Young children who are taught by a teacher of the same ethnicity as themselves develop better learning and problem-solving skills by the age of seven, new research suggests.
The effect was most pronounced in Black and Latinx children, the findings—looking at more than 18,000 pupils across the US—showed.
Published in Early Education and Development, the study revealed that if the ethnicity of children is shared with that of their teachers, the children are more likely to go on to develop better working memory. This is the ability to hold and process information in your mind—a skill that is essential for learning and problem solving.
“Diversifying the educator workforce represents a key step toward promoting greater equity in schools across the United States,” says lead author Professor Michael Gottfried from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-young-children-skills-taught-teachers.html