Global perspectives on education during middle childhood

Middle childhood, approximately 5 to l2 years of age, is an important developmental period for physical, cognitive, and socioemotional growth. It is a culmination of early childhood experiences within the family and a transition to adolescence when peer and social influences establish adult roles. During this period, children exhibit more logical thinking, quantitative reasoning, thinking about their own thinking (metacognition), and self-control. They also demonstrate goal-oriented effort as they focus on tasks of learning and schooling. In this chapter, we examine children’s educational achievements during middle childhood from a global perspective in order to understand how different opportunities for learning and education shape developmental trajectories of academic achievement.