Is Teacher Qualification Associated With the Quality of the Early Childhood Education and Care Environment? A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

Poor-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) can be detrimental to the development of children, as it may lead to poor social, emotional, educational, health, economic, and behavioral outcomes. A lack of consensus, however, regarding the strength of the relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the ECEC environment makes it difficult to identify strategies that could enhance developmental and educational outcomes. This meta-analytic review examines evidence on the correlation between teacher qualifications and the quality of ECEC environments. Results show that higher teacher qualifications are significantly correlated with higher quality ECEC environments. Specifically, the education level of teachers or caregivers is positively correlated to overall ECEC qualities, as well as subscale ratings including program structure, language, and reasoning.

Examining the factorial validity of the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System in preschools in Austria

“…Only recently have some academic courses in early childhood education (advanced trainings) been introduced (Hartel et al 2019). This relatively low level of formal qualification is somewhat in contrast to discussions about professionalisation of early childhood pedagogues (Smidt et al 2017) as well as results on the predictive role of preschool teachers' formal level of education for educational quality in preschools (Manning et al 2019).…”

Literature review on early childhood education and care for children under the age of 3

“…Similarly, better staff-to-child ratios, i.e. less children per adult, have been positively associated with process quality in Ecuador, Netherlands, Norway, China, and Portugal (Bjørnestad and Os, 2018 [13]; Helmerhorst et al, 2015 [142]; Hu et al, 2019 [81]; Lopez Boo, Dormal and Weber, 2019 [144]; Pessanha et al, 2017 [145]). It should be noted, however, that another study involving a nationally representative sample of Dutch child centres, did not find group size or child-to-staff ratio to be related to emotional or educational process quality (assessed by CLASS-toddler).…”

Does personality matter? The relationship between child personality and interaction quality in preschools

“…Research has shown that interaction quality in preschool can be influenced by a range of structural variables, such as teacher-child ratio, group size, the proportion of children with a migration background, preschool classroom equipment with play and learning materials, as well as preschool teachers' personal variables such as educational beliefs and level of professional qualification (e.g. Vandell and Wolfe 2000;Smidt 2012;Kluczniok and Roßbach 2014;Manning et al 2019;. Characteristics of the children such as age, migration background, and language competencies (Vitiello et al 2012a;Cabell et al 2013;Kluczniok and Schmidt 2020; have also been found to be related to interaction quality.…”