What Is School Readiness?
School readiness implies being ready to learn and to perform
at school in accordance with your abilities.
School performance refers to the progress children make in all aspects of their school career. Successful school performance is built upon cognitive, physical, emotional, social adjustment and self-regulating skills like distractibility, adaptability and paying attention, following instruction and inhibiting inappropriate actions (Wright, Dien & Kay, 2000: 99-117). All these skills are critical elements for school performance. Learners that enter school without these skills, especially the self-regulating academic skills, have a significant greater risk for difficulties like peer rejection and poor academic achievement (McClelland, Cameron, Connor, Farris, Jewkes, & Morrison, 2007:947-959). On the contrary learners with high levels of self-regulation achieve on significant higher levels of literacy and numeracy. That is also why there is a strong association between attention-giving behaviour and school performance (Chang & Burns, 2005, 247-263 and Wright, Diener & Kay, 2000: 99-117).
A learner’s school performance can be stymied by a lack of school readiness, but school readiness requires much more than only academic skills (Wright, Diener & Kay, 2000: 99-117). Learners are seen as school ready when they can perform successfully when entering the formal school in Grade1.
Qualifying criteria for successful school entry are the following:
All the below-mentioned skills will be influenced by demographic factors such as age, gender and socio-economic status.
that include language and literacy abilities. Previous literacy experiences and phonological processing play a very important role. General knowledge also forms part of cognitive school readiness. (Pogorzelski & Wheldall 2005: 1, Savage & Carless, 2005:45-61, Wright, Diener & Kay, 2000: 99-117).
like perceptual and motor skills (Moletsane & Bouwer, 2000AND De Witt & Booysen 2007, 168) are crucial as it forms the foundation for reading, writing and numeracy.
that include situational readiness are of importance for the formal school situation. Literature focuses on aspects such as socio-cultural and socio-economic factors. The total interaction between the child and his/her environment is considered important (Raver, Aber, & Gershoff, 2007:96-115 and Blair, 2002: 111-127). This links with the theory of Bronfenbrenner that emphasises the importance of positive interaction between community, family and school (Schulting, Malone & Dodge, 2005:860-871).
that will influence learning behaviour such as persistence and the ability to pay attention contribute very much to the child’s all-over school readiness and often make the difference between achieving success or failing. Basic self-regulating skills like paying attention, following instructions and inhibiting inappropriate actions are all skills that form part of school readiness. (McClelland, Cameron, Connor, Farris, Jewkes, & Morrison, 2007:947-959 and Fantuzzo, Bulotsky-Shearer, McDermott, McWayne, Frye, & Perlman. 2007: 44-62).
The Effect Of School Readiness On School Performance
Research that was done in South Africa clearly shows an inter-correlation between school readiness and school performance. This included a school readiness test used specifically because its statistical reliability and validity applied to one-hundred and fifty seven (157) Grade 1 learners. The learner’s dates of birth and their academic records (Home language and Maths) for the Grade 1 July examinations as well as their Grade 4 November examinations were recorded.
A Correlation Between School Readiness And -Performance In Grade 1.
All of the eight sub-tests of the school readiness test correlated highly significantly with the learner’s performance for Home language in Grade 1. Six of the eight sub-tests of the school readiness test correlated highly significantly with the learner’s performance for Mathematics in Grade 1.
Thus, all except two of the school readiness sub-tests correlate highly significantly with school performance in Home Language and Mathematics. This means that if the learner did not perform well on the school readiness test, he/she most probably will perform poorly in Home Language and Mathematics in Grade 1. If, on the other hand, he/she performs well on the school readiness test, he/she will most probably perform well in Grade 1.
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A Correlation Between School Readiness And -Performance In Grade 4.
Two sub-tests of the school readiness test had a highly significant correlation with the learner’s performance in Home Language in Grade 4. Five of the sub-tests of the school readiness test had a significant correlation with the learner’s performance in Home Language in Grade 4.
Two sub-tests of the school readiness test had a highly significant correlation with the learner’s performance in Home Language in Grade 4. Five of the sub-tests of the school readiness test had a significant correlation with the learner’s performance in Home Language in Grade 4.
Four of the sub-tests of the school readiness test had a highly significant correlation with the learner’s performance in Mathematics in Grade 4. Two of the sub-tests of the school readiness test had a significant correlation with the learner’s performance in Mathematics in Grade 4.
These results confirm that school readiness as it was described in the research do have a highly significant correlation in Grade 1 and it still have a significant correlation with school performance in Grade 4.
This brings us to the conclusion that if a child had difficulties with the school readiness test, he/she will most probably have difficulties with school performance in Grade 1 and even still in Grade 4. Problems in terms of school readiness can thus still have a negative influence on the learner’s school performance in Grade 4 and later.
Based on the above, it is clear that school readiness is a very relevant concept and children with learning problems or a specific backlog or underdeveloped learning skills can be identified with a school readiness test. An intervention program can then be timeously implemented to correct these and ensure that the child achieve his full potential at school.
As was said by Blair (2002:18) : “Although we are faced with a lot of changes in the 21st century which bring along new strategies for education, school readiness with its detailed subdivisions, will always have a significant effect on the school performance (Home Language and Mathematics) of young learners”.
How can parents and educationists become aware if a learner is “learning ready” before entering school?
Dr Susan le Roux developed a School Readiness Test suitable for this purpose, having spent many years at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Early Childhood Development. Learners in Grade R should all be screened for school readiness. Teachers in Grade R should be empowered to assess the school readiness of the learners in their class. This will have a twofold effect: not only will the teacher become aware of the level of school readiness of every learner, but she then can take timeous action and implement a program to intercept the shortcomings and thus improve her own teaching by concentrating on areas that are not fully developed yet. It makes sense to identify the child with learning problems and/or developmental backlogs before they enter school so that they can receive additional attention to help them overcome their difficulties instead of burdening the Grade 1 teacher with learners who are not ready to benefit from formal schooling.