Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between the characteristics of the home learning environment (HLE) and students' academic attainments in secondary school in England at age 14 and 16. Design/methodology/approach-This research study uses multilevel statistical models to investigate the strength and significance of relationships between various measures of the HLE at ages three, six, 11 and 14, and students' academic attainment in secondary school. Findings-Multilevel models show that early years HLE and specific dimensions of later HLE are positive predictors of students' later academic attainment at age 14 and 16, when the influence of various individual, family and neighbourhood characteristics are controlled. Originality/value-The paper presents unique findings on the role of the HLE in shaping students' academic success at secondary school, including a range of measures of the HLE obtained at different ages. The results show that the early years HLE measured at age three continues to show effects on later attainment, over and beyond the effects of later HLE and other significant influences such as family socioeconomic status and parents' qualification levels.

Today's children grow up in an environment that is increasingly characterized by digital voice assistants (DVAs), such as Alexa, Siri, or the Google Assistant. This paper argues that any attempt to investigate children's interactions with, and perceptions of, DVAs should be based on the theoretical grounds of an ontological framework that considers children's genuine understanding of what it means to be human and what it means to be a machine. Based on focus groups and a gamified data collection design, our empirical inquiry applied qualitative methods to explore primary school children's (n = 27, age range: 6-10 years, average age: 8.6 years) open interactions with DVAs. In particular, our focus was on how DVAs were embedded in children's general ontological belief system, and how children interpreted certain aspects of DVAs' interactive capabilities as being genuinely humanoid or non-humanoid. On the one hand, our findings suggest that children's interactions with DVAs might be more an end in itself than a means to an end, meaning that children primarily interact with DVAs for the sake of engaging excitement instead of using the devices' utilitarian functionalities. On the other hand, we found that children in our sample held firm ontological beliefs about the distinct nature of humans and machines, whilst interpreting certain aspects of DVAs' interactive capabilities as being genuinely humanoid (e.g., non-responsiveness, delayed responses, inaccuracy) and non-humanoid (e.g., permanent responsiveness, promptness, accuracy, limited conversational capacities, lack of common sense, standardized responses) at the same time.

Betty (2020) Measuring interactional quality in preschool settings: Introduction and validation of the Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) scale. Early Child Development and Care, 190 (7). pp. 1017-1030.

This study explores how various measures of home learning environment (HLE) collected at different ages are related to each other and explores associations when the effects of significant child and family characteristics are controlled for. Different age appropriate measures of the HLE were constructed at ages 3, 7, 11, and 14. The measures were derived from parents' reports (3, 7, and 11), but at age 14 both adolescents' self-reports and parents' questionnaires responses were used. Multilevel models tested the effects of earlier measures of HLE on later measures, while the same set of individual and family characteristics were controlled. The early years HLE measure was a significant predictor of later measures of HLE across different phases of education (primary and secondary school). The strength of the relationships between different HLE measures depended on the time lag between measurements but also on the nature of the activities covered in each dimension.

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IntroductionSubstantial research indicates that high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) confers a wide range of benefits for children, yet quality in ECEC remains inconsistent. Given the variability in training and qualifications, one strategy for improving ECEC quality is in-service professional development (PD).MethodsThe current study evaluated an evidence-based in-service PD programme, Leadership for Learning, via a cluster randomised controlled trial involving 83 ECEC services and 1,346 children in their final year of pre-school.ResultsResults indicated significant improvements in teaching quality across treatment centres and child development outcomes in language, numeracy and social-emotional development.DiscussionThis study provides strong support for making evidence-informed PD routinely available for ECEC practitioners.

This study examines associations between Australia's regulatory ratings of quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC)-the National Quality Standard (NQS)-and two research-based quality rating scales. The analytic sample consisted of 257 ECEC services across three Australian states. Results indicated (1) modest positive associations between NQS ratings and scale scores; (2) some specificity between NQS quality areas (educational programs and practice; relationships with children) and one research scale-the Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) scale; (3) variability in quality scales scores within each NQS designation; and (4) mitigation of these associations when the time-gap between ratings exceeded 24 months. Findings suggest NQS and research scales tap some common core of quality, yet capture different aspects of quality, suggesting both could be used to raise standards of quality in Australian preschools, where the research scales potentiate raising quality to even higher levels than NQS.