The impact of schooling

아동 발달과 학교 교육

The impact of schooling on child development

The entry into formal schooling represents an important developmental milestone for children and their families, marking a significant period of cognitive, social, and emotional development. Until recently, researchers had not focused on isolating the unique effects of schooling on children's development and academic outcomes. However, the introduction of quasiexperimental methods has provided researchers with tools to examine how and when schooling impacts children's development by selecting study participants based on specific conditions or circumstances, rather than randomly assigning them to experimental and control groups.

This article derives three main findings from the research: (a) schooling brings about significant changes in children's growth across a range of psychological processes important for learning; (b) the effects of schooling are not consistent across all domains; and (c) schooling influences cognitive processes that are not explicitly taught.

The article also suggests that a deeper examination of classroom instruction and brain development is necessary to understand how schooling impacts academic success and positive life outcomes, which can help provide a broader model for developmental science.

Reference

Morrison, F. J., Kim, M. H., Connor, C. M., & Grammer, J. K. (2019). The causal impact of schooling on children’s development: Lessons for developmental science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(5), 441–449. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419855661