Creating equal opportunities at school: empowering talented pupils from less-advantaged backgrounds through teaching academic language. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Creating equal opportunities at school: empowering talented pupils from less-advantaged backgrounds through teaching academic language.

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Migrants’ issues; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Students from a less advantaged background, such as those with a low socioeconomic status or a native language other than Dutch, do not always fulfil their potential in terms of academic success. The project ‘Creating Equal Opportunities at School: Empowering students from less-advantaged backgrounds through teaching academic language’ wanted to contribute to bridging the gap between these students’ current academic success and their cognitive talent by means of teaching Dutch academic language. The purpose of this project was to improve the academic language skills of cognitively talented students from less advantaged backgrounds. It aimed to increase the chance that these students’ academic success is in line with their potential, because language is no longer a barrier, leading to a growth in their motivation and self-confidence.
Our mission statement was: This project will uncover and develop unseen cognitive talents of students from disadvantaged social groups by improving their academic linguistic strategies. From a broader perspective, the end goal was that the influence of socioeconomic status on talent development, school results and school success will diminish. This fundamental change could ultimately lead to a more diverse and equal society. Obviously this broader ideal was not accomplished in only three years time and partly hindered by covid-19.
A team was formed of partners from the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Rijswijks Lyceum / Van Vredenburch College and Zuider Gymnasium in the Netherlands, Lucerna College and Stedelijk Lyceum Pestalozzi in Belgium, are schools with a very diverse population. LondonG&T advised and inspired us with their REAL project, aimed at learners of English as foreign language as well as native born students for whom ‘academic’ English is essentially also a foreign language. The Centre of Psychological Assessment of the Thomas More University of Applied Sciences developed a digital intelligence test that is less culturally biased and therefore suitable for our target group. The Radboud University has expertise on giftedness and Bureau Talent is an expert on giftedness in secondary education. As a team, we formulated two questions: 1. How can we identify gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds?
2. How can we improve their language skills in order to improve their opportunities for success in higher education levels?
The first step in the Erasmus+ project was to select cognitively talented students from less-advantaged backgrounds through a culturally less biased test. Per school the 20% best scoring students from a disadvantaged background were identified by a test for cognitive abilities. There were two cohorts: the first one from November 2019 until March 2020; the second one from March until July 2021. The second step was to provide selected students with a lesson programme on academic Dutch. The selected students were randomly assigned in an intervention and control group. The students of the intervention group were invited to participate in the programme, consisting of an online programme to help them learn academic Dutch and small-group learning sessions with a teacher. Students of the control group received an alternative program or were put on the waiting list and were invited to complete the program the following year. Teachers and experts worked together to compile a list of academic words, based on previously developed lists and research. The online programme allowed students to study and use the words on their own. The small-group learning sessions with the teacher were aimed at discussing and using the words. Playing with the new words and looking for the words in new contexts were also part of these lessons. The aim of the programme was that students would be able to recognize and use academic language in formal school settings as well as in their everyday lives so that a lack of language skills no longer forms a barrier when it comes to academic success. By using the partly non-verbal intelligence test, we succeeded in finding hidden cognitive talent, which we think is a great accomplishment. Although teachers, students and parents were positive about the language lessons, we have not been able to establish hard evidence for better school results (see research report in the annex). The covid-19 period had a strong, negative influence on the project and its results, we assume.

Project Website

http://bureautalent.nl/projecten/ceos-opbrengsten

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 136573,8 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stichting Voortgezet Onderwijs Haaglanden & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Radboud Centrum Sociale Wetenchappen
• London GTi
• Stedelijk Lyceum Pestalozzi I
• Bureau Talent
• Zuider Gymnasium
• THOMAS MORE MECHELEN-ANTWERPEN
• Lucernacollege