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on Education |
| By: | Lordan, Grace (London School of Economics); McGuire, Alistair (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | From 2020 Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education will be compulsory in UK schools for adolescents, however less is known about how it can be taught in a an effective manner. We examine, through a randomised trial, the impact of an evidenced based health related quality of life (HRQoL) curriculum called Healthy Minds that ran in 34 high schools in England over a four-year period. We find robust evidence that Healthy Minds positively augments many physical health domains of treated adolescents. We also find some evidence that Healthy Minds positively affects behaviour, but has no impact on emotional wellbeing. We find notable gender effects, strongly favouring boys. We also present evidence that Healthy Minds changes career aspirations, with those exposed to treatment being less likely to choose competitive work and more likely to choose work that involves "people-skills". Overall our work illustrates the potential for later childhood interventions to promote HRQoL and develop the career aspirations of adolescents. |
| Keywords: | soft skills, health related quality of life, character, high school curriculum, personal, social, health and economic education |
| JEL: | I18 I20 |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12439&r=all |
| By: | Stijn Baert; Dieter Verhaest (-) |
| Abstract: | We investigated the impact on first hiring outcomes of two main curriculum vitae (CV) characteristics by which graduates with a tertiary education degree distinguish themselves from their peers: degree class and extra-curricular activities. These characteristics were randomly assigned to 2,800 fictitious job applications that were sent to real vacancies in Belgium. Academic performance and extra-curricular engagement both enhanced job interview rates by about 7%. The effect of a higher degree class was driven by female (versus male) candidates and candidates with a master’s (versus a bachelor’s) degree. We did not find evidence for these CV characteristics to be substitutes or to reinforce each other’s effect. |
| Keywords: | degree class, extra-curricular activities, hiring, field experiment |
| JEL: | J23 J24 I23 C93 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:19/975&r=all |
| By: | Jason Fletcher (Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin); Stephen Ross (University of Connecticut); Yuxiu Zhang (Genentech) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of youth friendship links on student's own academic performance (grade point average) using the Add Health. We estimate a reduced form, high dimensional fixed effects model of within cohort or grade friendship links, and use this model to predict each student's number of friends whose mothers have a four year college degree. The effects of friendship links are identified using across-cohort, within school variation in demographic composition of the student's cohort or grade. We find that increases in number of friendship links with students whose mothers are college educated raises grade point average among girls, but not among boys. Additional analyses suggest a positive view of the school environment and a perception of one's self as functioning well in that environment as possible mechanisms. The effects are relatively broad based across students over maternal education, racial and ethnic composition and across schools that vary in demographic composition over the same variables. |
| Keywords: | Social Interactions; Friendships; Heterogeneous Peer Effects; Grades; Cohort Study; Non-Cognitive Effects |
| JEL: | I21 J13 R23 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2019-043&r=all |
| By: | Golsteyn, Bart H.H. (Maastricht University); Jansen, Maria W. J. (Maastricht University); Van Kann, Dave H. H. (Fontys University of Applied Sciences); Verhagen, Annelore (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether encouraging children to become more physically active in their everyday life affects their primary school performance. We use data from a field quasi-experiment called the Active Living Program, which aimed to increase active modes of transportation to school and active play among 8- to 12-year-olds living in low socioeconomic status (SES) areas in the Netherlands. Difference-in-differences estimations reveal that while the interventions increase time spent on physical activity during school hours, they negatively affect school performance, especially among the worst-performing students. Further analyses reveal that increased restlessness during instruction time is a potential mechanism for this negative effect. Our results suggest that the commonly found positive effects of exercising or participating in sports on educational outcomes may not be generalizable to physical activity in everyday life. Policymakers and educators who seek to increase physical activity in everyday life need to weigh the health and well-being benefits against the probability of increasing inequality in school performance. |
| Keywords: | health behavior, field quasi-experiment, education, physical activity |
| JEL: | I12 C93 I20 |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12454&r=all |