Effects of Emotions and Learning on Disadvantaged Children - Essay Example

Effects of Emotions and Learning on Disadvantaged Children Introduction There is the universally accepted adage that “All men are created equal.” But the human condition is such that fortune and circumstances are a matter of luck or “the cast of the dice” – or, viewed another way, a matter of fate or destiny. In any case, there are those among the human community who are fortunate to have a privileged life, and others who are bound to struggle under certain disadvantages that result from economic deprivation, social segregation due to race, creed or religion, social inequality due to gender, or less than ideal family relationships. Children born into such conditions are viewed as disadvantaged, because they are prone to struggle more than their advantaged counterparts. These have repercussions on the ease of learning and the academic performance of said children. Where emotions come from Instinctively, mothers and teachers know that emotions affect learning. For instance a child who is frightened and anxious could not absorb what is being told to him, and thus finds learning a struggle. On the other hand, a child who is at ease and confident learns quickly and almost effortlessly. According to Zull (2002), the thinking brain is physiologically programmed upon emotion. The physical structure of the brain is such that the frontal lobes, which are proportionally large in humans compared to other mammals, perform the function of emotional self-regulation. Emotion is so important to learning because it provides the motivation to learn, and thus is key to finding the intrinsic rewards of learning (the joy of discovery) which is more power than the extrinsic rewards (grades). As a simple example, it is easy to see that frightened students struggle to learn, while assured and confident students find learning nearly effortless. Other studies have explored the connection of various aspects of emotionality and their effects on learning. A study was conducted by Izard, Fine, Schultz, Mostow, Ackerman and Youngstrom (2001) on the effect of emotional knowledge and learning among disadvantaged children. The recognition of an emotion in a facial expression may provide a powerful stimulus for emotional reactions, which may in turn influence subsequent cognition and action. In their study, Izard et al. established that the ability of preschool children to recognize and interpret emotion cues in facial expression have profound and lasting effects on social behaviour and academic competence. Vice versa, consistent misperception or misinterpretation of emotion cues could seriously impede socioemotional and academic competence. Emotional knowledge serves as a mediator of the effects of verbal ability on academic competence, firstly because lack of emotion knowledge affects teacher-child rapport adversely and tends to isolate the child from the teacher, thus reducing educational interchanges. When this occurs, teachers’ expectations of the child’s academic attainments are diminished, which in turn affects the child’s actual academic performance. Secondly, lack of emotion knowledge leads to poor peer relations at school, conceivably affecting the child’s morale, concentration and motivation in order for him to perform according to his academic ability. It also leads to degradation of the necessary social interactions and may induce withdrawal tendencies. (Izard 2001) Learning in young children Emotional distress amplifies children’s social and academic problems in school, and they develop learning problems such as in reading. This tends to cause a child to feel frustrated, causing anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. The child withdraws from social contact, and at the same time withdraws likewise from academic challenge. It is not difficult to imagine that children who find themselves in this predicament fail to attain academic competence, not to mention lose their self-esteem. Studies have shown that there is a direct causal relationship between economic resources, depression, and academic problems. (Ackerman et al., 2007) Certain factors were found to affect child’s academic performance 1. Children internalize academic failures in school, causing depression, and academic difficulties “feel worse” to children because they infer that they are less capable than their classmates. This in turn causes them to be anxious about future academic performance, furthering the cycle. 2. Children’s emotional experience of persistent academic difficulty (failure experiences) stimulate negative emotions such as sadness, anger, fear, shame, guilt, shyness, and self-directed hostility. This feeds a feeling of vulnerability to helplessness in the pre-adolescent years. (Ackerman, et al., 2007) 3. Research has shown that when teachers perceive of children as being of a lower social class, this tends to lower his or her expectations of the children. This causes children’s actual academic performance to also deteriorate (Rosenthal & Johnson, 1968, as cited by Izard et al., 2001). Also, in a study by Ludwig and Sawhill (2007), it was found that early and intensive intervention within the first five years of a child’s life is critical for his later success. Because of the foregoing, it is never too early for teachers to provide quality instruction that addresses situations of deprivation. Aside from the many techniques that teachers may use to help students improve in their academic performance, they must also show to the student that they consider all students equal – none with either a lower or a higher status – and should correspondingly accord them the same treatment. Teachers should be on guard that their preconceptions or personal biases should not affect the manner in which they teach. Also, teachers should encourage students to work harder, and to convey to them that much is expected of each one of them. This should motivate them to perform better, to realize the best of their abilities. Children without the advantages of enrichment at home tend to fail in school Studies of socially disadvantaged children show that their school performance is affected by family and child risks associated with economic disadvantage, such