Trust in the potential of our children
Are you familiar with this encouraging feeling when someone believes in you and your project? Every day, many highly motivated teachers and school leaders are committed to guiding young people towards a happy, promising future. The key to this is to encourage and strengthen their confidence in their own individual abilities. Unfortunately, this is not always successful.
Oliver Wymann, an internationally active institute for strategy consulting, puts it in a nutshell in the recently published report «Educational equity - an untapped opportunity for the Swiss economy»: 17 per cent of young people fall through the cracks.
Political goals are missed
This is not only a sad catastrophe for the individuals concerned, but also for Switzerland at a time when there is a shortage of skilled labour and unfilled apprenticeship positions. According to the institute's calculations, the economic damage amounts to up to CHF 29 billion per year. For companies, the availability of talent is the most important asset of the Swiss business centre. Corporate tax, legal certainty and political stability are at the bottom of the list.
Swiss education policy did not stand idly by and demanded that 95 out of 100 young adults complete a vocational apprenticeship or secondary school. The Education Report 2023 shows: The target is missed. The rate is 91.4 per cent. The reasons lie both with the young adults and with our education system itself.
If children and young people are to develop their talents, there is no need for an outward division according to school type.
What needs to be done? Politicians and professional organisations must unite to remove one of the most unnecessary hurdles and postpone selection at the end of year 6 to the end of primary school. Why? Selection takes place during puberty; children are exposed to massive processes of change. This mental and physical stress often means that they are not ready for the pressurised selection process. This is not based on scientific findings, but on tradition and reinforces the inequality of opportunity. (Read the column «Put an end to selection» by Thomas Minder).
If children and young people are to develop their talents, there needs to be more permeability and no outward separation by school type. Instead, there must be a diverse range of learning opportunities with challenging tasks and projects that are relevant to children and young people. This gives them the scope they urgently need to fulfil their potential.
In addition to the structural changes, we adults should also be aware of the positive influence. Do you know the Pygmalion effect? In Greek mythology, Pygmalion is a sculptor who, in his search for the perfect woman, creates a female statue as a projection of his expectations - and falls in love with her. The happy ending: the goddess Venus takes pity on him and brings the statue to life for Pygmalion.
Positive expectations promote positive child development
In reality, the Pygmalion effect is somewhat less romantic, but similarly effective. In the 1960s, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson researched the connection between existing expectations and the resulting outcome. The two US psychologists wanted to prove with the help of an experiment that teachers can unconsciously influence the performance of pupils with their expectations and thus also increase it.
Teachers were led to believe that a scientific test could be used to identify those pupils in a school class who were about to make a leap in performance. Once the performance potential had been recorded, the proportion could be around 20 per cent of pupils, according to the promise.
In reality, however, the pupils in question were not actively identified using a test procedure, but were selected by the researchers at random by drawing lots. The test itself did not measure the potential for improved performance, but rather the intelligence quotient. Eight months after this first IQ test, the test was repeated with all pupils. The result: the previously randomly selected pupils had a significant increase in their intelligence quotient compared to the other pupils.
Since no one except the teachers involved had the information about the supposedly scientifically determined potential for a possible increase in performance in the selected pupils, there was only one possible explanation: The teachers themselves had ensured the increase in performance with their expectations and their behaviour towards the pupils with the alleged talent - just as Pygmalion created his desired female figure.
If students are empowered to shape their own learning path, they will recognise this as a personal achievement.
What happened to these teachers was also recently discovered by researchers among school principals. Austrian schools were analysed during the coronavirus pandemic. The results show that pupils in socially disadvantaged locations in particular run the risk of being doubly disadvantaged in crisis situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the context of distance learning, this has led to school leaders in disadvantaged locations tending to reduce the demands placed on pupils. The findings also point to a lower performance expectation of pupils due to their background, which can be reinforced by the headteachers and teachers. A negative Pygmalion effect, so to speak.
Our attitude makes the difference
Children and young people with their interests and strengths must be at the centre of the education system. Learning, goals and the school itself must be geared towards this. The realisation of potential arises in a culture of trust and facilitation. Enjoyment of learning and learning success are closely linked.
If pupils are empowered to shape their own learning path and reflect on their own learning, they will recognise this as a personal achievement. They will use and develop their talents in joint projects that are directly related to the great challenges of our time.
Just like with us adults, when others believe in us and our project.
