British experts give Swiss teaching “A-plus”

British specialists have given Swiss pupils high marks for literacy Keystone Archive

A report from the British Institute of Economic and Social Research has singled out Switzerland as a shining example of how teaching methods can have a positive effect on child literacy.

The Institute’s report is the result of a two-year long programme of visits by English education officials to Swiss schools where they compared students’ language abilities at first hand.

Among other things the study compared literacy rates of pupils with “lesser abilities” from both Switzerland and Britain. The results showed that Swiss pupils are four years ahead of their English counterparts.

The report also states that even the weakest secondary school students in Switzerland had a literacy level close to that of the average pupil in Britain.

The report says the reasons for such disparity are threefold.

First of all, children in Switzerland start school two years later than their English counterparts. The effect of this delay in formal schooling does not disadvantage pupils, as many believe, but rather accelerates their ability to learn when faced with the challenges of reading, writing and arithmetic.

Under the age of seven, Swiss children go to Kindergarten, or pre-school, where the emphasis is on improving their attention spans and memory and the development of social skills. These early foundations, although not academic in nature, give Swiss children a strong base on which to build their education.

Consequently, when they are then faced with reading, writing and arithmetic at primary school, they learn faster than English children.

Secondly, more traditional teaching methods in the classroom speed up the learning process, especially when it comes to reading.

In Switzerland, pupils start by looking at the letters of the alphabet, which they then use to form simple words. Effectively, they learn about the building blocks of words before they begin to read.

In England, the reverse is the case. There, children start by learning entire words, which they then break down into their component letters, enabling them to recognise that one word is different from another.

This means that to begin with English children distinguish words from each another using signals other than letters and this leads to confusion.

Professor Sig Prais, a senior research fellow involved in the project, told swissinfo that this teaching method delays rather than promotes learning.

“English children take about three years to learn to read, whereas a Swiss child learns in six months,” he said.

Other factors working in the Swiss child’s favour are smaller classes and more open horseshoe-shaped seating arrangements in classrooms, which encourages children to participate more actively during lessons.

The third advantage of Swiss teaching methods is the freedom Swiss pupils are given in choosing course materials in secondary education.

Even though the report sings the praises of Swiss teaching methods, Dr Julia Whitburn, another research fellow from the British Institute, told swissinfo there were still lessons to be learned from the English system.

“One of England’s strengths has been its creativity,” she said. “In a sense creativity comes after the technical, practical skills have been acquired. I think Switzerland is very good at that side of things and, perhaps, if there was more emphasis given at a later stage to creativity, then that might enable the Swiss education system to have the best of both worlds.”

swissinfo