Article

A Meta-Analysis of Class Sizes and Ratios in Early Childhood Education Programs: Are Thresholds of Quality Associated With Greater Impacts on Cognitive, Achievement, and Socioemotional Outcomes?

September 2017
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 39(3):407-428

DOI:10.3102/0162373716689489

Authors:

Katherine Magnuson

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Greg Duncan

University of California, Irvine

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This study uses data from a comprehensive database of U.S. early childhood education program evaluations published between 1960 and 2007 to evaluate the relationship between class size, child–teacher ratio, and program effect sizes for cognitive, achievement, and socioemotional outcomes. Both class size and child–teacher ratio showed nonlinear relationships with cognitive and achievement effect sizes. For child–teacher ratios 7.5:1 and lower, the reduction of this ratio by one child per teacher predicted an effect size of 0.22 standard deviations greater. For class sizes 15 and smaller, one child fewer predicted an effect size of 0.10 standard deviations larger. No discernible relationship was found for larger class sizes and child–teacher ratios. Results were less clear for socioemotional outcomes due to a small sample.

Composantes de la qualité structurelle et des interactions dans des groupes d'enfants de 4 ans fréquentant des maternelles et des centres de la petite enfance

Thesis

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Maude Roy Vallieres

L’importance des expériences vécues lors de la petite enfance pour le développement des enfants et leur réussite ultérieure n’est plus à débattre. L’accès universel à des services éducatifs de qualité lors de la petite enfance fait d’ailleurs partie des objectifs pour 2030 de l’Organisation des Nations Unies. Or, il s’avère que peu de services éducatifs dans le monde offrent une qualité éducative élevée et constante. Cela est inquiétant considérant que la qualité des expériences éducatives lors de la petite enfance peut avoir un effet tout aussi positif que négatif sur le développement de l’enfant : un contexte offrant une qualité éducative élevée permet d’assurer l’épanouissement des capacités de l’enfant et procure une certaine protection contre les vulnérabilités de développement, alors que les milieux proposant peu de stimulation peuvent exacerber les retards de développement. Au Québec, les enfants de 4 ans sont exposés à deux contextes éducatifs différents, offrant chacun une approche éducative distincte. Il s’agit des centres de la petite enfance (CPE), avec leur approche de pédagogie sociale centrée sur l’enfant, ainsi que la maternelle 4 ans, qui aborde une approche mixte se situant entre l’approche préprimaire, centrée sur la transmission de connaissances, et celle de pédagogie sociale. Au Québec, comme à l’international, il faut donc s’interroger à savoir si une approche favorise davantage l’application de niveaux de qualité éducative élevés, afin d’assurer le développement maximal et la réussite éducative de tous les enfants. L’étude menée dans le cadre de cette thèse visait à comparer la qualité structurelle et la qualité des interactions dans des groupes d’enfants de 4 ans en maternelles et en CPE. La population visée par cette recherche était constituée d’enseignantes de maternelles et d’éducatrices1 de CPE oeuvrant auprès de groupes d’enfants de 4 ans au Québec, et plus spécifiquement dans la grande région de Montréal. Au total, 45 classes de maternelles 4 ans et 45 groupes d’enfants de 4 ans en CPE ont participé à ce projet, qui incluait une observation du groupe pendant deux heures à l’aide de l’outil CLASS Pre-K, mesurant la qualité des interactions adulte-enfants, ainsi qu’un questionnaire à remplir en ligne, comprenant des variables liées à la qualité structurelle des services éducatifs. L’analyse descriptive et comparative des données a montré qu’il existait peu de différences significatives entre les deux groupes à l’étude sur le plan de la qualité des interactions adulte-enfants. Toutefois, plusieurs différences significatives ont été observées sur le plan des variables structurelles de la qualité à l’étude : taille du groupe, nombre d’enfants dans le groupe ayant le français comme langue maternelle, formation initiale de l’adulte, années d’expérience, etc. Des analyses corrélationnelles et de régression réalisées de façon individuelle sur chacun des groupes ont permis de dégager certaines variables prédictives de la qualité des interactions adulte-enfants en maternelles 4 ans et en CPE. Or, il s’avère que, malgré un nombre important de variables considérées dans les analyses de l’étude, peu de variables structurelles sont en mesure d’expliquer les variations observées dans les scores de la qualité des interactions. Ce constat suggère que d’autres variables d’importance sont à l’oeuvre dans les milieux et permettraient de mieux prédire la qualité des interactions adulte-enfants. La qualité des orientations, notamment, apparait comme une avenue de recherche pertinente à explorer dans les prochaines années.

School-Based Early Childhood Education and Children’s Development in Urban Nepal

Article

Sep 2023

Kenji Kitamura

Research Findings: Despite the prevalence of integrating early childhood education (ECE) into formal schooling, there is limited evidence on how school-based ECE affects children compared to other types of ECE, particularly in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Therefore, this study examined school-based ECE programs compared with independent ECE programs in an urban region in Nepal. The study employed weighting estimation approaches, using unique cross-sectional data of 652 children (483 children from 138 school-based programs and 169 children from 50 independent programs) aged four years from the Lalitpur municipality. The study found that, relative to independent programs, school-based programs are negatively associated with children’s development, particularly in the cognitive and socio-emotional domains. The mean differences in these outcomes remained statistically significant with medium effect sizes (d = 0.31–0.43) even after accounting for available confounders. The results also suggest that lower levels of classroom structural quality, such as teacher’s education, class size, and learning resources, may partially account for the lower developmental outcomes of school-based programs compared to independent programs. Practice or Policy: The findings highlight the need for stakeholders to focus on improving the quality of school-based ECE programs to address inequity in the current ECE system in Nepal.

An Examination of Time Allocation in Early Childhood Teacher Candidates’ Clinical Field Placements

Article

Oct 2020

This research study examines how instructional time is allocated while early childhood teacher candidates are present in mentor teachers’ classrooms as part of clinically-based teacher preparation. Researchers conducted 44 observations in 16 mentor teachers’ classrooms in three public school districts. The observations were quantified and analyzed to shed light on the nature of co-teaching, instructional decision-making, and student-teacher ratios during clinically-based field experiences. The findings reveal that overwhelmingly mentor teachers and teacher candidates use their time together to engage in co-teaching, which creates lower student-teacher ratios and allows for more flexible groupings of students. The study contributes meaningfully to what is known about effective implementation of clinically-based field experiences and suggests implications for positively impacting student learning outcomes.

Does the Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care Centers Mitigate the Risk of Externalizing Problems? A Genetic-Sensitive Study of Preschoolers in Germany

Article

Full-text available

May 2023
KOLNER Z SOZIOL SOZ

This paper examines the extent to which quality characteristics of early childhood education and care (ECEC) experienced at ages 4–6 influence externalizing problems at ages 6–8. Based on a random sample of 713 same-sex twins (55% female, 41% with a migration background) in 364 ECEC centers in Germany, the paper not only distinguishes between detailed ECEC quality characteristics but additionally investigates whether these characteristics affect the relevance of genetic and environmental influences on externalizing problem behavior. Results demonstrate that with educators’ further training and the child–staff ratio only a few specific ECEC quality indicators moderate the relevance of genetic and environmental influences. In particular, further training of educators reduces genetic contributions to externalizing problems in children. Although there was also evidence for gene–environment correlation owing to selection into ECEC centers with an unfavorable child–staff ratio, the findings suggest that improving educators’ training is the most promising way of counteracting externalizing problems.

Interactional quality in middle schools: Latent profiles and their associations with teacher, classroom, and school compositional factors

Article

Aug 2022
J SCHOOL PSYCHOL

High quality teacher-student interactions are critical for the healthy social-emotional, behavioral, and academic development of middle school students. However, few studies have explored patterns of teacher-student interactions in middle school classrooms or the relation between teacher-, classroom-, and school-level factors and patterns of interaction. The current study employed latent profile analyses (LPA) to identify patterns of teacher-student interactional quality in a sample of 334 teachers from 41 schools serving middle school students within the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Three distinct profiles of teacher-student interactional quality were identified that were characteristic of higher, lower, and intermediate quality and were differentially related to teacher, classroom, and school characteristics. Compared to classrooms with lower interactional quality, classrooms with “higher” or “intermediate” profiles were more likely to be taught by early career teachers, to have higher rates of observed student cooperation, and to be in schools in rural fringe areas. Classrooms with lower interactional quality were more likely to have larger student-to-teacher ratios and higher rates of student disruptive behaviors than classrooms with intermediate interactional quality and to be in schools with a higher percentage of out-of-school suspensions than classrooms with higher interactional quality. These findings suggest that interventions at the teacher, classroom, and school levels may promote positive teacher-student interactions, such as consultation to support teachers' effective classroom management, alternatives to out-of-school suspensions, and smaller student-to-teacher ratios.

Оценката на качеството на средата за образование и грижа в ранното детство- предизвикателства и перспективи на съвременната практика

Preprint

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Maria Petrova Trifonova

Relating preschool class size to classroom quality and student achievement

Article

Oct 2021
EARLY CHILD RES Q

This paper examines the effects of preschool class size on classroom quality and student achievement by drawing upon data from 21 teachers and 354 children that were collected during the 2008–2009 school year. Regular class sizes contained 20 students and reduced class sizes contained 15 students. Either the AM or PM session was randomly assigned to be 15 students for each teacher, so that each teacher taught both a regular and reduced class size. Children who attended reduced size classrooms were found to partake in more one-to-one interactions with teachers than children in regular size classrooms, but there were no differences between groups in the quality of classroom interactions as measured by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Children in smaller classrooms also were found to gain more in literacy skills by the end of preschool. In contrast, there were no significant differences between groups in vocabulary or math gains. These results indicate that an assigned difference of five children in a preschool classroom can benefit children's cognitive development after just one school year. However, these benefits are not explained by differences in a commonly used measure of classroom quality, which were minimal. Future endeavors to reduce class size in preschool might be enhanced if coupled with professional development strategies that aim to maximize teachers' effectiveness with smaller classes.

Rhymes and Relatability: How Storybook Style and Content Relate to Home-Based Educators’ Extra-Textual Talk

Article

Nov 2020

Research Findings Home-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a popular form of small-group ECEC, with potential to facilitate high-quality conversations during shared book reading. To investigate how home-based early childhood educators (ECEs) take advantage of learning opportunities, educators read two storybooks with children (35.5–50.8 months old) in their ECEC. Because types of extra-textual talk used differ depending on book style, one book rhymed and its setting was local (New Zealand), so more personally relevant to the children. The other did not rhyme, and its setting was international (Africa), so less personally relevant. Home-based ECEs frequently made comments encouraging children to think beyond book content, although these varied between books. In the NZ/Rhyming book, educators talked more about print concepts and sounds, which may nourish emergent language and literacy skills, and used more talk relating the book to real experiences, potentially facilitating children’s engagement. In the African/non-rhyming book, educators used more descriptions and inferences. This variation in comprehension-related talk may support children’s cognitive and linguistic development. Practice or Policy: Home-based educators use a variety of shared reading strategies, which differed across books in ways that afford different learning opportunities. We recommend diversity in the types of books read with pre-schoolers to nurture emergent language and literacy skills.

