Do the Hokey-Pokey and Get Better Math Scores?
I saw this little blurb of an article in the Science section of the NY Times called "Children: Self-Control Presages Math Gains in Young". I thought it was interesting. From the article:
"Claire Cameron Ponitz, a research associate at the University of Virginia, led a group that tested 343 children with the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task, in which children perform the opposite of an oral command (for example, the correct response for “touch your toes” would be to touch your head). Higher scores, the researchers write in the May issue of Developmental Psychology, indicate a greater ability to control and direct one’s own behavior, an ability essential for success in the structured environment of a kindergarten class.Those with higher scores on the fall test generally reached higher scores in all areas in the spring, but showed significant gains compared with other children only in mathematics, not in literacy or vocabulary."
I thought the point of the research would be that kids who are able to hear one thing and do another (touch your toes, hearing; touch your head, doing) are not self-regulating but have some kind of ability to see differences in action in their head.
That it comes down to self-regulation, though, is important. It's not about being "good at math" but it may be the ability to concentrate and direct one's behavior. The fact that the gains were only in math seem to show that. You can only read an abstract so I don't know if these kids had preschool or what other factors may have created that ability.
"Claire Cameron Ponitz, a research associate at the University of Virginia, led a group that tested 343 children with the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task, in which children perform the opposite of an oral command (for example, the correct response for “touch your toes” would be to touch your head). Higher scores, the researchers write in the May issue of Developmental Psychology, indicate a greater ability to control and direct one’s own behavior, an ability essential for success in the structured environment of a kindergarten class.Those with higher scores on the fall test generally reached higher scores in all areas in the spring, but showed significant gains compared with other children only in mathematics, not in literacy or vocabulary."
I thought the point of the research would be that kids who are able to hear one thing and do another (touch your toes, hearing; touch your head, doing) are not self-regulating but have some kind of ability to see differences in action in their head.
That it comes down to self-regulation, though, is important. It's not about being "good at math" but it may be the ability to concentrate and direct one's behavior. The fact that the gains were only in math seem to show that. You can only read an abstract so I don't know if these kids had preschool or what other factors may have created that ability.
Comments
The task they're using here is of the sort normally thought to assess executive function. It's interesting that they *only* found a correlation with math performance (not reading or language). The correlation was also assessed in kindergarten. I haven't read the paper carefully, but my initially reading suggests this is a correlational study that is showing executive function correlations with math performance. That's not the same as saying that doing the task described here will improve math performance. It's possible that it's more like a aptitude test (predicting performance).
The PE teacher at AS#1 has had the kids practice these movements and has explained to them the benefits of the movements. My kids came home last year showing me what they'd learned. Additionally, their teacher teamed up with the PE teacher to have brain breaks during class where the kids would get up and practice doing cross motion exercises in class. I don't know how many other teachers participated in the brain breaks or if they are still doing it this year.
The correlation of self-regulation and math achievement as measured by the ITBS is interesting because the ITBS only measures basic math computation skills. I wonder if self-regulation is connected to checking for accuracy.
Since we are going back to the neighborhood school model, then instrumental music should be a standard offering at ALL schools, or not be offered at all.
Should kids assigned to school A get instrumental music, while kids assigned to school B do not get instrumental music? This scenario is fine with a choice system, as families pick the schools that best suit their needs. If instrumental music is important to a family, they simply picked a school that offered it. However, when choice goes away, and we move to an assignment based neighborhood school model, then all schools are should have the same standard offerings.