Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
In the classroom, children must be able to maintain their attention in order to listen to new information, hold this information in their working memory and be able to inhibit their impulse to shout out an answer by raising their hands and waiting their turn to ask or answer a question. This relies on a child’s listening skills as well as their Executive Functioning skills (EFs), both of which have been found to be predictors of academic achievement.
The aim of this study was to examine how EFs contribute to listening comprehension skills in a sample of South-African Grade R learners from two low income private schools in Johannesburg. The hypothesis was that participants with better executive functioning skills will also have better listening comprehension skills.
The participants in the study were a group of 46 Grade R participants from low-cost English private schools in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. The outcome measure for this study was listening comprehension as measured by Gogo’s Dog, the Story Memory subtest, and the teacher ratings of child listening skills. The independent variable in this study was EFs assessed using the Adapted Missing Scan Task, a Behavioural EF Scale and a Classroom Engagement Scale. The qualitative data consisted of behavioural observations which were made during the assessments. Qualitative research methods were used to corroborate the quantitative results.
The results of the quantitative and qualitative data suggest that children with better EF are also likely to demonstrate better listening comprehension skills. These findings highlight the need for our pre-school curriculum to not only focus on teaching Grade R learners to read and write, but to also incorporate activities into the curriculum that foster the development of EFs.