Kull, M., Dasgupta, D., Schlecht, C., Dworsky, A., Lynch, M., Hill, Z., Reed, A., Brennen, J., Moore, F., Mayer, M., Lockaby, T., Weiner, D., Haight, J. M., Axelrod, J., & Samuels, B. (2019, May). Capacity assessment and integration support for the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families: Final report. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

Technical Report

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May 2019

Preliminary Findings of Structural Quality Requirements in Malaysia Public Preschools from Multiple Stakeholders’ Perspectives

Article

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Aug 2024

Stakeholders define preschool quality in their own context. This study aimed to explore the structural quality requirements in Malaysia public preschools from the triparty stakeholders’ perspectives: the top-down, bottom-up and outside-in. This study adopted a case study design and an in-depth interview data collection method. The thematic analysis revealed three structural quality elements required in Malaysia settings: human, conducive environment, and other supporting factors. The preliminary finding of the study highlights the identification of teacher assistant as one of the structural quality requirements in Malaysia public preschools. Perhaps future study be extended into a quantitative method for generalisation.

Replication Studies Using Secondary or Nonexperimental Datasets

Article

Apr 2024

Replication studies have been promoted as a means to investigate the fragility or robustness of findings from prior studies. However, less well known is that replication studies can be done with nonexperimental or secondary datasets and are not just for experimental studies. We present a framework of different types of replication studies with nonexperimental or secondary data and provide examples in the context of school psychology. We show that replication studies can be used as robustness checks, as a means of testing the generalizability of existing theories, and as a way of extending findings of prior studies. We advocate for the thoughtful use of replication studies and highlight some of the benefits of replications.

Preliminary Findings of Structural Quality Requirements in Malaysia Public Preschools from Multiple Stakeholders’ Perspectives

Article

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Mar 2024

Children's activities, parental concerns, and child care service utilization in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Introduction In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, most Canadian provinces and territories enacted public health measures to reduce virus spread, leading most child care centers across the country to limit or halt in-person service delivery. While it is broadly known that the range of activities available to children and youth reduced drastically as a result, research has yet to explore if and how children's activities shifted in relation to changes in child care arrangements. Method Children's activities during the early months of the pandemic were assessed based on parent-report data (n = 19,959). Activity patterns were extracted via latent profile analysis. Thereafter, differences in child-care related outcomes across profiles were compared via logistic regression models. Results Latent profile analysis yielded three distinct activity patterns: Screenies (91.5%) were children who engaged in high amounts of screen use relative to all other activities; Analog children (3.1%) exhibited mostly off-screen activities (e.g., reading, physical exercise); and children in the Balanced group (5.4%) appeared to pursue a wide variety of activities. Children were more likely to fall into the Screenies or Balanced profiles when caregivers reported changes in child care arrangements. Moreover, parents of children with Balanced activity profiles were more likely to be planning to use child care when services reopened post-pandemic, compared to parents of children in the Analog group. Discussion The present findings call attention to heterogeneity in children's activities during COVID-19, which should be considered in the context of pandemic-related child care closures. Implications for children, families, and child care services during and beyond COVID-19 are discussed.

Early childhood education and care quality and associations with child outcomes: A meta-analysis

Article

Full-text available

May 2023
PLOS ONE

Objectives The effectiveness of early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs for children’s development in various domains is well documented. Adding to existing meta-analyses on associations between the quality of ECEC services and children’s developmental outcomes, the present meta-analysis synthesizes the global literature on structural characteristics and indicators of process quality to test direct and moderated effects of ECEC quality on children’s outcomes across a range of domains. Design A systematic review of the literature published over a 10-year period, between January 2010 and June 2020 was conducted, using the databases PsychInfo, Eric, EbscoHost, and Pubmed. In addition, a call for unpublished research or research published in the grey literature was sent out through the authors’ professional network. The search yielded 8,932 articles. After removing duplicates, 4,880 unique articles were identified. To select articles for inclusion, it was determined whether studies met eligibility criteria: (1) study assessed indicators of quality in center-based ECEC programs catering to children ages 0–6 years; and (2) study assessed child outcomes. Inclusion criteria were: (1) a copy of the full article was available in English; (2) article reported effect size measure of at least one quality indicator-child outcome association; and (3) measures of ECEC quality and child outcomes were collected within the same school year. A total of 1,044 effect sizes reported from 185 articles were included. Results The averaged effects, pooled within each of the child outcomes suggest that higher levels of ECEC quality were significantly related to higher levels of academic outcomes (literacy, n = 99: 0.08, 95% C.I. 0.02, 0.13; math, n = 56: 0.07, 95% C.I. 0.03, 0.10), behavioral skills (n = 64: 0.12, 95% C.I. 0.07, 0.17), social competence (n = 58: 0.13, 95% C.I. 0.07, 0.19), and motor skills (n = 2: 0.09, 95% C.I. 0.04, 0.13), and lower levels of behavioral (n = 60: -0.12, 95% C.I. -0.19, -0.05) and social-emotional problems (n = 26: -0.09, 95% C.I. -0.15, -0.03). When a global assessment of child outcomes was reported, the association with ECEC quality was not significant (n = 13: 0.02, 95% C.I. -0.07, 0.11). Overall, effect sizes were small. When structural and process quality indicators were tested separately, structural characteristics alone did not significantly relate to child outcomes whereas associations between process quality indicators and most child outcomes were significant, albeit small. A comparison of the indicators, however, did not yield significant differences in effect sizes for most child outcomes. Results did not provide evidence for moderated associations. We also did not find evidence that ECEC quality-child outcome associations differed by ethnic minority or socioeconomic family background. Conclusions Despite the attempt to provide a synthesis of the global literature on ECEC quality-child outcome associations, the majority of studies included samples from the U.S. In addition, studies with large samples were also predominately from the U.S. Together, the results might have been biased towards patterns prevalent in the U.S. that might not apply to other, non-U.S. ECEC contexts. The findings align with previous meta-analyses, suggesting that ECEC quality plays an important role for children’s development during the early childhood years. Implications for research and ECEC policy are discussed.

Center-based early care and education programs and quality indicators: A latent class analysis

Article

Dec 2022
EARLY CHILD RES Q

High quality early educational experiences are essential for young children's academic and social-emotional development. Although there is no one set of quality indicators that exists at a national level to assess center-based early care and education (ECE) program quality, researchers at the National Institute of Early Education Research (NIEER) have developed a set of quality benchmarks for state pre-kindergarten programs. However, patterns in the types of quality indicators ECE programs meet and how program, community, and policy features might be related to which indicators are met is not well understood. In the present study, we conducted a latent class analysis using nationally representative data from the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE; n = 5,076 ECE centers) to identify subgroups of centers on the basis of the combinations of quality indicators met, which are similar to those developed by NIEER. Descriptive results show the mean number of NIEER benchmarks met was 5.74 out of 9 possible in the NSECE data. Our latent class analysis results reveal five distinct classes: (1) most quality indicators met; (2) smaller classroom ratios, but fewer teacher education and workforce support indicators met; (3) less screening support, but more teacher education and workforce support indicators met; (4) fewest indicators met; and (5) larger classroom ratios. Predictors of class membership were also examined. Findings of this exploratory study reveal heterogeneity in the specific combinations of quality indicators ECE programs meet.

Early Childhood Education: Health, Equity, and Economics

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022

Many low-income and minority children in the United States and globally are at risk of poor educational trajectories and, consequently, diminished life courses, because their households and neighborhoods lack resources to adequately support learning and development prior to formal schooling. This review summarizes evidence on center-based early childhood education (ECE) for three- and four-year-olds as a means of assuring school readiness in cognitive and socioemotional skills. While the details of ECE programs merit further research, it is clear that ECE can benefit children, especially those most disadvantaged, with additional societal benefits and positive long-run economic returns. Universal ECE is not a cure-all, and its success requires ongoing alignment with subsequent education and attention to child household and community conditions. Because resource deprivation is concentrated in low-income and minority communities, publicly funded universal ECE can also be a powerful instrument for the promotion of social equity. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 44 is April 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Procuring Gender-Situated Voices of Male Early Childhood Professionals in Canada

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2022

Across the globe the prevalence of men who work in the early education and care field is scant. This phenomenon is evidenced in the Canadian childcare milieu where male early childhood professionals constitute a modest fraction of the sector. At the nucleus of this are gender-situated scrutinization, role model binaries, and adverse occupational outcomes. Subsequently a Qualitative Intrinsic Case Study, rooted in a Social Constructivist Philosophical Paradigm, was applied to secure the voices of men who work in Ontario, Canada. Novel to findings of this study are the heterogenous reactions of family and friends, male role model disharmony, strategies adopted by participants to self-protect and avoid speculation, forgotten child voices, and nuances affiliated with working in a care profession. Participants of this study urge other male early years professionals and communities to intentionally probe this domain of study, with the aim to bolster male participation in the sector.

Pedagogical practices in ECEC institutions and children’s linguistic, motor, and socio-emotional needs during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a longitudinal multi-perspective study in Germany

Article

Sep 2022
Early Child Dev Care

During the COVID-19 pandemic, German early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions had to limit their provision of ECEC, implement protective measures, and handle new organizational tasks. Data from two longitudinal surveys (October 2020 to July 2021) among ECEC managers and pedagogical staff were analysed. Limited staff resources, limited access, and high pandemic-related challenges (i.e. diffculties and conflicts related to implementing protective measures), were negatively associated with the frequency of pedagogical practices (Models 1, 2). Manager ratings suggested increased developmental needs for children with low socio-economic status; also higher frequency of pedagogical practices at early stages of the pandemic (T1) was associated with lower increase of developmental needs at a later stage (T2, about 5 months later). In sum, this contribution provides evidence about how the COVID- 19 pandemic might have affected quality in ECEC provision on both the structural and interaction level and how this, subsequently, impacted child outcomes.

Is Quality Higher in Child Centered or in Formal Educational Environments? Preliminary Results from Quebec’s 4-year-old Preschools and Early Childcare Centers

Presentation

Full-text available

May 2022

Preliminary results form a study that measured educational quality using the CLASS Pre-K tool and a questionnaire in preschool 4-years old and early childcare centers in Quebec

Emotional quality of early education programs improves language learning: A within‐child across context design

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022

Observational studies comparing child outcomes in early care and education classrooms of differing quality are often confounded by between‐child differences. A within‐child design, tracking children across contexts, can identify the effects of quality with less confounding. An analysis of Australian children (N = 1128, mean age 5 years, 48% female, 2.9% Indigenous, ethnicity data unavailable) tracked across pre‐K, K, and year 1 (2010–2012) was conducted to assess how changes in observed quality (Classroom Assessment Scoring System) were associated with changes in cognitive development (Woodcock–Johnson III). Thresholds of quality were also investigated. Increases in Emotional Support were associated with improved language development (β = 0.54, 95% CI [0.1–0.99], approximating 2.6 weeks development). Results highlight that emotional quality is an integral and potent component of early learning.

