to perform slightly better than older
children.
Possible explanation
For autumn-born children, their relatively lower age and related immaturity might be
the main reason for their grade retention, whereas for winter-born children grade
retention be an indication of some other problem, unrelated to age. As a result,
autumn-born children might eventually catch up with their non-retained peers,
whereas winter-born children, without appropriate intervention, continue to struggle
academically.
In this study, it was found that none of the three variables on differentiated instruction
used was related to a significant change in the decrease of the mathematics
achievement gap. Maybe, providing younger children with appropriate levels of
instruction is not a good way to tackle the season of birth effect in education. On the
other hand, the classroom differentiation measures used in this study had limitations.
Article 2 – Effectiveness of grade retention: A systematic review and meta-
analysis (Goos)
Introduction
Grade retention in practice
Grade retention means that one holds back students who are not keeping up with
peers or do not meet a certain predefined level, in the same grade for an extra school
year, instead of promoting them to the next grade level. This practice can be applied
to tackle student heterogeneity.
a) Uniform integration countries (e.g. France, Spain) – grade retention is most
commonly applied practice to tackle student heterogeneity.
b) Separation countries (e.g. Netherlands) – grade retention is jointly used with
ability grouping and tracking to deal with student heterogeneity.
c) À la carte integration countries (e.g. US, UK) – grade retention is seldom used,
and is only used as a last remedy when ability grouping, setting, and
streaming appear to insufficiently tackle student heterogeneity.
d) Individualized integration countries (e.g. Denmark, Norway) – grade retention
is not allowed or rarely applied, because student heterogeneity is mainly dealt
with using various forms of differentiation and individualized teaching.
, Each country has its own educational policy, school population, organization,
curriculum, and beliefs about grade retention effectiveness, which altogether
influence grade retention application in practice.
Theoretical debate
Many educators believe that…. (advantages)
- Mastering learning content related to a specific grade is necessary to succeed
in later grades, from a basic ‘building blocks’ idea, with each grade building
upon the previous one. Thus, students who do not yet master specific grade-
related knowledge or skills, are in their view best off repeating (preventing
them from failure accumulating in a negative school and job career).
- Classes become more homogeneous when the weakest performing students
repeat their grade. As a result, they believe that they can instruct their students
more efficiently and better satisfy individual needs, boosting achievement of all
students.
- Repeaters, during their retention year, start with an advantage in academic
knowledge and skills over their new, younger classmates, get the opportunity
to refresh and experience new successes, and have accumulated more
experience in socializing with peers and coping with conflicts at school.
- The threat of grade retention might act like a ‘stick’, motivating students to
work harder and thus achieve better.
Disadvantages
- Repeating a grade for a big part is simply sheer rehearsal of subject.
Repeaters might not receive the continuous intellectual challenges they need.
- Repeaters are left behind by their friends, have to get along with new
classmates, and might feel like ‘having failed’, seeing former classmates. This
might affect repeaters’ self-confidence, pleasure in learning, well-being, and
interpersonal relationships.
- The threat of grade retention might cause a lot of stress: impeding progress.
- Grade retention incurs extra costs for government and (family of) repeaters.
Previous research on grade retention effectiveness
Research suggests that grade retention is less effective than generally believed by
educators, especially in the long run.
Discussion
Summary of the findings
a) The field of grade retention effectiveness research has considerably improved
during the last two decades (examining effects in a variety of countries, broad
spectrum of outcomes, and using a range of methods).
b) On average, grade retention has no (negative nor positive) effect on repeaters’
and non-repeaters’ development.
c) Differential effects:
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