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Sparking the imagination: creative experts working collaboratively with children, teachers and parents to enhance educational opportunities
Author(s) -
LOUGHREY DOLORES,
WOODS CAROLINE
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
support for learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1467-9604
pISSN - 0268-2141
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9604.2010.01444.x
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , context (archaeology) , psychology , poverty , preparedness , pedagogy , set (abstract data type) , creativity , mathematics education , developmental psychology , sociology , social psychology , political science , paleontology , computer science , law , biology , programming language
This article suggests that child poverty and unequal educational opportunity are inextricably linked. It is argued that even from an early age children from poorer backgrounds are disadvantaged in terms of their preparedness to thrive in the formal school environment. Educational achievement is strongly influenced by attitudes and much research suggests that children from less advantaged backgrounds feel less in control at school and lack confidence in performing traditional school tasks. The ‘Sparking the Imagination’ project set out to try on a small scale to co‐ordinate efforts in raising educational opportunity for children from disadvantaged backgrounds by focusing on the context in which teaching and learning takes place. It was also deemed necessary to introduce measures to raise the motivation and aspirations of all involved and this was achieved through the engagement of children, teachers, parents and creative experts in collaborative learning within the classroom.