Orienteering is good for exams

[DJM]

Anyone else see the following article in today's Times?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6418634.ece

[Scott]

Hmm. Correlation and not causation, I suspect.

[SeanC]

I suspect that both the headteachers and the researchers said that sport must be only one of several factors influencing exam success, but that wouldn't match the eye catching message the journalist was being paid to produce.

[Scott]

but that wouldn't match the eye catching message the journalist was being paid to produce

Ben Goldacre wrote a nice piece on how that sort of thing happens at the weekend; but it sounds like what we have here (and I can't find the full report on the ISC website, although I haven't looked that hard) is a piece of research which has discovered that the boys who succeed at school academically are also the boys who are more likely to commit themselves to voluntary extracurricular activities within the school environment. Which isn't exactly a groundbreaking correlation, and which certainly doesn't justify the statement that extracurricular activities "improve the academic achievements of pupils".

[andypat]

Yes - it'd be a bit like saying kids that wear school uniform do better at exams and are more disciplined. What you are really measuring is how committed the parents are to their kids education and behaviour.

[geomorph]

Well, going championship orienteering the weekend before the start of my finals wayback when was exactly what I needed to clear the cobwebs and provide that final focus (done good in both with the latter being podium stuff); work the brain and the body hard but with a different emphasis on speed and subject, plus a couple of hours in the sun watching the finishers. I was really sparky Monday (guess I owe it all to Pamela Brown and a wee bit of preparation beforehand.....)