Understanding how we can close the achievement gap: examining the interaction between early socioeconomic factors and cognitive skills on academic att
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
Understanding how we can close the achievement gap: examining the interaction
between early socioeconomic factors and cognitive skills on academic attainment
between early socioeconomic factors and cognitive skills on academic attainment
Organisations
| Description | By school entry, sizeable differences exist in children's maths skills which coincide with socioeconomic status and widen throughout school. As part of two studies, I explored whether frequency of home maths activities , parent's self-efficacy of- and beliefs about- maths, executive functions and vocabulary may play a role in explaining the socioeconomic attainment gap. In children aged three- to five- years, we found no role for home maths activities or parent's self-efficacy of- and beliefs about- maths. We found that executive functions are important for early maths ability and that vocabulary may be a mechanism through which early socioeconomic attainment gaps arise. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes of this research play an important role in contributing to our knowledge of early mechanisms by which socioeconomic differences in maths skills may develop. Understanding which factors may or may not be mechanisms by which socioeconomic status influences early maths ability is crucial for developing effective evidence based interventions to decrease the socioeconomic attainment gap in early maths. |
| Sectors | Education |
| Description | Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) |
| Amount | £1,200 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2019 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | Public Engagement: Discovery Night |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Discovery night is an annual public engagement event ran by the University of Sheffield. Discovery night is for primary and younger secondary school children to be introduced to science, engineering medicine and dentistry through fun science activities, talks and demonstrations. I helped to run a stool introducing children to cognitive psychology concepts including memory and creativity. This introduced children to university research while sparking interesting conversations with parents about ways to support child development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/discoverynight |