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The fourth Fulbright-Cognition Scholar in Education Research for 2010, Dr Veronica O’Toole from the University of Canterbury has recently completed her study in the United States. A full report of her research will be published next year and here, she writes about the life-changing experience of this academic adventure.

I visited two American universities - Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut - to work with experts there and develop a research-informed emotional literacy programme to improve social and emotional wellbeing across whole New Zealand school communities, from school leaders and teachers down to students.

The Competent Children Competent Learners study has tracked around 500 children in the Wellington region from just before they started school, to age 20.

The latest findings are based on how these young people got on with NCEA and include:

• More than half those with low performance at age 8 went on to gain NCEA Level 2 or Level 3. That means that children’s support from teachers and parents, the learning opportunities they had in and out of school and their interactions with teachers, parents and peers, enabled them to make real progress.
  
• Those who gained NCEA Level 2 did not necessarily have higher levels of mathematics, reading, writing or logical problem solving at age 14 than those whose highest qualification was NCEA Level 1, or who did not gain any qualification. But they did have higher levels of perseverance, communication, social skills, curiosity and self-management.
• The period from age 10 to age 14 appears to be a time when it is particularly important for teachers and parents to watch for signs that children are turning away from school and learning. This applies as much to high performers at school as low performers. It was clear how deeply memories of school at this time can colour later attitudes to learning.