Relative age initially stems from how we’ve chosen to group adolescence into groups (grades or year) in school and to decide their suitability for sports teams. For example Northern Ireland is the only European country whose compulsory school starting age is four years old, the youngest starting age in Europe. Closely followed at age five by their neighbours England, Scotland and Wales. The Republic of Ireland however has a later school start age of six years old like many other European countries. The latest start is at age seven, which is when compulsory education is introduced in some Scandinavian and Eastern European countries (Sharpe, 2002). Many countries within Europe have a pre-school system in which the majority of children attend, other countries allow some children to register and start school before they are at the required age but it also depends on the results of pre-school assessments, in some cases, school starting age represents the maxim age by which a child can start school but most of the children attend school before compulsory school age. Many studies have been conducted into looking at age effects and birthdates. Hutchison and Sharp (1999) considered the persistence of season of birth effects in a study of over 5,500 pupils. The purpose was to consider whether age-related differences were large enough to be educationally significant, and to see whether the differences lessened as children matured. The results of the study showed that autumn-borns achieved significantly better scores than summer-borns and birthdate differences persist throughout the primary school years. A study carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the study looked at the test scores and happiness levels of August-born chil... ... middle of paper ... ...layers in Switzerland. In 14th annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Oslo, Norway. School Starting Age: European Policy and Recent Research Caroline Sharp Paper presented at the LGA Seminar ‘When Should Our Children Start School?’, LGA Conference Centre, Smith Square, London, 1 November 2002 SCHWEINHART, L.J. and WEIKART, D.P. (1998). ‘Why curriculum matters in early childhood education’, Educational Leadership, 55, 6, 57-60. Strøm, B. (2004). Student achievement and birthday effects. Unpublished manuscript, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Wattie, N, & Baker, J. (2013). Happy Birthday? The Psychologist, 26(2), 110-113 Wattie, N., Baker, J., Cobley, S., & Montelpare, W. J. (2007). A historical examination of relative age effects in Canadian hockey players. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 38(2), 178-186.
In this essay I will outline the curricular systems for the 0-5 age group in England and Scotland. I will examine in detail the planning and assessment provisions of these systems which allow early years practitioners to gain insight into children's learning and to aid them in that regard. I will draw comparison between the practices of these two countries where possible, and provide criticism of each.
Tickell, C., 2011. The Early Years: Foundations for life, health and learning. An independent report on the Early Years Foundation Stage to Her Majesty’s Government. London: HMG
Elliott, J. (2008) ‘Fifty years of change in British Society’ in J. Elliott & R. Vaitilingham (eds) Now We are 50: key findings from the National Child Development Study CLS/IOE/ESRC.
Gall, S. B., Beins, B., & Feldman, A. (2001). The gale encyclopedia of psychology. (2nd ed., pp. 271-273). Detroit, MI: Gale Group.
children start school at the tender age of four. In pre school you are taught to
From the perspective I have at this stage in my journey in the early childhood education field, I would like to share what I have come to value and believe in regards to early learning and care by looking at my philosophy statement. To begin we will look at the statement and highlight three key features and find out why they are important to me, then we will see what they will look like in my practice, and lastly we will examine these ideas closely by looking at where they originated. By taking an in-depth look at my philosophy statement we will better understand the motivation behind my practice which I hope to continue to refine and refresh as I gain more knowledge and experience.
3. Chamblin, M. (2017) Junior High School Here We Come! Evaluating the Effects of a Summer
Once a child is finished with secondary school (middle) they take a qualifications test called the “CXC” to determine what high school they will be able to attend. Everything from text books to school uniforms has to be paid for out of pocket by the students guardian so even then, some children do not go on to finish school or some fall behind because they do not have the means to continue school all at one time.
The first different views on early childhood education can be defined as Curriculum. For the Rudolf Steiner education system Waldorf, Academic subjects are kept from children in Waldorf schools until a much later age than Montessori. They are thought to be, as in traditional schools, something necessary but not especially enjoyable, and best put off as long as possible. The day is filled with make-believe, fairies, art, music and generally the arts, putting off reading, writing and math until age seven or so. But for Montessori on the other hand, filled her first school of 3-6-year-olds with dolls and other traditional make-believe toys but found that when children were given the opportunity to do real work such as cooking, cleaning, caring for themselves, each other, and the environment, they completely lost interest in make-believe and preferred real work. She later, at the request of parents who were so impressed with the new cleanliness, happiness, and good manners of these slum children, invented manipulative language, math, and other academically-oriented materials and studied the children’s response. Academic lessons were, and are now, never required or forced, but offered to and enjoyed by the
Of course, I have no statistics or extensive anecdotes to champion my point like Gladwell, and most of my evidences sprouts from what meager experience I had in the short span of 19 years. Yet some aspects of my life can be explained by the notions presented in the Outliers. My earliest memory of success is still vivid because it surprised everyone – except my parents who groundlessly and adamantly believed that one day their son would catch up. It was in my fourth year of elementary school and I received three 100’s and one 88 on the final exam of four subjects. I was ranked third in the grade. It was a minutia compared to success of Bill Gates and Billy Joy, but it is kind of important to me. Yet this picayune success was more a combination of circumstance, some hard work, and a hint of innate factor. First things first, my success surprised everyone because for the first three years of my school life, everyone thought I was retarded – literally. The “Matthew effect” was the culprit behind my first few years of “retardedness.” The Matthew effect was in fact an established fact among South Koreans long before it was called the Matthew effect. Kids born in December, January and February would be likely to lag behind their classmates in terms of academics in first few years of elementary schools. Oddly enough, South Korea is one of the only three countries where school year starts in March. To make matters even more flummoxing, it also has a weird system of letting students born in January or February to move up one grade. So I was born in February 1996 and I began school in 2001 with children born in 1995 – the oldest kids of the same class would be born in 1995 March. I was equivalent to a hockey player born in December, and the circumstance did play a huge role in my first three years of school. I was the smallest in my class for three
Morrison, G. S. (1976). Chapter 6: Early Childhood Programs APPLYING THEORIES TO PRACTICE. In Early childhood education today (10th ed., pp. 5-31). Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
At first glance, there is some evidence that the redshirted children perform better initially (Zill, Loomis, & West, 1997, p. 40). However, unlike in sports, the effect doesn’t last. Erikson Institute President Emeritus Samuel Meisels states, “as children get older…whatever advantage is conferred by starting school a year older decreases dramatically” (Safer, 2012). One study by Oshima and Domaleski (2006) compares students with summer birthdays against children with prior fall birthdays to determine the effect of age on
... take responsibility. These teachers will also lead the way in which they are to go about interpreting and implementing the curriculum within their early childhood environments. This has introduced a challenging factor within the curriculum for some of its users. (Alvestad and Duncan). This challenge could result in a negative effect through partial curriculum implementation and also disadvantage the learning and development of children. Alternatively, a positive outcome of this challenge could result in a deepened and further enriched curriculum for children, allowing teachers to incorporate their philosophies and existing practices in a creative and diverse manner. (ME).
Suggate, S. (2009). School entry age and reading achievement in the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). International Journal of Educational Research, 48(3), pp. 151-161.
Plowden, B. (1967). Children and their Primary Schools. [Online] Available from: http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/plowden/plowden1967-1.html#15. [Accessed 21 November 2013].