Is Nature More Predominant in Learning Than Nurture?

Academic Success for Children What are some best practices that can improve the academic performance of children? This journal entry reviews scholarly literature that presents ideas for best practices regarding how children can achieve academic success. Also, the reasons for the statistical diversity within the diverse student population -- what causes the gap between achievers and those who struggle? Is it Nature or Nurture? There is no shortage of opinions when it comes to this issue, but an article in the New Scientist suggests it is more nature than nurture.

Journalist Andy Coghlan reports on a study of twins conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in the UK that claims academic success is based more on a child's genetic makeup than the environment the child is growing up in. The researchers tested 5,474 sets of twins -- 2,008 of those sets were identical -- and determined that in the subjects of English, Math and Science, in 58% of the cases, genetics at a greater impact than environment (Coghlan, 2013).

Research conducted by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) reflects that 30 to 50% of a child's behavior is based on DNA and the rest on the environment a child is raised in (Jensen, 2009). To wit, children raised in poverty have far more stressful conditions and their brains, according to Jensen, and so they adapt to less than optimal condition -- hence, they do not perform as effectively as children from affluent homes. The bottom line is that there is no absolute, proven answer for the nature vs. nurture argument.

Best Practices for Improving Academic Performance in Children A scholarly article reports that for kindergarten children, academic performance can be enhanced through the use of memory strategies; when a child is given tasks that increase his memory capacity that becomes a resource for future learning (Ray, et al., 2010). Moreover, when a child is challenged to set and meet goals, is trained to give strong attention to subjects -- which increases his motivation to learn -- these cognitive skills help the kindergartener to solve math problems later in his schooling (Ray, 6).

Scholars emphasize that helping a child develop math skills at a very young age results in his being able to engage successfully in difficult math problems as he goes through school. So, memory enhancement and behaviors that are based on goals are best practices vis-a-vis academic success. Meanwhile, a study of 657 elementary students that were at-risk academically determined that those students who lived in homes where there was consistent conflict underachieved in school (Split, et al., 2012).

In other words, the child who is subjected to adversity in his social environment can.