Why do some children perform better in school than others?

Supervisor: Professor Sophie von Stumm

A) Rationale for the project

School serves two important functions in society. Firstly, it equips children with the knowledge and skills essential for them to successfully participate in society, for example, reading, writing and arithmetic. And secondly, school performance functions as a gatekeeper regulating children’s access to further education. That is, children who perform poorly in school are less likely to secure a place at university or other higher education institutions that place great demands on learning ability, compared to children who did well in school. Because educational qualifications are positively associated with all important life outcomes, including income, health, and longevity, children’s differences in school performance have pervasive, long-term influence on their lifespan development.

B) References that should be read

von Stumm, S. (2017). Socioeconomic status amplifies the achievement gap throughout compulsory education independent of intelligence. Intelligence, 60, 57–62.

von Stumm, S. (2018). Better open than intellectual: The benefits of investment personality traits for learning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(4), 562-573.

d'Apice, K., Latham, R., & von Stumm, S. (2019). A naturalistic home observational approach to children's language, cognition, and behaviour. Developmental Psychology, 55(7), 1414-1427.

Ayorech, Z., Plomin, R., & von Stumm, S. (2019). Using DNA to predict educational trajectories in early adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 55(5), 1088-1095.

C) Research aims / questions

Children differ in school performance. This is true for all countries and education systems globally. At the Hungry Mind Lab, we study the factors that explain why children differ in school performance and educational achievement. For example, our studies explore the role children’s family background, the long-term influence of their language skills in early life, and the effect of personality traits and social emotional competencies for learning achievement.

D) Methods

We mainly work with longitudinal cohort data that allow observing children’s development over the course of time. We also use methods from behaviour genetics and genomics to tease apart genetic and environmental influences on educational achievement. In addition, we collect data in laboratory studies where we observe learning in real time as it occurs, and where we validate new assessment technologies and methods.

We are looking for a PhD student with an interest in understanding the causes and consequences of individual differences in educational achievement. Good statistics skills are required. Check out our lab website for more details on our work and the team (www.hungrymindlab.com) and email Prof Sophie von Stumm (sophie.vonstumm@york.ac.uk), if you are interested.