Children’s School Lives: ‘Repetitive and overloaded subjects’ reducing the enjoyment of learning
Posted 12 December 2023
The increase stress and anxiety children feel as they progress through national school is mirrored in a decreased love of learning, according to new UCD research.
(opens in a new window)The latest report from the 'Children’s School Lives' (CSL) study, a landmark UCD-led project following 4,000 children across 189 schools in Ireland, found that as children progressed through primary school their enjoyment declined due to what they “saw as repetitive and overloaded subjects”.
(opens in a new window)The research showed children have a strong preference for subjects taught in more creative or child-friendly ways, and that the more a child enjoys a subject, the more they engage with it.
But as workload increased in preparation for secondary school, interest in subjects dropped as children got bored or confused by their curriculum.
This is reflected in there being a strong preference in young children for homework between senior infants and first class but a growing resistant to homework as they got older - particularly among boys.
The report said parents of children in more senior classes noticed an increasing incidence of resistance to homework, with some feeling “more strongly that homework is an unnecessary source of stress for children in school and they should not get too much of it”.
In both older and younger primary school children, homework was difficult to manage in busy families where both parents were working or involved in multiple school pick-ups and extra-curricular activities.
How does assessment influence and extend how primary school children come to know themselves as a learner? Follow the research (opens in a new window)@CSLstudyUCD to hear what children told us! (opens in a new window)#edchatie (opens in a new window)pic.twitter.com/zQrhfzzR6v
— NCCA (@NCCAie) (opens in a new window)December 12, 2023
Similarly, some children reported an impact on their enjoyment of learning as they progressed in primary school due to higher levels of stress and anxiety over assessment.
In terms of testing, parents reported children in the early years of primary school do not feel worried about assessment but that this changed as they moved into more senior classes, with some saying it sometimes led to children faking illness.
A third of children interviewed between second class in 2019 and sixth class in 2023 said they typically felt anxious about their performance before and after standardised tests. Another third said they typically felt anxious sometimes.
Most children however expressed a strong preference for informal assessments from their teachers.
Led by (opens in a new window)Professor Dympna Devine and Associate Professor Jennifer Symonds, and (opens in a new window)assistant professors Seaneen Sloan and (opens in a new window)Gabriela Martinez Sainz, from the UCD School of Education, and carried out on behalf of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, (opens in a new window)the CSL study aims to follow thousands of children through their primary education to learn in detail about their experiences.
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
