A healthy curiosity about why her friends were dropping maths and physical science when making their subject choices led Bianka Reyneke to fascinating discovery.
A healthy curiosity about why her friends were dropping maths and physical science when making their subject choices led Bianka Reyneke to fascinating discovery.
The Welkom Gimnasium schoolgirl could not understand why her classmates were abandoning subjects that could open so many doors later in life. After extensive research into school readiness tests at preschools in the Goldfields area of the Free State, Reyneke found the answer.
“I found the link” was the title of the lecture she presented at Scifest Africa in Grahamstown on Wednesday.
The link was the correlation between something she noticed in the school readiness tests, conducted before children even went to school, and their ability to cope with maths and science in high school.
Reyneke had access to school readiness records from 2005 and she was able to interview high school pupils soon after they had chosen which subjects they would do for matric.
She noticed that children who did poorly in visual perception tests appeared to struggle with maths and science.
She explained that even before going to school, children were tested for a number of skills which were divided into two categories: fine motor abilities and visual perception skills.
Educators tends to focus on honing fine motor skills encouraging preschoolers to manipulate pencils, crayons and jigsaw puzzles but they are often reluctant to take the children outdoors.
Her research provided solid evidence of the linkage between muscle tone and visual perception. When children play outside they practise gross motor skills and develop their visual perception.
They learn to understand three-dimensional qualities of playground equipment at the same time as their muscle tone improves.
Reyneke said that a child is better able to appreciate the concept of ‘round’ if they play with a ball rather than viewing a drawing or a graphic depiction of a ball.
They also understand what it is to be three dimensional if they can look under a bench or look down on a toy from a tree.
She then examined the data gathered over a ten year period and noticed that children who were described as having low visual perception in preschool were the same pupils who struggled with maths and science and high-school.
This link was the ‘eureka’ moment for Reyneke – she was able to show that children who did not play outside were likely to have difficulty with certain academic subjects in high school.
She took the matter further because she felt that identifying the problem was not enough. She needed to find a solution for the lack of visual perception skills in preschoolers.
Reyneke’s solution was simple enough. She developed a ten-minute activity programme for teachers to use at preschool level.
This programme, which is freely available, encourages teachers to take their children through a series of exercises designed to enhance their muscle tone.
She says that she will roll out the programme this year and expects to have better maths and science results in ten years time.
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