Domains of quality in early childhood education and care: A scoping review of the extent and consistency of the literature

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022

Early childhood education and care programmes provide opportunities to enhance children’s learning and development, especially when high-quality learning experiences and educator-child interactions are embedded within them. However, the quality of early childhood education programmes varies greatly. Quality in early childhood education and care is conceptualised in three domains: structural, process and system. Understanding how to drive quality improvements in early childhood education and care relies on clear, consistent evidence concerning each of these domains, however, the current literature is not comprehensive. This scoping review maps the extent and consistency of the research literature in each domain of quality to identify knowledge gaps and inform future research. Through a search of the peer-reviewed literature, 85 meta-analyses and systematic reviews meeting our inclusion criteria were identified. We found a wide variation in the number of included studies in each domain and sub-domain of quality. We found the greatest number of meta-analyses and systematic reviews related to programmes, interventions, and curricula (process quality) and professional development and support (structural quality). The literature included in this scoping review is heterogeneous and of varying methodological quality, with inconsistent or contradictory findings. The research is most consistent in relation to pedagogy, professional development and support, and programmes, interventions, and curricula (process quality) and learning environments (structural quality). Interactions between the different domains of quality are complex and future research should focus on the associations between different features of quality in early childhood education programmes and practices that are critical to implementing successful continuous improvement initiatives. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Adult/child ratio and group size in early childhood education or care to promote the development of children aged 0–5 years: A systematic review

Article

Full-text available

May 2022

Background Worldwide, a large number of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are enroled in formal non‐parental early childhood education or care (ECEC). Theoretically, lower adult/child ratios (fewer children per adult) and smaller group sizes are hypothesised to be associated with positive child outcomes in ECEC. A lower adult/child ratio and a smaller group size may increase both the extent and quality of adult/child interactions during the day. Objectives The objective of this review is to synthesise data from studies to assess the impact of adult/child ratio and group size in ECEC on measures of process characteristics of quality of care and on child outcomes. Search Methods Relevant studies were identified through electronic searches of bibliographic databases, governmental and grey literature repositories, Internet search engines, hand search of specific targeted journals, citation tracking and contact to experts. The primary searches were carried out up to September 2020. Additional searches were carried out in February 2022. Selection Criteria The intervention was changes to adult/child ratio and group size in ECEC with children aged 0–5 years old. All study designs that used a well‐defined control group were eligible for inclusion. Data Collection and Analysis The total number of potential relevant studies constituted 14,060 hits. A total of 31 studies met the inclusion criteria and were critically appraised by the review authors. The 31 studies analysed 26 different populations. Only 12 studies analysing 8 different populations (N = 4300) could be used in the data synthesis. Included studies were published between 1968 and 2019, and the average publication year was 1992. We used random‐effects meta‐analysis, applying both robust‐variance estimation and restricted maximum likelihood procedures to synthesise effect sizes. We conducted separate analyses for process quality measures and language and literacy measures. Main Results The meta‐analysis using measures of process quality as the outcome included 84 effect sizes, 5 studies, and 6256 observations. The weighted average effect size was positive but not statistically significant (effect size [ES] = 0.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [−0.07, 0.27]) using robust‐variance estimation. The adjusted degrees of freedom were below 4 (df = 1.5), meaning that the results were unreliable. Similarly, the low number of studies made the estimation of heterogeneity statistics difficult. The I² and τ² estimates were both 0, and the Q‐statistic 2.3 (p = 0.69). We found a similar, but statistically significant, weighted average effect size using a restricted maximum likelihood procedure (ES = 0.10, 95% CI = [0.004, 0.20]), and similar low levels of heterogeneity (Q = 0.7, I² = 0%, τ² = 0). The meta‐analysis of language and literacy outcomes is based on three studies exploring different changes to group size and/or adult/child ratio in ECEC. The meta‐analysis of language and literacy measures included 12 effect sizes, 3 studies, and 14,625 observations. The weighted average effect size was negative but not statistically significant (ES = −0.04, 95% CI = [−0.61, 0.53]) using the robust variance estimation procedure. The adjusted degrees of freedom were again below 4 (df = 1.9) and the results were unreliable. The heterogeneity statistics indicated substantial heterogeneity (Q = 9.3, I² = 78.5%, τ² = 0.07). The restricted maximum likelihood procedure yielded similar results (ES = −0.06, 95% CI = [−0.57, 0.46], Q = 6.1, I² = 64.3%, τ² = 0.03). Authors' Conclusions The main finding of the present review is that there are surprisingly few quantitative studies exploring the effects of changes to adult/child ratio and group size in ECEC on measures of process quality and on child outcomes. The overall quality of the included studies was low, and only two randomised studies were used in the meta‐analysis. The risk of bias in the majority of included studies was high, also in studies used in the meta‐analysis. Due to the limited number of studies that could be used in the data synthesis, we were unable to explore the effects of adult/child ratio and group size separately. No study that examined the effects of changes of the adult/child‐ratio and/or group size on socio‐emotional child outcomes could be included in the meta‐analysis. No high quality study examined the effects of large changes in adult/child ratio and group size on measures of process quality, or explored effects for children younger than 2 years. We included few studies (3) in the meta‐analysis that investigated measures of language and literacy and results for these outcomes were inconclusive. In one specification, we found a small statistically significant effect on process quality, suggesting that fewer children per adult and smaller group sizes do increase the process quality in ECEC. Caution regarding the interpretation must be exerted due to the heterogeneity of the study designs, the limited number of studies, and the generally high risk of bias within the included studies. Results of the present review have implications for both research and practice. First, findings from the present review tentatively support the theoretical hypothesis that lower adult/child ratios (fewer children per adult) and smaller group sizes beneficially influence process quality in ECEC. This hypothesis is reflected in the existence of standards and regulation on the minimum requirements regarding adult/child ratios and maximum group size in ECEC. However, the research literature to date provides little guidance on what the appropriate adult/child ratios and group sizes are. Second, findings from the present review may be seen as a testimony to the urgent need for more contemporary high‐quality research exploring the effects of changes in adult/child ratio and group size in ECEC on measures of process quality and child developmental and socio‐emotional outcomes.

Perspectives on Creative Pedagogy and E-Learning in Science Education

Chapter

Apr 2022

Several innovative pedagogical approaches and ideas are also presented in enhancing learning experience via e-learning. In Chapter 2, Zainun Mustafa and colleagues offered their perspectives on using creative pedagogy through e-learning for the purpose of science education. They explain the distinctive components of creative pedagogy that can be incorporated through various e-learning tools in order to foster meaningful learning in science classrooms.

Exploring the quality of early childhood education and care environment in Bulgarian kindergartens

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2021
Int J Early Years Educ

This article presents an exploratory study of educational quality in Bulgarian kindergartens at a time the educational system undergoes significant transformations in aligning with the principles shared by the majority of European countries. The focus is on the structural and process characteristics of quality, as measured by ECERS-3 on a moderately representative sample of classrooms (N = 40). The one-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant differences between five subscales. Care practices and positive social interactions scored highest, while subscales representing the common instructional approach scored lowest due to the insufficient learning opportunities tailored to the individual needs of children. The measures for quality improvement require the instruction to be more flexible with free-choice activities and play in small groups. Through the K-means analysis we identified three profiles of dimensions that characterise different classrooms. The cluster that covers the majority of classrooms with large size groups represents an overall mediocre quality across all aspects of the educational environment. Two other clusters depict the opposite profiles with the highest and lowest scores. The methodological findings of present study favour the application of multi-methods approach in quality evaluation and the involvement of multiple informants for better representation of universality and cultural specificity of educational context. ARTICLE HISTORY

Simulating COVID19 transmission from observed movement

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2022

Current models of COVID-19 transmission predict infection from reported or assumed interactions. Here we leverage high-resolution observations of interaction to simulate infectious processes. Ultra-Wide Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems were employed to track the real-time physical movements and directional orientation of children and their teachers in 4 preschool classes over a total of 34 observations. An agent-based transmission model combined observed interaction patterns (individual distance and orientation) with CDC-published risk guidelines to estimate the transmission impact of an infected patient zero attending class on the proportion of overall infections, the average transmission rate, and the time lag to the appearance of symptomatic individuals. These metrics highlighted the prophylactic role of decreased classroom density and teacher vaccinations. Reduction of classroom density to half capacity was associated with an 18.2% drop in overall infection proportion while teacher vaccination receipt was associated with a 25.3% drop. Simulation results of classroom transmission dynamics may inform public policy in the face of COVID-19 and similar infectious threats.

El camino hacia la carrera docente en España. Los secretos del éxito de la formación del profesorado en Finlandia y Singapur

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

A lo largo de este artículo analizamos diversos indicadores asociados a la formación inicial del profesorado, a su incorporación a la carrera docente y a las condiciones laborales de este colectivo. Utilizamos para ello una metodología comparada aplicada a los países de Finlandia, Singapur y España. Tras el análisis de los resultados se encuentran notables coincidencias entre Finlandia y Singapur y mayores diferencias con España. Se concluye que el sistema de formación español necesita aumentar la exigencia en la selección del profesorado para la formación inicial, una estrategia que, entre otras cosas, permitiría menos gasto, al mantener un mayor equilibrio entre el número de estudiantes que acceden a la carrera de magisterio y las plazas de profesores disponibles. ---- Throughout this article, we analyze various indicators associated with the initial training of teachers, their incorporation into the teaching career and the working conditions of this group. We use a comparative methodology applied to the countries of Finland, Singapore and Spain. After the analysis of the results, we find remarkable coincidences between Finland and Singapore and greater differences with Spain. The conclusion is that the Spanish training system needs to increase the entry requirements for initial teacher training applicants. Among other things, this strategy would be more cost-effective, as it would help ensure a better balance between the number of students who start teacher training programmes and the available vacancies.

On predictors of misconceptions about educational topics: A case of topic specificity

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021
PLOS ONE

A large variety of misconceptions about learning, teaching, and other educational topics is prevalent in the public but also among educational professionals. Such misconceptions may lead to ill-advised judgments and actions in private life, professional practice, and policymaking. Developing effective correction strategies for these misconceptions hinges on a better understanding of the factors that make individuals susceptible to or resilient against misconceptions. The present study surveyed students from educational and non-educational fields of study to investigate whether the endorsement of four typical educational misconceptions can be predicted by study-related variables (i.e., field of study and study progress) and by students’ cognitive ability (i.e., numeracy), epistemic orientations, general world views (i.e., conservative orientation), and education-related values (i.e., educational goals). A sample of N = 315 undergraduates in teacher education and education- and non-education-related fields of study completed an online survey. Results from structural equation models showed that the pattern of effects strongly varied across the specific misconceptions. The two misconceptions related to teaching factors (i.e., class size and effectiveness of direct instruction as a teaching method) were the most strongly affected by the field of study and had an association with conservative orientation. In contrast, the misconception about the effectiveness of grade retention as an educational intervention was more prevalent among the students emphasizing conventional educational goals, such as discipline. None of the investigated explanatory variables proved predictive of the misconception about the “feminization” of education as an educational-equity topic. Moreover, neither numeracy nor epistemic orientation was found to have any effect on the endorsement of educational misconceptions. These findings emphasize the topic dependency of the factors that make individuals susceptible to misconceptions. Future research and intervention approaches need to consider the topic specificity of educational misconceptions.

