The matthew effect

The “Matthew Effect” states that those who know a lot will be able to learn a lot more and those who know little will add little. So this means that if you have knowledge than you are able to gain more and if you do not than you are stuck not knowing anything. This can explain the big gap in-between the advantage and disadvantage students. Because the disadvantage students was exposed to learning things at a younger age they know more and so when the disadvantage students start learning years behind them it is too late for them to acquire all the knowledge that the advantaged students have. The longer they are in school the bigger the achievement gap will get between the two groups.

For example take a first grade class (I'm not sure when you start reading so remember this is an example), the advantaged students went to preschool and kinder-garden and has begun to learn how to read. But for the disadvantage students first grade is the first year they have been sent to any type of school and had never started how to read. As the year advance the advantage students know how to read well and so the teacher does not spend time teaching reading skills but move on to other things, but the disadvantaged students are only starting how to pronounce words. The point is, because they are so far behind they are never going to be able to be at the same skill level as the advantage students and thus they will never be able to learn much because when they get one concept they have all ready missed two more.

Always being two steps behind will cause the disadvantage student to lose the motivation to learn, interest in school since he is always behind and lose self-confidence in himself in being able to learn anything But this can change if the disadvantaged student's intrinsic motivation to read were increased. Like the Bard-College Prisoners will in school they were not a good student but in prison because they had the urge to learn they studied so that they could get the most out of their class something they might have never done when they were out of prison. If the 1st grader that I mentioned in the example had the motivation to learn how to read so that they could read all the books that their classmates are reading then the gap might start to close and they will learn more and more.

Like the students in Adele Jones class those who were behind if they wanted to improve they could have went to her before or after school to learn the math concept that they did not understand instead of failing. So this gap can be closed if the students really intrinsically push themselves to learn by taking tutoring after school or any other similar program. The reason why adolescents are more prone to moodiness increased irritability, impulsivity, and aggression in boys and depression in girls is said to be the cause of hormonal imbalance but more because of environmental factors. When puberty first begins the hormones are at its peak and the testosterone, estrogen and various androgens can cause the moodiness. Once the hormones level stabilizes then the negative effects start to go away.

Also in the frontal cortex of the brain of the limbic system where several levels of neurotransmitters including dopamine and serotonin are changing a person's emotional stimuli can change also and might have something to do with the changes in their mood. But the main reason why researchers think the moodiness happen during adolescent more than any other time is because of environmental stress. They believe that where a person is at, what they are doing, who they are with and so one can cause or prevent the moodiness.

This moodiness goes away during adulthood because by that time, they have learned how to deal with the stress and they are able to manage their moods better.