Assessing the effectiveness of Australian early childhood education and care experiences: study protocol

Abstract

BackgroundIn Australia, 61.5 % of children aged 3–4 attend Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programs. Children’s experiences within these programs vary widely and impact directly on educational wellbeing and social development. Research has shown that higher quality programs enhance children’s learning and developmental outcomes, foster social participation and have long-lasting effects on their productivity as adults. Quality matters, yet we do not know what components of ECEC result in a quality program.Effective Early Educational Experiences (E4Kids) is a 5-year longitudinal study designed to identify and assess the impact of mainstream ECEC programs and program components on children’s learning, development, social inclusion and well-being. E4Kids sets out to measure quality ECEC; identify components that add value and positively impact children’s outcomes; evaluate the effects of child, family, community and environment characteristics on programs; and provide evidence on how best to invest in ECEC.Methods/designE4Kids follows a sample of 2,494 children who have experienced a variety of approved care programs (long day care, kindergarten, family day care and occasional care), as well as 157 children who have not accessed such programs. Children are tracked to the first point of National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing at Year 3. The study presents a multi-level design in which ECEC programs were sampled from two states – Queensland and Victoria – then randomly sampled from two greater metropolitan regions and two regional and remote locations.Parents, centre directors, educators and carers complete questionnaires to provide information on demographics and children’s progress. Data collected also include the make-up and organisation of ECEC programs and schools children attended. The quality of adult-child interactions is directly assessed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) and direct testing of children’s cognitive abilities and achievements is undertaken over 3 years and linked with NAPLAN scores.DiscussionFindings from the E4Kids study have the potential to influence the quality of ECEC available in Australia by providing up-to-date evidence on the impact of ECEC programs and program components to inform future policy decisions and research.

Quality Interactions in Early Childhood Education and Care Center Outdoor Environments

“…For example, validation studies (Downer et al 2010;Pakarinen et al 2010) or studies that have compared CLASS Pre-K with others instruments that assess quality (LaParo et al 2004) or studies that assess the stability of interactions during the day (Curby et al 2010). A few studies have focused on relationships between CLASS Pre-K and outcomes such as educational wellbeing and social development (Burchinal et al 2008;Curby et al 2009;Tayler et al 2016) or assessed the relationship between CLASS Pre-K scores and service type (Tayler et al 2013). These studies consistently found that higher quality interactions resulted in improved outcomes for children.…”

“…The assessment is based on three core domains of interactions: emotional support, classroom organization and instructional support. Although predominantly used for assessment in US classrooms, CLASS Pre-K has been validated across a range of classrooms, for example, in ECEC centers with diverse languages (Downer et al 2010), in various countries (Pakarinen et al 2010;Tayler et al 2016) and in comparison to other assessments of quality such as ECERS (LaParo et al 2004). Findings indicate that CLASS Pre-K operates consistently across centers, demonstrating that it could function as a tool for improving quality in ECEC centers (Pianta et al 2008).…”

Authentic Assessment Model in Problem Solving Learning for Kindergarten

“…identifying and determining the quality of educational programs for early childhood can be seen from assessments made by teachers to students in the learning process through play activities. That is, that student assessment is one of the benchmarks of the quality of early childhood programs [5]. Authentic assessment is required to demonstrate student ability, provide feedback and direction for its growth and development [6].…”

Teacher Talk: "I wonder..." Request Designs

“…Your unwavering support, encouragement and belief in my ability certainly gave me the will to keep going during those challenging times. Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children, 1994;McCain & Mustard, 1999;OECD, 2001OECD, , 2006OECD, , 2011OECD, , 2015Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000;Tayler et al, 2016). Findings of studies in developmental science reveal that the effects of children's participation in preschool programs to be positive for children in both short-term and long term outcomes (Burchinal et al, 2008;Karoly, Kilburn, & Cannon, 2006;Landry et al, 2014;Mashburn et al, 2008;Sammons et al, 2002;Sylva, Melhuish, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford, & Taggart, 2004b).…”

“…Research focussing on ECEC provides powerful evidence that interaction, including teacher-child interaction, is a key to quality (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2006;Siraj-Blatchford et al, 2002;SirajBlatchford & Sylva, 2004;Sylva et al, 2004b;Tayler et al, 2016). The European longitudinal study, The Effective Provision for Pre-School Education (EPPE) (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)) (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva, 2004;Sylva et al, 2004a) tracked the progress of 3000 children aged between 3 and 7 years in 141 preschools in England.…”