There is too little practice in schools, says Esther Ziegler. The learning and teaching researcher explains where the current education system is failing and what parents can do to ensure that their children still learn enough. Interview: René Donzé
“If parents see a mistake, they should point it out to the child, no matter what the teacher says”: Esther Ziegler does not believe that correcting is demotivating.
Simon Tanner / NZZ
Ms Ziegler, the PISA results are falling and criticism of Swiss schools is increasing. Do parents have to worry about sending their children to school today?
Some of the concerns are justified. Are the children still learning the basics that are appropriate for their age? Do they practice them often enough so that they really get the hang of them? It is beneficial for parents to accompany children and help them out a little if they discover gaps.
Are things really that bad for schools?
It is a fact that the level of performance in schools has deteriorated over the last thirty years. At the time, the average child could read and write fluently by the end of primary school, and the vast majority had mastered basic mathematical operations. Today, this is very often no longer the case.
How do you determine this?
I experience this in my daily work with the children who come to my preparatory course for high school. Half of them can’t even do their multiplication tables very well. And these are high-performing students, with high intelligence and great skills. But if they don’t have the basic operations down, they have a burden on their shoulders and can’t get anywhere. I also often meet fourth-graders who write like second-graders. They make the most basic mistakes.
Why do you think this is the case?
There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the basics of German and mathematics are less of a focus in school than they used to be. There is too little practice, and much of it remains superficial. In addition, the school is too focused on the weak by integrating everyone. The really strong need less repetition, so it is less of a problem – but the broad middle ground is forgotten.
Isn’t that a bit unfair to all the teachers who try every day to teach the children something?
The teachers cannot be blamed. The problem is the spirit that prevails at teacher training colleges: teaching should no longer be done in a frontal manner, there should be less demonstration and explanation. Correcting is also somewhat frowned upon. Instead, children should work in a self-organized manner, at their own pace. This leads to them solving their tasks with their neighbors. A lot of it is done by copying. Children do not necessarily want to learn, they just want to complete their tasks quickly. But brain research shows that learning must be systematic and repetitive. Children need guidance, practice, correction. In my view, there is a great need for reform in schools, particularly in teacher training.
There is more research being done in the educational landscape today than ever before. Surely we should know better and do better?
Research is always selective; you look at individual aspects and can lose sight of the bigger picture. In addition, researchers often look for things that they are already convinced of. Ideology comes into play here, and that can distort the results.
Today, many teachers say that you shouldn’t correct children when they’re writing because they’ll lose the joy of it. What advice do you have for parents when they see their children making spelling mistakes?
It’s simple: if you see a mistake, you should point it out to the child, no matter what the teacher says. Maybe you can even encourage the child to write the word correctly a few more times so that it is remembered.
However, modern teaching methods say that children should, above all, enjoy writing. Correcting can be demotivating.
Of course, parents should not put pressure on children, but rather win them over. They can understand that it is a good idea to learn words correctly from the start and that this will save them a lot of effort later on. It is also important that parents accompany their children when they read, read to them and have them read to them. And that they model reading for them as adults.
Dictations are now frowned upon in schools. Rightly so?
Long dictations are actually not very effective. However, a good exercise is to practice individual sentences with the child and dictate them several times. This teaches the children to look closely, to think and not to just write away.
And what about mathematics?
Here, too, a lot of practice and repetition is needed. It helps if parents add or subtract with their children in a playful way. They can also go through the multiplication tables with them again and again. This will help the children later on with fractions or word problems.
You have been involved in brain research. Why do children need so much repetition?
Not only children, but every average person learns things by repeating them. Of course, sometimes you learn certain things more quickly, especially if they are highly emotional or very painful – for example, that a stove is hot. But very few of the basic school skills are on a very emotional level. This makes them all the more important to automate and ingrain them.
That sounds exhausting.
And it is. After all, the brain uses the most energy in the whole body. And it needs training. It’s the same in sports and music.
Isn’t there not enough time for this in schools because foreign languages are already taught in primary schools?
That’s right. That’s why I think that foreign languages have no place in primary schools. The children learn practically nothing and waste a lot of time that could be better spent reading and writing their own language.
Is the memory of children in high school suddenly larger?
Not that, but the older students should already be able to rely on automated basic skills. At this level, their brains should no longer be burdened with basic linguistic or mathematical functions. Then they will also have more space for foreign languages.
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