School Influences on Children's Behavior and Development: The 1979 Kenneth Blackfan Lecture, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston

¹ University of London Institute of Psychiatry, London

Let me conclude with a brief overview of the research. First, what have we learned? One of the common responses of practitioners to any piece of research in the social sciences is that it seems to be a tremendous amount of hard work just to demonstrate what we knew already on the basis of experience or common sense. Was the effort really worthwhile? It might be felt that the same applies to this study. After all, it is scarcely surprising that children benefit from attending schools that set good standards, where the teachers provide good models of behavior, where they are praised and given responsibility, where the general conditions are good, and where the lessons are well conducted.

Indeed this is obvious, but of course it might have been equally obvious if we had found that the most important factors were attending a small school in modern purpose-built premises on one site, with a particularly favorable teacher-child ratio, a year-based system of pastoral care, continuity of individual teachers, and firm discipline by which unacceptable behavior was severely punished. In fact none of these items was significantly associated with good outcomes, however measured.

Research into practical issues, such as schooling, rarely comes up with findings that are totally unexpected. On the other hand, it is helpful in showing which of the abundance of good ideas available are related to successful outcome. The present study of secondary schools has just such a contribution to make. I have tried to go further in considering what mechanisms might lie behind the statistical findings. Inevitably this last step involved a certain amount of inference and speculation, but it was based on some rather firm research findings. It is appropriate to end by summarizing some of the most important of these.

First, our investigation clearly showed that secondary schools varied markedly with respect to their pupils' behavior, attendance, examination success, and delinquency. This had been observed before, but the demonstration that these differences remained even after taking into account differences in their intake was new. This suggested that, contrary to many views, secondary schools do have an important influence on their pupils' behavior and attainments.

Second, we found that these variations in outcome were systematically and strongly associated with the characteristics of schools as social institutions. The pattern of findings suggested that the associations reflected a causal relationship. There were indications from earlier studies that this might well be the case, but it had not previously been systematically demonstrated by comparing different secondary schools.

Third, the research showed which school variables were associated with good behavior and attainments and which were not.

Fourth, the pattern of findings suggested that not only were pupils influenced by the way they were dealt with as individuals, but also there was a group influence resulting from the ethos of the school as a social institution.

We may conclude that the results carry the strong implication that schools can do much to foster good behavior and attainments, and that even in a disadvantaged area, schools can be a force for good.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. B. Brooks A Personal Journey: From Pessimism and Accusation to Hope and Resilience J Child Neurol, September 1, 1997; 12(6): 387 - 395. [PDF]

				G. B. Bauer, R. Dubanoski, L. A. Yamauchi, and K. A. M. Honbo Corporal Punishment and the Schools Education and Urban Society, May 1, 1990; 22(3): 285 - 299.