July 13, 2008
Gordon Wells in his book “The meaning makers” (1986):
1. At school, utterances by a child to an adult were 63% less than at home
2. Different types of meaning expressed by children dropped 50% (home to school)3. Conversations initiated by children dropped 64% (home to school)
3. The number of questions raised by children dropped by 70% (home to school)
I often hear teachers complaining about the problems they have with children coming to school from dysfunctional families. I have never heard a teacher talk about the problems families have to deal with from their children coming home from dysfunctional schools. Once again the question of ownership of the learning is central.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Was this a nearly universal constant? I know that the amount of talking that children from lower SES homes have with adults is already significantly less than in higher SES homes.
Also, this is unfair to a certain degree, because at home it’s a much lower child to adult ratio. Of course children are going to talk less to an adult less on an aggregate basis at school. Even if it’s a single-parent household with 5 children, that’s significantly better than 25 kids to 1 teacher. Then many students will be in a household of 3 or less children with 2 parents. Frankly, it’s unsurprising how much less students talk with teachers and initiate conversations simply because the numbers don’t work in their favor.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Unfair because of the ratio yes…but most teachers still consider themselves to have had a successful “discussion” if they have a ten minute triadic dialogue with their kids (that’s my vocab word of the day) — that would be that back and forth sort of factual q and a.
I guess I am always pondering how to increase the kid talk with such a horrible ratio. Even if I went one-on-one each class with every kid I still would only be able to talk with each one for 90 seconds. Ick…
July 13th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
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July 17th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I wonder if the stats have changed in the past 22 years? And since NCLB has been instituted (love that word).
Also, I have had several parents complain to me that a dysfunctional teacher/classroom/school has led to problems at home. But these parents seek me (actually they seek the school) out in hopes TPLC will be different.