Developing our understanding of the links between emotions and learning: A focus on the oral narrative skills of Looked after Children

The educational underachievement of Looked After Children (LAC) is well documented, however, the reasons for this underachievement are poorly understood.

This paper firstly reviews the available research on the factors related to the educational attainment of LAC, exploring the relationship between a number of environmental and individual pupil variables and educational outcome measures.

The review highlights the limitations in drawing firm conclusions from the available research due to the limited use of reliable measures, and the generalisability of the samples studied and suggests that a range of further research is needed, including developing an understanding of how early maltreatment and neglect impact on LACs' cognitive functioning, and how this might be recognised and mediated at an early age in education.

Using this as a rationale, a study was designed to explore relationship between emotions and learning by presenting LAC and non-LAC peers with narrative coherence tasks (due to their links with communication and literacy skills) featuring negative emotional and positive emotional content.

It was found that LACs' narrative coherence scores significantly differed from the non-LAC comparison group only on negative emotional content items and that the aggressiveness of responses on the negative items differed on the basis of gender.

Although limitations of the research should be noted, the study has added to our knowledge within the field, clarifying barriers to learning for LAC.

Recommendations for practice and further research are outlined on the basis of the results.