Class Size and Teacher Work: Research Provided to the BCTF in their Struggle to Negotiate Teacher Working Conditions

Article

Jun 2021

This paper presents an update of a 2010-literature review on class size research completed as background in preparation of an affidavit on class size provided by the lead author in the case of British Columbia Teachers’ Federation v. British Columbia, argued before the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2010, appealed ultimately to the Supreme Court of Canada and ruled on November 10, 2016. We find that smaller classes can improve teacher-student interactions and individualized instruction, decreasing time spent on discipline issues, leading to better student behaviour, attitude, and efforts. Smaller classes generally have greater advantages for younger students, and effects are more observable in class sizes of less than 20. Small classes may shrink achievement gaps, decrease dropout rates, and increase high school graduation rates, and appear to enhance academic outcomes, particularly for marginalized groups. Researchers have detected class size effects many years later. Small classes have been found to boost teachers’ morale and job satisfaction. While some studies have found effects at the secondary and post-secondary level, results are generally inconclusive at this level. Finally, some researchers have argued that class size reductions are an inefficient use of funds which might be better spent elsewhere in the system. The paper concludes with a brief reflection on the process of providing this research for Supreme Court case.

Balance Nutrition Messages Are Still Implemented in Preschools One Year Postintervention: Case Studies in Subang District, West Java, Indonesia

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2020

Thirty-two teachers from 10 preschools in Cisalak subdistrict, Subang district, West Java province, Indonesia, received a two-day training on Balance Nutrition and My Plate in February 2018. The main messages underlined in the training were consume a variety of foods, drink enough water daily, wash your hands with soap, be physically active, and monitor your body weight. The training was followed by an eight-week implementation period to preschoolers aged 3 to 6 y. The knowledge of the teachers increased by up to 33 percentage points (average score: 69 to 82 pre- vs. posttest) after training, and the teachers answered correctly to the same questions 15 mo later. The mothers’ knowledge increased by up to 37 percentage points after parenting sessions. All seven teaching aids provided were used by end-line, but their usage decreased after seven months (range: 2 to 7) and further decreased by 12 mo postintervention (range: 2 to 5). A teacher’s handbook and a flipchart were the two aids persistently used. The practices of washing hands with soap, bringing healthy packed lunches, and monitoring weight and height continued after 12 mo postintervention. Dissemination of Balance Nutrition knowledge to fellow teachers of the same school, colleagues from different schools, or to representatives of preschool associations was evident. Training should be scaled up to the district level, using trained teachers as trainers and adopting a cascade training method. National roll-out by teachers’ associations, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, could improve the knowledge of over 200,000 preschool teachers and potentially improve the nutrition of 19 million preschoolers.

The Impact of Center-Based Childcare Attendance on Early Child Development: Evidence From the French Elfe Cohort

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2021

Proponents of early childhood education and care programs cite evidence that high-quality center-based childcare has positive impacts on child development, particularly for disadvantaged children. However, much of this evidence stems from randomized evaluations of small-scale intensive programs based in the United States and other Anglo/English-speaking countries. Evidence is more mixed with respect to widespread or universal center-based childcare provision. In addition, most evidence is based on childcare experiences of 3- to 5-year-old children; less is known about the impact of center-based care in earlier childhood. The French context is particularly suited to such interrogation because the majority of French children who attend center-based care do so in high-quality, state-funded, state-regulated centers, known as crèches, and before age 3. We use data from a large, nationally representative French birth cohort, the Étude Longitudinale Français depuis l'Enfance (Elfe), and an instrumental variables strategy that leverages exogenous variation in both birth quarter and local crèche supply to estimate whether crèche attendance at age 1 has an impact on language, motor skills, and child behavior at age 2. Results indicate that crèche attendance has a positive impact on language skills, no impact on motor skills, and a negative impact on behavior. Moreover, the positive impact on language skills is particularly concentrated among disadvantaged children. This implies that facilitating increased crèche access among disadvantaged families may hold potential for decreasing early socioeconomic disparities in language development and, given the importance of early development for later-life outcomes, thereby have an impact on long-term population inequalities.

Investigating quality indicators of early childhood education programs in Kosovo, Ukraine and Finland

Article

Nov 2020

The existing literature on early childhood education (ECE) quality is predominantly from the US or other developed countries. In low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), systematic research on ECE quality, however, is very limited. In the present study, we explore variation in structural and process indicators of ECE quality in two Eastern European LMICs, Kosovo and Ukraine, using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System Pre-K (CLASS) as a measure of process quality for the first time in these countries. We also include Finland because governments in Kosovo and Ukraine show a particular interest in the Finnish education model to inform policy reforms. Participants were kindergarten teachers (n=177) from these three countries who were observed in their classrooms and asked to complete questionnaires. Results indicated variability in ECE quality at various levels, both within and across the three countries. Directions for future research and implications for practice and policy development in LMICs are discussed.

Measuring preschool quality in low- and middle-income countries: Validity of the ECERS-R in Colombia

Article

Jan 2021
EARLY CHILD RES Q

As preschool enrollment has spread across the globe, many researchers have turned to the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) to assess the quality of preschool in low and middle-income (LAMI) countries. However, questions remain about the pertinence of this measure in LAMI countries due to evidence of low variability and extreme low scores across items. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the ECERS-R in a Colombian sample of 174 classrooms from which 668 four-year-old children were selected for developmental assessment. Principal Component Analysis failed to identify the seven dimensions indicated in the original structure. Analyses instead found three dimensions in the Colombian sample: materials and spaces, interactions, and routines and practices. The predictive validity of these dimensions was not strong, but suggested that better routines and interactions are associated with children's development. Results and implications for the development of future measures are discussed.

Pathways to Kindergarten: A Latent Class Analysis of Children’s Time in Early Education and Care

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2020

Research Findings Using a sample of 568 students from 61 kindergarten classrooms whose primary caregivers completed a questionnaire describing their child’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) by year from birth to pre-kindergarten, we identified seven pathways characterizing children’s ECEC experiences using a latent class analysis. Once identified, profile membership was included as an independent variable in a multilevel model to predict children’s cognitive and social-behavioral outcomes at kindergarten entry. Although a considerable body of work has examined dosage of time in (ECEC) and its associations with children’s skills in later grades, we extend this work by expanding the definition of dosage to include multiple care arrangements from birth to kindergarten entry and by examining if profiles of ECEC participation have associations with kindergarten-entry skills. Our findings show membership in profiles in which children spent consistent time in center-based care from birth to five were associated with adverse social-behavioral outcomes including behavioral aggression, school adjustment, peer social skills, and self-efficacy. Practice or Policy: Our findings suggest the importance of considering more nuanced differences in children’s experiences with ECEC and the need for possible interventions to support the social-behavioral development of children with exposure to 5 years of center-based care.

Structural and Process Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care Provisions in Poland and the Netherlands: A Cross-National Study Using Cluster Analysis

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2020

This cross-national study involved 56 toddler classrooms in Poland and the Netherlands. A cluster analysis was conducted to identify classroom profiles based on observed quality and these were compared regarding structural (group size and children-to-teacher ratio) and curriculum (e.g. pre-academics and pretend play) characteristics. In total, 224 video clips were evaluated with the CLASS Toddler and 130 teachers reported on structural and curriculum aspects. Research Findings: The findings for both countries showed moderate to high emotional support and low to moderate support for learning; the pattern of self-reported provision of activities was shaped alike. Three quality profiles were distinguished: i) high positive climate and support for learning, ii) overall low quality, iii) high emotional and low educational support. Overall, favorable structural conditions and a balanced curriculum including a broad range of activities were associated with highest process quality. Practice or Policy: A variety of different activities and high levels of developmentally stimulating interactions in an overall positive and warm classroom climate can support toddlers’ broad development and learning. Professional development and a center’s pedagogical policy and vision can play an important role in improving quality and implementing age-appropriate play and activities when an official curriculum is lacking.

Is childcare good or bad for children's socio-emotional development? Context matters Comment

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2024

Ruben G Fukkink

An important question in the field of early childhood education and care involves the effect of attending childcare on the socio-emotional development of children. Put simply, is childcare good or bad for children's socio-emotional development? This question became highly relevant after the growth of childcare in various western societies, including the United States (US) and Europe. Several US studies have investigated the effects of childcare on the development of youth, reporting slightly lower levels of social competence and cooperation of children, more problem behaviors, negative mood and conflict. 1,2 In the public debate, these adverse outcomes were often framed as 'Childcare makes children aggressive' and a heated discussion about non-maternal care followed, both in the USA and Europe. The field relied heavily on US samples. 3 However, from 2000 onwards, longitudinal studies into the effects of early childhood education and care from European countries have been conducted. Building on this European movement, in this issue of The Lancet Regional Health-Europe, Barry et al. 4 from the EU Child Cohort Network further advances the field with their individual participant data meta-analysis of six European child cohort studies from five European countries (Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom). Their study, which includes more than 80,000 children, shows that children who attend center-based childcare have lower levels of internalizing symptoms (for children between 5 and 13 years, the average effect size β is −1.03) and lower levels of externalizing symptoms (for children between 7 and 13 years, average effect size β is −2.51), compared to children who were exclusively cared for by their parents prior to school entry. Context matters in childcare research. Based on US studies, childcare seemed to cast a dark shadow far into the future of young children. The robust outcomes of the European study of Barry and colleagues provide a convincing case that attending center-based childcare has a positive impact on children's emotional development. Seen from this perspective, this study is a ray of sun for European stakeholders, acknowledging the diversity of early childhood education and care systems in Europe. 5 A possible explanation for the contrast between the negative conclusions from previous US studies versus the positive findings from Barry and colleagues 4 may be, according to the authors, the regulation of structural quality characteristics which govern center-based childcare in various European countries. The fact is that meta-analytic evidence supports the vital role of structural quality characteristics like staff qualification and child-to-staff ratios, 6 which predict both process quality and child outcomes and which are regulated in European childcare systems. There are still some gaps in the map. In the prevailing structure → process → outcome paradigm in childcare research, 7 process quality is the mediating variable and linking pin from structural characteristics to child outcomes. This variable is missing in Barry et al. 4 Future comparative studies should, therefore, explore childcare in Europe, US, and other places to find out how different childcare systems, with varying levels of regulation (structure), lay the foundation for process quality (process) and, finally, affect children's development (outcome). Second, the researchers have focused on center-based care. This raises the question whether alternative home-based care may result in similar outcomes as center-based care or not; possibly, this depends on the level of regulation for this type of care. Finally, after comparing national regulations for structural quality characteristics like qualification and child-to-staff ratios, it remains an open question whether the reported results from Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom can be generalized to other European countries. Obviously, individual outcomes may also be related to the quantity, quality and timing of childcare and the complex interplay between children's home and childcare contexts. To conclude, researchers from Europe and elsewhere have new answers and face new challenges as well in their exploration of different childcare systems in different societies. Declaration of interests None. References 1 Belsky J. Classroom composition, childcare history and social development: are childcare effects disappearing or spreading? Soc Dev. 2009;18(1):230-238. DOI of original article: https://doi.

The effect of school size and class size on school preparedness

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2024

The purpose of the present study was to understand students’ school readiness as a function of student and teacher behaviors but also school size and class size using both linear and non-linear analytical approaches. Data came from 21,903 schools distributed across 80 countries as per the 2018 cohort of the PISA database. Results pointed to a preference for the Cusp model in that the relationship between school and class sizes with achievement proved to be best described by the non-linearity of the Cusp catastrophe model. The critical benchmarks were a school size of 801 students and a class size of 27 students for which increases beyond those thresholds were linked to nonlinearity and unpredictability in school readiness. For this reason, we suggest using the cusp catastrophe model from Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Theory (NDST) to understand more fully such complex phenomena.

