Football to improve math and reading performance

Chris Van Klaveren*, Kristof De Witte

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    Schools frequently increase the instructional time to improve primary school children's math and reading skills. There is, however, little evidence that math and reading skills are effectively improved by these instruction-time increases. This study evaluates ‘Playing for Success’ (PfS), an extended school day program for underachieving pupils that uses the football environment as a motivating force. Primary school pupils with low motivation and self-esteem are offered practical and sports-related teaching content for 30 additional hours. The evaluation results of a randomized experiment suggest that PfS does not significantly improve math and reading performance of primary school students.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)577-595
    Number of pages19
    JournalEducation Economics
    Volume23
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 3 Sept 2015

    Keywords

    • extended school day
    • field experiment
    • increased instructional time
    • motivation
    • randomized experiment

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