as poverty and family disruption. This includes aspects of parent maladjustments, such as when one of the parents has a run-in with the police, or has a psychiatric condition. These experiences destabilize family functioning, provoke child emotional distress, and threaten a child’s performance in school. These develop prior child characteristics such as attentional problems, low verbal ability and hyperactivity. (Ackerman, et al., 2007) Where children live in circumstances where they are made to deal with strong and compelling disadvantages due to poverty, social prejudice, or family instability, they are labelled as “limited”, “held back” or “retained” because they are forced to live in conditions that tend to limit use of their innate capabilities, thus holding them back from the realization of their full potential. External negative factors result in internalizing behaviour among these children, creating a disadvantage for them which children not exposed to such an environment do not labor under. Factors amounting to either economic or social deprivation create real barriers or hindrances to learning. In an American study on ability testing, Jencks (1972) claimed that at 6 years of age, the gap between an average white child and an average black child is one year; at age 12, the black child’s performance is equivalent to that of a 10-year-old white child, and at age 18, the black child performs at the level of a 15-year-old white child. It is thus apparent that the deprivation of the economic and social benefits open to advantaged children hamper the performance of disadvantaged children who otherwise possess the same capability as the advantaged children. Programs and workshops that encourage learning for disadvantaged children Equalization of educational opportunity for the disadvantaged necessitates not only looking at innate individual abilities, but to seeks to “correct and compensate” those factors that hamper or hold the individual back from realizing the “full exercise of his abilities in acquiring an education.” (Allen, p. 241) It is thus the responsibility of the school system to: 1. establish preparatory pre-school programs to specifically address the needs of the disadvantaged pre-schoolers; 2. conduct a vast array of remedial programs and creative supplemental activities that are designed to ameliorate the adverse effects of deprivation; 3. mandate large-scale special programs to prepare and re-train teachers who are going to work with the educationally and culturally disadvantaged; 4. arrange to ensure that the “greatest teaching competence” is assigned to schools where there are the greater proportion of disadvantaged children; 5. provide teachers and administrators in such schools the full benefit that may be derived from continuing indepth research, and to develop new curricula, and new techniques and practices, that can be effectively adapted to classes with disadvantaged students. (Allen, 1965) In a study conducted by Babad and Bashi on a group of 952 advantaged and disadvantaged Israeli children, scores were compared before and after children were given training through coaching. A nonverbal reasoning test appropriate for a wide age range was administered to children in both groups in grades 2, 4 and 6. Raw scores were used in an attempt to use absolute rather than relative performance levels, since IQ test results are usually reported in relative terms. The study confirmed that all groups benefited through coaching, but improvement noted in the disadvantaged group was greater than that of the advantaged group. The coaching session contributed an equivalent of about two years to the IQ of the disadvantaged children in terms of absolute performance. (Babad & Bashi, 1977) Conclusion Disadvantaged children function under special sets of circumstance which, unfortunately, adversely impact upon their learning performance. Several individuals who have undergone similar situations have availed of these circumstances to develop morally strong and persevering personalities, and have reached achievements that surpass their advantaged counterparts because of their deprivations. However, for each such individual who has triumphed, many have succumbed, and not of their own fault but of situations to which they were born. At the very least, society is obliged to ensure that all children are given the same opportunity to learn. Where disadvantages set them apart, it is the moral responsibility of the school system to compensate for these insufficiencies so that the child may, like his better-situated classmates, realize his full potential through education. It is not only for the sake of the child, but of society as well, that he does so; that he may retain that equality of status with the rest of humankind which he was created, through his labours, throughout his entire life. REFERENCES Ackerman, Brian P., Izard, Carroll E., Kobak, Roger, Brown, Eleanor D., and Smith, Clare, “Relation Between Reading Problems and Internalizing Behavior in School for Preadolescent Children From Economically Disadvantaged Families,” Child Development, March/April 2007, vol. 78 no. 2 pp. 581-596. Allen, James E. Jr., “Equalizing Opportunities for the Disadvantaged”, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, pp. 241-242, 1965. Babad, Elisha Y. & Bashi, Joseph, “Age and Coaching Effects on the Reasoning Performance of Disadvantaged and Advantaged Israeli Children”, The Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 103, pp. 169-176, 1977. Izard, Carroll, Fine, Sarah, Schultz, David, Mostow, Allison, Ackerman, Brian, & Youngstrom, Eric, “Emotion Knowledge as a Predictor of Social Behavior and Academic Competence in Children at Risk,” Psychological Science, vol. 12, no. 1, January 2001. Jencks, C. Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America, New York: Basic Books, 1972, as cited in Babad, Elisha Y. & Bashi, Joseph, 1977. Ludwig, Jens & Sawhill, Isabel. “Success by Ten: Intervening Early, Often, and Effectively in the Education of Young Children”, The Hamilton Project. The Brookings Instititution, February 2007. Zull, James E. The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning, Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, 2002. Read More