Class size and teacher effects on non-cognitive outcomes in grades K-3: a fixed effects analysis of ECLS-K:2011 data

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023

This study examines the association between class size, teacher characteristics and five non-cognitive student outcomes (i.e., self-control, interpersonal skills, approaches to learning, externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors) in grades K-3. Individual fixed-effects, that control for observed and unobserved time-invariant factors, including student and school time-constant variables, are employed to analyze national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K:2011). Results suggest a significant linear association between reducing class size and interpersonal skills. Teacher experience is saliently, positively and significantly related with student self-control, interpersonal skills, and approaches to learning, and negatively associated with externalizing problem behaviors. Teacher education and certification were not associated with any of the five non-cognitive outcomes. Changing schools had a negative effect on student’s self-control.

Self-Regulation in Children Attending Preschool Institutions That Implement Different Educational Approaches

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023

The number of preschool education institutions implementing alternative educational approaches has increased interest in recent years. The effects of different early childhood education practices have become the focus of researchers. The present study aimed to compare the self-regulation levels of children attending preschool education institutions implementing the Montessori Approach and those implementing the national curriculum in Turkey. The study was designed in the casual comparative research model. The study sample consisted of 140 children aged 48-72 months attending a state preschool, a private preschool affiliated with the Ministry of National Education, and a Montessori school. Research data were collected using the Personal Information Form and Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment. The scale consists of two sub-dimensions including attention, emotion and behavior regulation. The scale, which enables performance-based evaluation, provides observation results based on the tasks that the child is expected to perform. The study results show that self-regulation and positive emotion regulation of the children attending the Montessori school are higher than those going to the state preschool and private preschool. It has also been found that 6-year-old children have higher attentional/ impulse control and self-regulation scores than children aged 4. Moreover, children of young parents have higher self-regulation levels than other age groups. General self-regulation of all the children in the study group is high; the study results are discussed in line with the related literature, and recommendations are made for practices and future studies.

Establishing class size policies for optimal course outcomes in online undergraduate education programs

Article

May 2023

Quality Early Child Education Mitigates against Special Educational Needs in Children

Chapter

Jan 2021

ERKEN ÇOCUKLUK EĞİTİMİNDE KALİTEYE BÜTÜNCÜL BİR YAKLAŞIM

Chapter

Full-text available

Oct 2022

ORTAÖĞRETİM ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN KURAL DIŞI DAVRANIŞLARI: ÖĞRENİM HAYATINI DENETLEYEMEME İNANCI, OKULA AİDİYET VE ÖZSAYGININ ROLÜ

Chapter

Full-text available

Oct 2022

Sıdıka Gizir

Investigating the challenges of teaching sex education to autistic learners: A qualitative exploration of teachers’ experiences

Article

Dec 2022
RES DEV DISABIL

Background Sex education is essential as it equips individuals with the knowledge to live independent and safe sex lives. However, in the United Kingdom, sex education is not particularly accessible for autistic learners which may lead to a lack of knowledge around appropriate sexual behaviours. Aims The current study focusses on the challenges of teaching sex education to autistic learners. Methods and procedures The data was produced through one-to-one interviews with thirteen educational practitioners that have experienced delivering sex education to autistic learners. Outcomes and results Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to interpret the data, producing themes of (1) Pedagogical Restrictions, and (2) Sexual Impulses. Conclusions and implications These findings demonstrated that the main challenges of teaching sex education to autistic learners pertained to Pedagogical Restrictions in the classroom, and learners’ own sexual impulses. These findings are a positive step towards understanding how to adapt sex education lessons to make them more inclusive and accessible for learners with autism. This study contributes to developing understanding around how to support autistic learners, highlighting gaps in the current sex education curriculum for policy makers, and enabling those surrounding autistic individuals to best support them with body transformations.

Monitoring of Preschool Education Quality in the Russian Federation: “Assessment for Development”

Chapter

Jul 2022

The evidence for this model was the complex preschool quality study which was conducted in Russia in 2016 and 2017. The methods of observation in classrooms with the ECERS-R (n2016 = 423; n2017 = 1301), survey (n2016 = 531; n2017 = 1124), and case-study (n = 520) were used. The main findings are: (a) the observation results reflect teacher-oriented curriculum model which doesn’t correspond the new national standard adequately; (b) the majority of practitioners accept the criteria stated in the ECERS-R; but both teachers and administration staff cannot adequately evaluate their practice; (c) process quality doesn’t correlate with teachers’ age, qualification, experience, but has significant tendencies with child/adult ratio, a group size and in-service training specification. “Assessment for development”—using external assessment to return feedback and improve the quality of kindergarten teamwork—is recognized by experts as a productive model of establishing a preschool education quality management system in transition into new guidelines. This model of the Developmental evaluation system combines independent expert assessment and teachers’ self-assessment in regard to learning environment and provisions for child safety, well-being, learning, and socialization, and followed by discussion of assessment criteria with practitioners, teachers’ mastering expert skills in self-evaluation, development of teachers’ professional reflection, and teachers’ elaboration of projects for quality improvement. It requires to promote the values and technics of actual preschool education quality.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in early childhood education: Curriculum design and future directions

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022

With the rapid technological development of society brought on by Artificial Intelligence (AI), the demand for AI-literate workers will increase in the future. It is critical to develop the next generation's AI competencies and to educate them about how to work with and use AI. Previous studies on AI were predominantly focused on secondary and university education; however, research on the Artificial Intelligence curriculum in early childhood education is scarce. Due to the lack of conformity on the standardisation of AI curriculum for early childhood education, this study examines the AI curriculum for kindergarten children using the framework which consists of four key components, including (1) aims, goals, objectives, or declarations of outcome, (2) subject matter, domains, or content, (3) methods or procedure, (4) evaluation and assessment. We recommend that AI literacy be achieved by three competencies: AI Knowledge, AI Skill, and AI Attitude. The employment of a social robot as a learning companion and programmable artifact was proven to be helpful in assisting young children in grasping AI principles. We also discovered which teaching methods had the most greatest influence on students' learning. We recommend project-based learning for future AI education based on the findings.

Consent in the Childhood Classroom: Centering Student Voices Across Early Years and Elementary Education [edition number if not first edition]

Book

Jan 2022

Clio Stearns

The Sociology of Education: A Systematic Analysis

Book

Jun 2021

Türkiye’de Yapılan Lisansüstü Tezlerin Okul Öncesi Dönem Çocuklarının Gelişimlerine Etkisi: Bir Meta Analiz Çalışması

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021

Alanyazında farklı araştırmacılar tarafından, farklı örneklem gruplarıyla, farklı zamanlarda, farklı yerlerde yapılmış bireysel çalışmaları bir araya getirmek, o konudaki yapılan çalışmaların bütününü görmek açısından önemlidir. Bu araştırmanın amacı, Türkiye’de 1998-2020 yılları arasında yayımlanan, okul öncesi dönem çocuklarının gelişim alanlarını desteklemeye yönelik olarak yapılan lisansüstü tezlerdeki deneysel çalışmaların etkisini meta analiz yöntemiyle incelemektir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda ilgili yıllar içerisinde yapılan 250 lisansüstü tez araştırma kapsamına dâhil edilmiştir. Araştırma kapsamında ele alınan lisansüstü tezlerde uygulanan eğitimsel müdahale programlarının okul öncesi dönem çocuklarının gelişimlerine etkisi incelenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda, gelişimi destekleyen 246 tezin büyük düzeyde (d=1,102) etkisinin olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca araştırma kapsamına giren 250 tezden 37’sinde deney grubundaki çocuklara uygulanan müdahalelerin cinsiyete göre etkisi incelenmiştir. Cinsiyet değişkeni ile ilgili meta analiz sonucunda, eğitimsel müdahalelerin kız çocuklar ile erkek çocukların arasında gelişimsel farklılığa neden olmadığı belirlenmiştir. Moderatör analizine göre, uygulanan eğitimsel müdahalelerin toplam süresinin 10 hafta ve üzerinde olmasının, haftalık oturum sayısının üç gün ve üzerinde olmasının ve uygulama yapılan gruptaki çocuk sayısının 20’nin altında olmasının eğitimsel müdahalenin çocukların genel gelişimlerine etkisini artırdığı tespit edilmiştir.

Student Voices: Child Perspectives on the Impact of Working With Teacher Candidates via Clinically Based Teacher Preparation Programs

Article

Jan 2021

This study seeks to understand the perspectives of children who work with teacher candidates in classrooms that partner with clinically based teacher preparation programs. Researchers interviewed 32 third- and fourth-grade students who work with teacher candidates. The study presents the little-heard voices of children, who spend considerable time with teacher candidates during clinical field experiences and whose perspectives contribute meaningfully to what is known about implementation of clinically based teacher preparation. The findings reveal that children perceive that teacher candidates have a positive impact on student learning outcomes and school culture by providing needed emotional and behavior support, contributing to lowered student-teacher ratios, and increasing perceptions of a safe school environment. The findings fill a void in the research literature and inform implementation of effective clinically based teacher preparation programming.

Reflecting on ‘quality’ in early childhood education: practitioners’ perspectives and voices

Article

Nov 2020

Valerie Sollars

Despite widespread availability, accessibility and affordability of early years settings in the Maltese context, the quality of services within childcare and kindergarten has never been explored. This study presents the perspectives of 436 practitioners from 50 childcare or kindergarten settings who were invited to reflect upon their understanding of quality through an interview or focus group discussion. Practitioners are key, influential stakeholders, responsible for supporting young children and their families at a significant time of growth, development and transitions. Given their crucial role in providing quality learning experiences, it is imperative to access their insights into ‘quality’ issues which can offer much-needed evidence for policy development. NVivo analysis of practitioners’ responses to an open-ended question yielded five broad factors including environmental factors, relationships, practitioner matters, child-oriented factors and issues associated with policies and praxis. These results are interpreted in light of their implications for policymakers and practitioners.

Research synthesis as a scientific process

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2009

The moment we are introduced to science we are told it is a cooperative, cumulative enterprise. Like the artisans who construct a building from blueprints, bricks, and mortar, scientists contribute to a common edifice, called knowledge. Theorists provide our blueprints and researchers collect the data that are our bricks. To extend the analogy further yet, we might say that research synthesists are the bricklayers and hodcarriers of the science guild. It is their job to stack the bricks according to plan and apply the mortar that makes the whole thing stick. Anyone who has attempted a research synthesis is entitled to a wry smile as the analogy continues. They know that several sets of theory-blueprints often exist, describing structures that vary in form and function, with few a priori criteria for selecting between them. They also know that our data-bricks are not all six-sided and right-angled. They come in a baffling array of sizes and shapes. Making them fit, securing them with mortar, and seeing whether the resulting construction looks anything like the blueprint is a challenge worthy of the most dedicated, inspired artisan.

