Disruptions in the classroom have a negative effect on student learning and wear out teachers. To these consequences, which have already been demonstrated in several studies, we now add the findings of a new research: learning patience or perseverance at an early age has an impact on the classroom climate and learning in secondary school. There is less school dropout and more continuity of studies towards university.
The study The causal impact of socio-emotional skills training on educational success was published in the high-impact journal Review of Economic Studies a few days ago. It is carried out by Giuseppe Sorrenti (University of Amsterdam), Ulf Zölitz (University of Zurich), Denis Ribeaud (University of Zurich) and Manuel Eisner (University of Cambridge).
The authors analyzed the long-term effects of implementing a program that improves the social-emotional skills of 8-year-old students. It was done in 28 of 56 randomly selected public primary schools in Zurich.
The program focused on working on patience and self-control, calm decision-making, self-esteem, emotional intelligence, and the identification of fair and unfair behavior. In short, think before speaking or acting, knowing how to wait patiently and persist in pursuing a goal. They also worked on recognizing self-worth.
These objectives, which when well established, reduce interruptions in class and improve relationships between students, were addressed intensively with practical activities in the classroom and with homework during two years. The teachers were also trained.
The researchers followed the 1,675 students since 2004, when they began primary school. The sample included centers that applied the program (called PATHS) and others that did not. What happened at the key ages was observed: 13, 15, 17, 20 and 24 years. During this time, they measured the selection of educational itineraries (who completed secondary school focused on vocational training and who completed high school), school dropouts, and university enrollment.
The differences between those who had acquired socio-emotional skills as children and those who had not were noticeable a decade later. The former get better grades in their educational centers than the control group. Now, that contrasts with the fact that no differences are seen in the exams carried out by the Government. For the authors of the study, this suggests that “the impact of early intervention has more effect on social-emotional skills than on cognitive skills.”
The second evidence they found is that adolescents present fewer symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity, less challenging behavior and less aggression. On the other hand, there are no differences in anxiety levels.
Thirdly, boys interrupt classes less frequently and pay more attention to the teacher. However, there are no differences in the delivery of homework or positive changes in parenting practices.
The researchers detect, in general, less impulsivity, better behavior in class, better grades at school, more achievement of graduation in ESO (4% more) and more interest in continuing studying afterwards (6%). Six out of every 28 reach university, one more student than the average.
Education analyst Ismael Sanz, professor of economics at the Rey Juan Carlos University, explains that the importance of this study lies in verifying with evidence something that teachers already intuit. He emphasizes that reducing disruptive behaviors can be very important, not only for the student himself, but also for his classmates and teachers.
In OECD countries, secondary school teachers spend on average 8 minutes of each class hour maintaining order in the classroom. And 20% of teachers feel real difficulties, according to the Talis 2018 report (Teaching and Learning International Survey), an international survey that evaluates teaching and learning conditions worldwide.
Sanz recalls the impact that interruptions in the classroom have on the acquisition of language and mathematics knowledge. “The reduction in class learning when there is a student who interrupts is one week per course (35 weeks)”, which is equivalent to a month and a half in primary school and another month in secondary school.
If there are two students in a class of 25, which is more common in highly complex centers, the loss is greater, continues Sanz, and the probability of obtaining a university degree decreases by two percentage points.
