University of Melbourne.
Smouldering Stump.
Child Dev. 2019 Jul;90(4):1402-1412. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13200. Epub 2019 Jan 24.
Social disruption caused by natural disasters often interrupts educational opportunities for children. However, little is known about children's learning in the following years. This study examined change in academic scores for children variably exposed to a major bushfire in Australia. Comparisons were made between children attending high, medium, and low disaster-affected primary schools 2-4 years after the disaster (n = 24,642; 9-12 years). The results showed that in reading and numeracy expected gains from Year 3 to Year 5 scores were reduced in schools with higher levels of bushfire impact. The findings highlight the extended period of academic impact and identify important opportunities for intervention in the education system to enable children to achieve their academic potential.
自然灾害造成的社会混乱常常中断儿童的受教育机会。然而，对于儿童在接下来几年的学习情况，人们知之甚少。本研究考察了澳大利亚一场重大丛林大火对不同程度受灾地区儿童学业成绩的影响。在灾难发生 2-4 年后（n=24642；9-12 岁），对就读于受灾严重程度较高、中、低小学的儿童进行了比较。结果表明，在阅读和算术方面，火灾影响程度较高的学校中，从 3 年级到 5 年级的预期成绩提升有所减少。研究结果突显了学术影响的持续时间，并确定了教育系统中进行干预的重要机会，以帮助儿童发挥其学术潜力。