Early Childhood Education: A Meta-Analytic Affirmation of the Short- and Long-Term Benefits of Educational Opportunity

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2001

Kevin M. Gorey

Some scholars who emphasize the heritability of intelligence have suggested that compensatory preschool programs, designed to ameliorate the plight of socioeconomically or otherwise environmentally impoverished children, are wasteful. They have hypothesized that cognitive abilities result primarily from genetic causes and that such environmental manipulations are ineffective. Alternatively, based on the theory that intelligence and related complex human behaviors are probably always determined by myriad complex interactions of genes and environments, the present meta-analytic study is based on the assumption that such behaviors can be both highly heritable and highly malleable. Integrating results across 35 preschool experiments and quasi-experiments, the primary findings were: (a) preschool effects on standardized measures of intelligence and academic achievement were statistically significant, positive, and large; (b) cognitive effects of relatively intense educational interventions were significant and very large, even after 5 to 10 years, and 7 to 8 of every 10 preschool children did better than the average child in a control or comparison group; and (c) cumulative incidences of an array of personal and social problems were statistically significantly and substantially lower over a 10- to 25year period for those who had attended preschool (e.g., school drop out, welfare dependence, unemployment, poverty, criminal behavior). The need for a very large, well-controlled, national experiment to either confirm or refute these provocative, review-generated findings is discussed.

Can Research Design Explain Variation in Head Start Research Results? A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive and Achievement Outcomes

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2013

This study explores the extent to which differences in research design explain variation in Head Start program impacts. We employ meta-analytic techniques to predict effect sizes for cognitive and achievement outcomes as a function of the type and rigor of research design, quality and type of outcome measure, activity level of control group, and attrition. Across program evaluations, the average program-level effect size was 0.27 standard deviations. About 41% of the variation in estimates across evaluations can be explained by research design features, including the extent to which the control group experienced other forms of early care or education, and 11% of the variation within programs can be explained by the quality and type of the outcome measures.

Features of Pre-Kindergarten Programs, Classrooms, and Teachers: Do They Predict Observed Classroom Quality and Child-Teacher Interactions?

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2005

This study draws from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's Multi-State Pre-Kindergarten Study to examine the extent to which program, class- room, and teacher attributes of the program ecology predict observed quality and teacher-child interactions in a sample of 238 classrooms representing 6 states' pre-kindergarten programs. Quality was assessed observationally at the global level and for specific teaching practices. Quality was lower in classrooms with more than 60% of the children from homes below the poverty line, when teachers lacked formal training (or a degree) in early childhood education, and held less child-centered beliefs. Program and teacher attributes were statistically significant, albeit quite modest, predictors of observed quality. Location of the program in a school building, child:staff ratio, and length of day had no relation to quality. State-level factors not attributable to the teacher, program, and classroom factors examined accounted for the majority of explained variance in observed quality. Re- sults suggest that the association between distal features of programs and teachers and quality in pre-kindergarten is more similar to elementary school settings than to child care settings and that quality appears most closely related to proximal teacher and child characteristics.

THE ABBOTT PRESCHOOL PROGRAM LONGITUDINAL EFFECTS STUDY (APPLES)

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2007

Examining the Effect of Class Size on Classroom Engagement and Teacher-Pupil Interaction: Differences in Relation to Pupil Prior Attainment and Primary vs. Secondary Schools

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2011
LEARN INSTR

It is widely recognized that we need to know more about effects of class size on classroom interactions and pupil behavior. This paper extends research by comparing effects on pupil classroom engagement and teacher-pupil interaction, and examining if effects vary by pupil attainment level and between primary and secondary schools. Systematic observations were carried out on 686 pupils in 49 schools. Multilevel regression methods were used to examine relationships between class size and observation measures, controlling for potentially confounding factors like pupil attainment. At primary and secondary levels smaller classes led to pupils receiving more individual attention from teachers, and having more active interactions with them. Classroom engagement decreased in larger classes, but, contrary to expectation, this was particularly marked for lower attaining pupils at secondary level. Low attaining pupils can therefore benefit from smaller classes at secondary level in terms of more individual attention and facilitating engagement in learning. (Contains 4 tables and 7 figures.)

A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Research on Preschool Prevention Programs for Children

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2003
Prev Treat

The objectives of this research were to determine the effectiveness of preschool prevention programs for disadvantaged children and families in the short-term (preschool), medium-term (kindergarten-8th grade), and the long-term (high school and beyond) and to identify factors that moderate program success. Meta-analysis was used to examine the effect sizes (d) of different outcome domains of 34 preschool prevention programs that had at least one follow-up assessment when the children were in school. Although cognitive impacts resulting from these programs were greatest during the preschool period (d=0.52), they were still evident during kindergarten through Grade 8 (K-8; d=0.30). Social-emotional impacts on children were similar at K-8 (d=0.27) and high school and beyond (d=0.33), as were parent-family wellness impacts at preschool (d=0.33) and K-8 (d=0.30). As predicted, cognitive impacts during the preschool time period were greatest for those programs that had a direct teaching component in preschool. Also as predicted, cognitive impacts during the K-8 time period were greatest for those programs that had a follow-through educational component in elementary school... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Does Head Start Work? A 1-Year Follow-Up Comparison of Disadvantaged Children Attending Head Start, No Preschool, and Other Preschool Programs

Article

Full-text available

Mar 1988

This article examines how successful Project Head Start has been as a preschool program for economically disadvantaged children. Most Head Start evaluations have not controlled for initial differences between Head Start and comparison groups. They have also limited comparisons to those with no preschool experience, rather than considering other preschools as an alternative comparison group. Subjects were 969 disadvantaged children attending Head Start, other preschool, or no preschool in 1969–1970, longitudinally evaluated on a variety of cognitive measures. Large initial group differences were observed between Head Start children and both comparison groups, with those in Head Start at a disadvantage on nearly every demographic and cognitive measure. Adjusting for initial background and cognitive differences, Head Start children showed significantly larger gains on the Preschool Inventory and Motor Inhibition tests than either comparison group, with Black children in Head Start (especially those of below-average initial ability) gaining the most. However, despite substantial gains, Head Start children were still behind their peers in terms of absolute cognitive levels after a year in the program. Head Start proved an impressive instrument of short-term change, even compared with other preschool experience. Gains in behaviors other than intelligence suggest that the effects may not be limited to the cognitive domain.

Modeling the Impacts of Child Care Quality on Children's Preschool Cognitive Development

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2003
CHILD DEV

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care compared 3 statistical methods that adjust for family selection bias to test whether child care type and quality relate to cognitive and academic skills. The methods included: multiple regression models of 54-month outcomes, change models of differences in 24- and 54-month outcomes, and residualized change models of 54-month outcomes adjusting for the 24-month outcome. The study was unable to establish empirically which model best adjusted for selection and omitted-variable bias. Nevertheless, results suggested that child care quality predicted cognitive outcomes at 54 months, with effect sizes of .04 to .08 for both infant and preschool ages. Center care during preschool years also predicted outcomes across all models.

Promoting School Readiness in Oklahoma: An Evaluation of Tulsa's Pre-K Program

Article

Jun 2005

Since the mid-1990s, three states, including Oklahoma, have established a universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program. We analyze the effects of Oklahoma's universal pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program forfour-year-olds on children in Tulsa Public Schools (TPS). The main difficulty with testing the causal impact of a voluntary pre-K program is that certain parents are more likely to select pre-K, and these parents might have other unobservable characteristics that influence the test outcomes of their children. Because TPS administered an identical test in September 2001 to children just beginning pre-K and children just beginning kindergarten, we can compare test outcomes of "old" pre-kindergarten students to test outcomes of "young" kindergarten students who attended pre-K the previous year We find that the Tulsa pre-K program increases cognitive/knowledge scores by approximately 0.39 standard deviation, motor skills scores by approximately 0.24 standard deviation, and language scores by approximately 0.38 standard deviation. Impacts tend to be largest,for Hispanics, followed by blacks, with little impact for whites. Children who qualify for a free lunch have larger impacts than other children.

Comprehensive meta-analysis (Version 2.2.027) [Computer software]

Article

Jan 2005

Class Size Reduction and Student Achievement: The Potential Tradeoff between Teacher Quality and Class Size

Article

Jan 2009

This paper investigates the effects of California’s billion-dollar class-size-reduction program on student achievement. It uses year-to-year differences in class size generated by variation in enrollment and the state’s class-size-reduction program to identify both the direct effects of smaller classes and related changes in teacher quality. Although the results show that smaller classes raised mathematics and reading achievement, they also show that the increase in the share of teachers with neither prior experience nor full certification dampened the benefits of smaller classes, particularly in schools with high shares of economically disadvantaged, minority students.

Systematic coding

Article

Jan 2009

D.B. Wilson

A research synthesist has collected a set of studies that address a similar research question and wishes to code the studies to create a dataset suitable for meta-analysis. This task is analogous to interviewing, but a study rather than a person is interviewed. Interrogating might be a more apt description, though it is usually the coder who loses sleep because of the study and not the other way around. The goal of this chapter is to provide synthesists with practical advice on designing and developing a coding protocol suitable to this task. A coding protocol is both the coding forms, whether paper or computerized, and the coding manual providing instructions on how to apply coding form items to studies. A well-designed coding protocol will describe the characteristics of the studies included in the research synthesis and will capture the pertinent findings in a fashion suitable for comparison and synthesis using metaanalysis. The descriptive aspect typically focuses on ways in which the studies may differ from one another. For example, the research context may vary across studies. In addition, studies may use different operationalizations of one or more of the critical constructs. Capturing variations in settings, participants, methodology, experimental manipulations, and dependent measures is an important objective of the coding protocol, not only for careful description but also for use in the analysis to explain variation in study findings (see chapters 7 and 8, this volume). More fundamentally, the coding protocol serves as the foundation for the transparency and replicability of the synthesis.

Meta-Analysis of Research on Class Size and Achievement

Article

Jan 1979

Four Preschool Programs: Their Dimensions and Effects

Article

Oct 1975

Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Early Education Interventions on Cognitive and Social Development

Article

Mar 2010

Background/Context There is much current interest in the impact of early childhood education programs on preschoolers and, in particular, on the magnitude of cognitive and affective gains. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Because this new segment of public education may require substantial resources, accurate descriptions are required of the potential benefits and costs of implementing specific preschool programs. To address this issue comprehensively, a meta-analysis was conducted for the purpose of synthesizing the outcomes of comparative studies in this area. Population/Participants/Subjects A total of 123 comparative studies of early childhood interventions were analyzed. Each study provided a number of contrasts, where a contrast is defined as the comparison of an intervention group of children with an alternative intervention or no intervention group. Intervention/Program/Practice A prevalent pedagogical approach in these studies was direct instruction, but inquiry-based pedagogical approaches also occurred in some interventions. No assumption was made that nominally similar interventions were equivalent. Research Design The meta-analytic database included both quasi-experimental and randomized studies. A coding strategy was developed to record information for computing study effects, study design, sample characteristics, and program characteristics. Findings/Results Consistent with the accrued research base on the effects of preschool education, significant effects were found in this study for children who attend a preschool program prior to entering kindergarten. Although the largest effect sizes were observed for cognitive outcomes, a preschool education was also found to impact children's social skills and school progress. Specific aspects of the treatments that positively correlated with gains included teacher-directed instruction and small-group instruction, but provision of additional services tended to be associated with negative gains. Conclusions/Recommendations Given the current state of research on the efficacy of early childhood interventions, there is both good and bad news. The good news is that a host of original and synthetic studies have found positive effects for a range of outcomes, and this pattern is clearest for outcomes relating to cognitive development. Moreover, many promising variables for program design have been identified and linked to outcomes, though little more can be said of the link than that it is positive. The bad news is that there is much less empirical information in the studies examined available for designing interventions at multiple levels with multiple components.

