Can A Positive Outlook Improve Test Scores? A Study Says…
From the archive. This post was first published on the original Green Eggs and Moms blog and is kept here as it was.
Did you know that there is something else aside from your child’s text-book or notebooks that can help improve her test scores?
The Study
According Dr. Gwen Dewar, Ph.D. who wrote an article for BabyCenter.com, researchers worked with 20 elementary public schools, located in Hawaii, to find out what impact a positive outlook has on students. Some schools were tasked to implement the Positive Action program while the others were not.
The Positive Action program taught kids how to feel good about themselves by selecting positive actions. They were also lectured about “…taking responsibility, admitting mistakes, and not blaming others for failure.”
Other skills that were taught were “managing…moods, getting along with others, and making choices that improve…sense of well-being.”
Students received lessons from the Positive Action program through 15 to 20-minute sessions, 4 times a week per year. The study was carried out over a period of 4 years – yes, that long.
The Findings
- Schools that implemented the program performed better over those that did not in terms of test scores.
- When students, parents and teachers from schools that participated in the program were asked to rate the schools’ quality, they “…had nicer things to say,” according to the article.
The Takeaway
While Dr. Gwen Dewar warns that the study does not conclude that adopting a positive outlook in life changed the behavior of the students, what is noteworthy is that a short 15-minute lesson on positivism 4 times a week had a significant impact (on test scores).
In this research, it would seem theat it doesn’t take a lot of time to teach a child to have a positive outlook. From a perspective of a busy mom, this is good news.
What do you think about this study? Will this affect the way you choose schools for your kids?
Photo:Creative Commons from Vanessa Pike-Russell