Early Childhood Education and Care Physical Environment and Child Development: State of the art and Reflections on Future Orientations and Methodologies

Berti, Sara; Cigala, Ada; Sharmahd, Nima

doi:10.1007/s10648-019-09486-0

Cited by 29 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Proper early childhood education centers are meant to benefit the child physically, socially, educationally, and psychologically meaning that the child is developed holistically (Berti, Cigala & Sharmahd, 2019). Teachers were asked to describe the quality control measures placed in the early childhood education centers to ensure the holistic development of a child.…”

Section: Quality Control Of Early Childhood Centersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Childhood Education Services in Manzini Region in Eswatini: Equality and Accessibility

Bhebhe¹,

Vilakati²

2021

ijsl

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Education services are meant for developing the cognitive capacities of all individuals, though this may vary with individuals given their variable genetic make-up. Early childhood education is one way in which children are developed for the future. This study sought to establish how early childhood education services were valued, made available and accessible to children in a developing country. Open-ended interviews and observations were the instruments used for data collection. Thematic analysis was the data analysis method used in this study. The findings of the study revealed that there were benefits in preschool education and that those learners who missed early childhood education were slow and took long to grasp concepts. The study also found that in the Kingdom of Eswatini not all children of early childhood going age go to school due to limited finances, poverty and sicknesses. The study concluded that privately-owned early childhood development centres are expensive and most parents could not afford the fees. The study recommended that the ministry should consider ECE and start funding preschool education and also provide a documented curriculum to ensure that children who attended preschool get the required skill as expected. The Ministry of Education needs to provide for ECE if they have to achieve their goal of providing equal and quality education to all Eswatini children. The ministry should be prepared to build more preschools, to at least see each primary school having a preschool owned by the government linked to it

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Section: Quality Control Of Early Childhood Centersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Childhood Education Services in Manzini Region in Eswatini: Equality and Accessibility

Bhebhe¹,

Vilakati²

2021

ijsl

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“…Children and youth education, and human physical environment are the objects of research and political discussion that help to find the way of countries social development. Identification of countries experience which promoting child and youth physical activity by the coherence of human development can help create the best design way development of the countries [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

European Countries Ranking and Clustering Solution by Children’s Physical Activity and Human Development Index Using Entropy-Based Methods

2020

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The aim of the present study is to propose a new approach for evaluating and comparing European countries using indicators of the children physical activity and the human development index. The Global Matrix 3.0 on physical activity for children and youth and human development index data on the 18 European countries were used. MADM (multi-attribute decision making) approach was applied for this task. The criteria weights calculated by applying the weight balancing method—weight balancing indicator ranks accordance (WEBIRA). New methodology of interval entropy is proposed for determining the priority of criteria separately in each group. The novel approach of α-cuts for recursive procedure of ranking the alternatives was used. For comparison, three alternative entropy-based methods—entropy method for determining the criterion weight (EMDCW), method of criteria impact LOSs and determination of objective weights (CILOS) and integrated determination of objective criteria weights (IDOCRIW) were applied to address this MADM problem. Cluster analysis of European countries carried out using results obtained by all above methods. Comparison of the MADM methods revealed that three alternative methods assigned negligible values to whole group of criteria. Meanwhile, WEBIRA family methods performed the ranking of European countries according to the interrelation of the two groups of criteria in a balanced way. Thus, when addressing MADM tasks with two or more naturally related sets of criteria, it is appropriate to apply criteria adapted for that purpose, such as WEBIRA.

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“…One significant index that plays a critical role in the attainment of these standards is the environment of the early childhood care and development (ECCD) centers, popularly referred to as preschools [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Berti et al [ 6 ] indicate that a child’s early experiences with an excellent environment help form the architecture of the brain and set the foundation for the child’s lifelong success. Thus, positive outcomes are likely to occur if the child’s early experiences are positive.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These facilities were primarily day-care and childcare centers, nursery schools, preschools, and kindergartens in the Cape Coast Metropolis. The physical environment in the current study referred to the overall design of a center, covering features such as size, density, privacy, well-defined activity settings, modified open-plan space, a variety of technical design attributes, as well as outdoor play spaces, which are linked to the emotional, social, and cognitive development of children [ 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Quality of Physical Environments of Early Childhood Schools within the Cape Coast Metropolis in Ghana Using a Sequential Explanatory Mixed-Methods Design

Amissah-Essel

Hagan

Schack

2020

EJIHPE

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(1) Background: The last few decades have seen researchers giving considerable attention to the physical context of early childhood care and development (ECCD) centers because many of the underlying processes that link physical context are quite similar to psychosocial environmental factors regarding child development. However, research on the physical environments, and the employees’ understanding of the importance of physical environments, is often underestimated. The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of the physical environments of ECCD centers in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana, and ascertain whether being a private or public center (center auspices) would be associated with the quality of its physical environment. A further inquiry into the educators’ understanding of the importance of physical environment on children’s developmental outcomes was made. (2) Methods: Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods research design, all 160 ECCD centers in the Cape Coast Metropolis were assessed using a modified version of the Children’s Physical Environment Rating Scale (CPERS) and a semi-structured interview guide. (3) Results: Descriptive statistics indicated that more than half of the ECCD centers, 56%, rated “fair” on the quality of their physical environment. Although the locations and sites of these centers were of good quality, other physical environmental characteristics (i.e., “Planning of the Centre”, “Building as a Whole” and “Outdoor Space”) of ECCD centers were also rated to be fair. A Chi-square test showed that center auspices (i.e., being private or public) were not significantly associated with the quality of the physical environments of the centers [χ2(2) = 2.490, p > 0.05], suggesting no significant difference between private and public ECCD centers in terms of the quality of their physical environment. A follow-up qualitative inquiry identified two themes as reasons why play yards in early years’ schools were not good: a ‘‘lack of funding” and “governmental support”. (4) Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the physical environments of ECCD centers are, to some extent, compromised. Stakeholders (e.g., Ghana Education Service, non-governmental/religious organizations, and private entrepreneurs) should help improve the quality of physical environments and also provide financial assistance for the provision of basic equipment (e.g., learning materials) for private and public ECCD centers in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Educators require in-service training to boost their in-depth understanding of the importance of physical environments on children’s developmental outcomes. Future studies could target children’s perceptions of their preschools’ physical environments as useful empirical information to help guide appropriate policy interventions.

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Early Childhood Education and Care Physical Environment and Child Development: State of the art and Reflections on Future Orientations and Methodologies

Cited by 29 publications

References 89 publications

Early Childhood Education Services in Manzini Region in Eswatini: Equality and Accessibility

Early Childhood Education Services in Manzini Region in Eswatini: Equality and Accessibility

European Countries Ranking and Clustering Solution by Children’s Physical Activity and Human Development Index Using Entropy-Based Methods

Assessing the Quality of Physical Environments of Early Childhood Schools within the Cape Coast Metropolis in Ghana Using a Sequential Explanatory Mixed-Methods Design

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