Coaching culture – are we expecting too much?
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The culture of coaching primary aged children before selective school examinations is on the rise. Are we expecting too much of our children?
Coaching colleges have been steadily increasing their business over the past decade, with some centres even offering basic reading and mathematics programs from pre-school.
“I believe the rise of coaching has a lot to do with cultural attitudes,” says Macquarie University Professor of Education, George Cooney. “In a number of developing countries, coaching is a way of life.”
Coaching as a way of life
In countries such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and India, if you can afford to, you have your child coached as education is highly valued.
“In Japan children are coached for pre-school,” explains Cooney. “The ultimate object is to get into a prestigious university. You have a better chance if you go to a certain pre-school and then gain entry into a selective primary school and a selective high school. Parents believe that is their duty. It’s the way they succeeded so it’s incumbent on them.”
Entry into a selective school
There are about 15,000 applicants for selective high schools in New South Wales each year and only about 3500 places. Competition is obviously quite fierce.
“For many parents the local public school is of less value than the local private school and the local selective school,” says Cooney. “I believe this really isn’t a valid conclusion.”
What advantage does coaching give?
“Coaching is not going to help if you’re not bright,” Cooney says. “It’s not going to turn a person who is not able to do the work into someone who can - this is largely a function of the tests that are used.”
The selective school examinations are high function tests which include English (reading comprehension and grammar), science, general ability, maths and a writing task.
“If they do lots of past papers, children can become test wise,” says Cooney. “There are a lot of questions on pattern recognition. There are only a finite number of different types of patterns you can set, so kids can be taught to learn strategies of approaching them.”
The question is, then, what percentage can you put on coaching - does it provide an extra, five per cent, 10 per cent, or even 15 per cent? Research in this area is difficult. If students are asked to take part in a study they won’t necessarily put in the required effort into a dummy exam.
More to life than just work
Cooney believes that parents should let their children grow up. “Don’t always put things in front of them to try and stimulate them, let them be bored, let them get creative, let them go out and do exercise and get fit,” he says. “I’m not saying don’t concentrate on school because I believe in that, but let them concentrate on other things - there is more to life than just work.”
For further information contact Professor George Cooney george.cooney@mq.edu.au