Child Outcomes When Child Care Center Classes Meet Recommended Standards for Quality

Article

Jul 1999

Objectives: This study assessed outcomes for children when child care centers meet recommended care standards. Methods: Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care were used to examine the association between meeting standards for child-staff ratios, group sizes, caregiver training, and caregiver education and children's development at 24 and 36 months of age. Results: There were 5 major findings: (1) most classes observed did not meet all 4 recommended standards (compliance ranged from 10% at 6 months of age to 34% at 36 months of age); (2) linear associations were found between number of standards met and child outcomes, and this was more the case at 36 months than at 24 months of age: (3) there was no evidence of threshold effects; (4) children in classes that met more standards had better school readiness and language comprehension scores as well as fewer behavior problems at 36 months of age; and (5) child outcomes were predicted by child-staff ratio at 24 months and caregiver training and education at 36 months of age. Conclusions: Outcomes were better when children attended classes that met recommended child-staff ratios and recommended levels of caregiver training and education.

Class Size and Student Outcomes: Research and Policy Implications

Article

Mar 2013
J POLICY ANAL MANAG

Matthew M. Chingos

The “Why’s” of Class Size: Student Behavior in Small Classes

Article

Sep 2003

Small classes in the elementary grades have been shown to boost students’ academic performance. However, researchers continue to seek a consistent, integrated explanation of “why” small classes have positive effects. This article forwards the hypothesis that when class sizes are reduced, major changes occur in students’ engagement in the classroom. Engagement is composed of “learning behavior” and pro- and antisocial behavior. Both are highly related to academic performance. We first review research on the relationship between class size and student engagement. Second, we review sociological and psychological theory about the behavior of individuals in groups to explain how student behavior can be affected by changes in class size. Both theory and empirical findings support our hypothesis, although additional research is required. High-priority questions needing further research are identified in the conclusion.

www.hks.harvard.edu/pepg / The Impact of a Universal Class-Size Reduction Policy: Evidence from Florida’s Statewide Mandate

Article

Oct 2012
ECON EDUC REV

Matthew M. Chingos

Class-size reduction (CSR) mandates presuppose that resources provided to reduce class size will have a larger impact on student outcomes than resources that districts can spend as they see fit. I estimate the impact of Florida's statewide CSR policy by comparing the deviations from prior achievement trends in districts that were required to reduce class size to deviations from prior trends in districts that received equivalent resources but were not required to reduce class size. I use the same comparative interrupted time series design to compare schools that were differentially affected by the policy (in terms of whether they had to reduce class size) but that did not receive equal additional resources. The results from both the district- and school-level analyses indicate that mandated CSR in Florida had little, if any, effect on student achievement.

Can Rating Pre-K Programs Predict Children's Learning?

Article

Aug 2013
SCIENCE

Systems intended to rate the quality of early education programs may not actually reflect impacts on learning.

Do Reductions in Class Size Raise Students' Test Scores? Evidence from Population Variation in Minnesota's Elementary Schools

Article

Jun 2012
ECON EDUC REV

Many U.S. states and cities spend substantial funds to reduce class size, especially in elementary (primary) school. Estimating the impact of class size on learning is complicated, since children in small and large classes differ in many observed and unobserved ways. This paper uses a method of Hoxby (2000) to assess the impact of class size on the test scores of grade 3 and 5 students in Minnesota. The method exploits random variation in class size due to random variation in births in school and district catchment areas. The results show that reducing class size increases mathematics and reading test scores in Minnesota. Yet these impacts are very small; a decrease of ten students would increase test scores by only 0.04-0.05 standard deviations (of the distribution of test scores). Thus class size reductions are unlikely to lead to sizeable increases in student learning.

Effects of a Highly Structured Program of Language Development on Intellectual Functioning and Psycholinguistic Development of Culturally Disadvantaged Three-Year-Olds

Article

Oct 1968

Effects of Class Size and Instruction on Kindergarten Achievement

Article

Dec 2006

Although experimental results indicate that smaller classes promote higher achievement in early elementary school, the broader literature on class-size effects is inconclusive. This seeming contradiction raises questions about the generalizability of experimental evidence, an issue that this article addresses by examining the effects of class size on achievement in kindergarten with data from a nationwide survey, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Class of 1998–99. To distinguish class-level from individual-level effects, this analysis utilizes hierarchical linear models. In response to concerns about selectivity, teacher fixed-effects models are also estimated. In an effort to understand the inconsistent findings of the past, the authors examine classroom conditions that may affect the link between class size and academic achievement, and also consider whether class size has different effects for different groups of students. The authors find no evidence of class-size effects on student achievement in either reading or mathematics, and results indicate that class size is equally insignificant for students from different race/ethnic, economic, and academic backgrounds. Teacher fixed-effects analyses also yield null findings for class size. Instructional activities offer significant boosts to achievement, but the effects of instruction do not differ between small and large classes. The authors discuss why the small class size advantage evidenced by experimental research might not generalize to nonexperimental, naturally occurring settings throughout the nation.

A Comparison of School Readiness Outcomes for Children Randomly Assigned to a Head Start Program and the Program's Wait List

Article

Apr 2003

A research study with a wide range of outcomes related to school readiness, including health, social skills, cognitive skills, and language skills was conducted with eligible 4-year-old applicants and their parents within a southeastern Head Start program of high quality. Children and their families in the Head Start treatment and wait list comparison groups were given a battery of assessments. The study used growth curve modeling and traditional analysis of variance when only 2 measurements of outcomes were available. Initial status was equivalent and the growth rates for the Head Start children were statistically significantly faster than the comparison children on the receptive vocabulary and phonemic awareness measures. There was a statistically significant time by group interaction and main effect of time for the problem behavior index of the social functioning measure. The parent report of health outcomes also showed statistically significant differences between the 2 groups with the treatment group reporting more healthy responses.

Predicting Child Outcomes at the End of Kindergarten from the Quality of Pre-Kindergarten Teacher–Child Interactions and Instruction

Article

Jul 2008

Publicly funded prekindergartens are programs that most states use to promote school readiness, especially of 4-year-old children at risk for academic problems due to poverty. Despite large public expenditures, these programs have not been widely evaluated. We examined 240 randomly selected pre-kindergarten programs in six states with mature programs that serve large numbers of children, and evaluated specific aspects of classroom quality and children's academic achievement in both the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten year for over 700 children. Results showed that, on average, pre-kindergarten teachers were moderately responsive and sensitive, but were less successful in engaging children in learning specific skills. Both sensitive and stimulating interactions with the teacher and the instructional quality aspects of the pre-kindergarten classroom predicted the acquisition of language, pre-academic, and social skills through the end of the kindergarten year.

The Effect of Head Start Training on the Cognitive Growth of Disadvantaged Children

Article

May 1969

To measure the effects of Mead Start on the cognitive development of preschool children, forty-three pairs of Head Start children were compared with children of similar ages who had been registered for Head Start but had not as yet begun the program. The assumption made in the selection of the latter group for comparison purposes, was that the family background and other variables that make for a particular child being enrolled in this voluntary program would be controlled. Subjects were given the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test and the Caldwell-Soule Preschool Inventory. No significant differences (p = < .05) in IQ were found. Significant differences (approximately one-half of a standard deviation) were found on the Caldwell-Soule Preschool Inventory.

ChildCare Structure Process Outcome: Direct and Indirect Effects of ChildCare Quality on Young Children's Development

Article

May 2002

Elizabeth Jaeger

With data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, we used structural equation modeling to test paths from structural indicators of child-care quality, specifically caregiver training and child-staff ratio, through a process indicator to child outcomes. There were three main findings: (a) Quality of maternal caregiving was the strongest predictor of cognitive competence, as well as caregivers' ratings of social competence; (b) quality of nonmaternal caregiving was associated with cognitive competence and caregivers' ratings of social competence; and (c) there was a mediated path from both caregiver training and child-staff ratio through quality of nonmaternal caregiving to cognitive competence, as well as to caregivers' ratings of social competence, that was not accounted for entirely by family variables. These findings provide empirical support for policies that improve state regulations for caregiver training and child-staff ratios.

Impacts of a Prekindergarten Program on Children's Mathematics, Language, Literacy, Executive Function, and Emotional Skills

Article

Mar 2013
CHILD DEV

Publicly funded prekindergarten programs have achieved small-to-large impacts on children's cognitive outcomes. The current study examined the impact of a prekindergarten program that implemented a coaching system and consistent literacy, language, and mathematics curricula on these and other nontargeted, essential components of school readiness, such as executive functioning. Participants included 2,018 four and five-year-old children. Findings indicated that the program had moderate-to-large impacts on children's language, literacy, numeracy and mathematics skills, and small impacts on children's executive functioning and a measure of emotion recognition. Some impacts were considerably larger for some subgroups. For urban public school districts, results inform important programmatic decisions. For policy makers, results confirm that prekindergarten programs can improve educationally vital outcomes for children in meaningful, important ways.

Short Term Cognitive Effects of Head Start Programs: A Report on the Third Year of Planned Variation--1971-72

Article

Jan 1974

Herbert i Weisberg

This report focuses on three main questions: (1) To what extent does a Head Start experience accelerate the rate at which disadvantaged preschoolers acquire cognitive skills? (2) Are the Planned Variation models, simply by virtue of sponsorship more effective than ordinary nonsponsored Head Start programs? and (3) Are some Planned Variation models particularly effective at imparting certain skills? The first chapter gives an overall picture of the Head Start Planned Variation study, while the second chapter summarizes data concerning background characteristics and distribution of test scores. Chapter 3 provides a general discussion of methodological issues and some of the major difficulties resulting from the study design. Chapters 4-7 attempt to present a picture of the pattern of overall effects of various programs through ranking analysis, residual analysis, analysis of covariance, and resistant analysis. The final chapters explore the question of whether the relative effectiveness of various programs is related to certain child background characteristics, such as sex, ethnicity, age, prior school experience, and mother's education. One major conclusion drawn as a result of the intermodel comparisons was that Head Start programs are quite homogeneous in their ability to promote general cognitive development. (CS)

SECOND-YEAR REPORT ON AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF PREKINDERGARTEN PROGRAMS FOR EDUCATIONALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN.

Article

Feb 1968

PREKINDERGARTENS IN 8 NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL SYSTEMS WERE EVALUATED TO FIND OUT IF THE CHILDREN INVOLVED SHOWED INCREASED CAPACITY TO LEARN, AND IMPROVEMENT IN LANGUAGE AND COGNITIVE SKILLS. 1010 DISADVANTAGED AND 225 NONDISADVANTAGED SUBJECTS WERE RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS AND PRE- AND POST-TESTED WITH THE STANFORD-BINET AND THE PEABODY PICTURE VOCABULARY TEST. AT THE END OF THE PREKINDERGARTEN YEARS THE ILLINOIS TEST OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ABILITIES WAS GIVEN, AND LATE IN THE KINDERGARTEN YEAR THE METROPOLITAN READINESS TESTS WERE USED TO SEE IF GAINS OBTAINED DURING PREKINDERGARTEN WERE SUSTAINED OR INCREASED. THE GENERAL CURRICULUM IN ALL PROGRAMS WAS THE SAME, BUT CERTAIN ACTIVITIES WERE ADDED TO SELECTED CLASSES. CHILDREN WHO WERE GIVEN READING READINESS INSTRUCTION OR LANGUAGE TRAINING SHOWED THE GREATEST GAINS. IMPLICATIONS ARE THAT THE MOST EFFECTIVE PREKINDERGARTEN PROGRAMS ARE THOSE WHOSE CONTENT IS DESIGNED TO DEVELOP COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES EFFECTIVE IN INCREASING LEARNING CAPACITIES. IT ALSO APPEARS THAT PREKINDERGARTEN EFFECTS WILL BE MOST LASTING IF SPECIAL PROGRAMMING FOR THE DISADVANTAGED IS CONTINUED INTO THE PRIMARY GRADES. THIS PAPER WAS PRESENTED AT THE 1967 ANNUAL CONVOCATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK STATE, NOVEMBER 14, 1967. (MS)

Head Start Impact Study. Final Report

Article

Jan 2010

This report addresses the following four questions by reporting on the impacts of Head Start on children and families during the children's preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade years: (1) What difference does Head Start make to key outcomes of development and learning (and in particular, the multiple domains of school readiness) for low-income children? (2) What difference does Head Start make to parental practices that contribute to children's school readiness? (3) Under what circumstances does Head Start achieve the greatest impact? What works for which children? (4) What Head Start services are most related to impact? The Head Start Impact Study was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 84 grantee/delegate agencies and included nearly 5,000 newly entering, eligible 3- and 4-year-old children who were randomly assigned to either: (1) a Head Start group that had access to Head Start program services or (2) a control group that did not have access to Head Start, but could enroll in other early childhood programs or non-Head Start services selected by their parents. The study was designed to separately examine two cohorts of children, newly entering 3-and 4-year-olds. This design reflects the hypothesis that different program impacts may be associated with different age of entry into Head Start. Differential impacts are of particular interest in light of a trend of increased enrollment of the 3-year-olds in some grantee/delegate agencies presumably due to the growing availability of preschool options for 4-year-olds. Consequently, the study included two separate samples: a newly entering 3-year-old group (to be studied through two years of Head Start participation i.e., Head Start year and age 4 year, kindergarten and 1st grade), and a newly entering 4-year-old group (to be studied through one year of Head Start participation, kindergarten and 1st grade). The study showed that the two age cohorts varied in demographic characteristics, making it even more appropriate to examine them separately. The racial/ethnic characteristics of newly entering children in the 3-year-old cohort were substantially different from the characteristics of children in the newly entering 4-year-old cohort. While the newly entering 3-year-olds were relatively evenly distributed between Black children and Hispanic children (Black children 32.8%, Hispanic children 37.4%, and White/other children 29.8%), about half of newly entering 4-year-olds were Hispanic children (Black children 17.5%, Hispanic children 51.6%, and White/other children 30.8%). The ethnic difference is also reflected in the age-group differences in child and parent language. This report presents the findings from the preschool years through children's 1st grade experience. This document consists of the Executive Summary and nine chapters. Chapter 1 presents the study background, including a literature review of related Head Start research and the study purpose and objectives. Chapter 2 provides details about the study design and implementation. It discusses the experimental design, sample selection prior to random assignment, data collection, and data analysis. To provide a context in which to understand the impact findings, Chapter 3 examines the impact of Head Start on the services and child care settings that children experience prior to starting school. It also provides the impact of Head Start on the educational and child care settings, setting characteristics, and services that children experience during kindergarten and 1st grade. Chapters 4 through 7 present the impact of Head Start on children's outcomes and parenting practices for the years before school and then for kindergarten and 1st grade. Chapter 4 presents the impact of Head Start on children's cognitive development, Chapter 5 presents the impact of Head Start on children's social-emotional development, Chapter 6 presents the impact of Head Start on children's health status and access to health services, and Chapter 7 presents the impact of Head Start on parenting practices in the areas of educational activities, discipline practices, and school involvement. Chapter 8 examines variation in impacts by child characteristics, parent and family characteristics, and community characteristics. Chapter 9 provides an overall summary of the findings, implications for the Head Start Program, and unanswered questions. Appendices in this volume include the Head Start Impact Study legislation, a list of the official Head Start Impact Study Advisory Committee members, the language decision form used to determine the language in which the child was assessed, and data tables that elaborate on the findings presented in the volume (e.g., Impact on Treated (IOT) findings). The findings from a sample of programs in Puerto Rico are also provided in an appendix. Programs in Puerto Rico were included in the study with the intent that data on children in these programs would be analyzed along with the data on children in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, once children reached school-age. (Contains 1 figure, 117 footnotes, and 114 exhibits.) [The ERIC version of this document contains the following supplementary materials: Head Start Impact Study Main Impact Tables, 2003 through 2006; and Head Start Impact Study Subgroup Impact Tables, 2003 through 2006. For the "Head Start Impact Study Technical Report," see ED507846. For the "Head Start Impact Study Final Report. Executive Summary," see ED507847.]

THE EFFECT OF PRESCHOOL GROUP EXPERIENCE ON VARIOUS LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL SKILLS IN DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN. FINAL REPORT

Article

Jan 1967

BARBARA J. VANCE

FIFTY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN, RANGING IN AGE FROM 33 TO 56 MONTHS, PARTICIPATED IN A 7-MONTH PRESCHOOL EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM DESIGNED TO IMPROVE THEIR LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL SKILLS. THE ILLINOIS TEST OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ABILITIES, THE PEABODY PICTURE VOCABULARY TEST (FORM A), AND THE VANCE LANGUAGE SKILLS TEST MEASURED THE CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT IN LANGUAGE SKILLS, AND THE CAIN-LEVINE SOCIAL COMPETENCY SCALE MEASURED PREEXPERIMENTAL AND POSTEXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL COMPETENCY. RESULTS WERE ANALYZED BY T-TEST AND ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE AND WERE MATCHED AGAINST THOSE OF A COMPARABLE GROUP OF PRESCHOOLERS WHO HAD REMAINED AT HOME. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT THE PRESCHOOL PROGRAM IN THIS STUDY WAS NOT EFFECTIVE IN INCREASING THE LANGUAGE SKILLS SCORES AND SOCIAL COMPETENCY SCORES OF 3-YEAR-OLD AND 4-YEAR-OLD DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN AS MEASURED BY TESTS ADMINISTERED AT THE END OF THE PROGRAM. CONTRARY TO PRESENT EDUCATIONAL THEORY, THE HOME AND NEIGHBORHOOD ENVIRONMENT APPEARS TO BE AS USEFUL AS A CAREFULLY PLANNED PRESCHOOL SITUATION IN DEVELOPING NECESSARY LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL SKILLS. FUTURE STUDIES MIGHT FOLLOW UP THE TWO GROUPS OF CHILDREN WHEN THEY REACH KINDERGARTEN TO SEE IF LATENT LEARNING TOOK PLACE DURING THE EXPERIMENTAL PERIOD. APPENDIXES INCLUDE COPIES OF THE TESTS USED IN THE STUDY. TABLES SHOW STATISTICAL METHODS. (MS)

Preschool and Postscript: An Evaluation of an Inner-City Program

Article

Jan 1972

Elizabeth Herzog

This report describes the history, program, sample population, assessment methods, participant reactions, and final evaluation of a 7-year study which investigated the long-term effects of a 2-year traditional nursery school intervention program. A total of 30 disadvantaged children with below-normal initial IQs began the full-day program at age 3 and continued the program for 2 years. The children then entered a special kindergarten class for one year, were kept together for 2 subsequent years in a special school situation, and entered regular third grade classes. Followup information was obtained during the third, fourth, and fifth grades. The assessment criteria used were restricted to objective measures of intelligence and school achievement, such as language use and understanding, perceptual discrimination, concept formation, sensorimotor coordination, memory, and number skills. Final results indicate that the improvements evidenced by children in the treatment group after the preschool program gave them little or no advantage by the end of the fourth grade over their peers who did not receive treatment. Sex, initial IQ, and sociometric status showed systematic relations to patterns of later IQ scores and school achievement measures. Methods of assessment used and final results are discussed in detail. (ED)

Bright Beginnings: An Effective Literacy-Focused PreK Program for Educationally Disadvantaged Four-Year-Old Children

Article

Jan 2003

This monograph describes the development, implementation, and outcomes of the full-day, literacy-focused Bright Beginnings program for disadvantaged preschoolers in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in North Carolina. Key components of Bright Beginnings are a child-centered curriculum with strong language development and literacy emphasis, parent/family involvement and partnerships, community support and collaboration, professional development, and ongoing research and evaluation. The monograph describes several aspects of the program--development, curriculum design, classroom instruction, student composition, learning assessment, staff certification and training, parent participation, program funding, community partnerships, and volunteer support--and documents program effects on the learning of successive cohorts from 1998 through 2001. Results of the individually-administered Kindergarten Entry Profile (KEP) were compared for three groups in each cohort: Bright Beginnings prekindergarten participants, a comparison group of educationally needy children, and all other students. Among the major findings from the program's first 5 years is that Bright Beginnings participants were much better prepared each year than the Comparison Group and slightly better prepared than the All Other Students group. Longitudinal studies of Cohort 1 students revealed that by the end of Grade 2, Bright Beginnings participants consistently performed better on literacy and mathematics assessments than Comparison Group students, and had lower grade retention rates. When the number of Cohort 1 students who had been retained in grades K-2 were factored into the assessment data as being below third-grade level, findings revealed that, by the end of Grade 3, percentages of Bright Beginnings participants scoring at or above grade level were considerably higher than percentages for the Comparison Group in reading and mathematics. General patterns of relative performance for Bright Beginnings participants and their peers in successive cohorts were substantially similar to that in Cohort 1. (Contains 18 references.) (KB)

National Evaluation of Family Support Programs. Final Report Volume A: The Meta-Analysis

Article

Jan 2001

This volume is part of the final report of the National Evaluation of Family Support Programs and details findings from a meta-analysis of extant research on programs providing family support services. Chapter A1 of this volume provides a rationale for using meta-analysis. Chapter A2 describes the steps of preparation for the meta-analysis. Chapter A3 describes the 260 programs or interventions represented in the meta-analysis, examines their representativeness by comparing them with 167 family support programs that were not evaluated, describes characteristics of the studies included in the analysis, and compares them with excluded studies. Chapter A4 describes the analytic approach to answering the central research questions regarding the impact of family support services on selected child and adult outcomes and the program or treatment characteristics related to impacts. Chapter A5 details the findings of the meta-analysis. The analysis revealed that programs providing family support services had small but statistically significant average short-term effects on child cognitive development and school performance, child social and emotional development, child health, child safety, parent attitudes and knowledge, parenting behavior, family functioning, parental mental health and health risk behaviors, and economic well-being. Associated with stronger child outcomes were programs that targeted special needs children. Associated with less strong child outcomes were programs that used home visiting as their primary method of working with parents. Programs with the largest parent effects focused on developing parents' skills as effective adults: self-confidence, self-empowerment, family management, and parenting. (Contains 59 data exhibits and 26 references.) (KB)

Family Influences on Competencies in Low-Risk Preschool Children

Article

Jan 1985

Jean M. Larsen

A Meta-Analysis of Class Sizes and Ratios in Early Childhood Education Programs: Are Thresholds of Quality Associated With Greater Impacts on Cognitive, Achievement, and Socioemotional Outcomes?

Abstract

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