Using quality rating scales for professional development: experiences from the UK

Mathers, Sandra; Linskey, Faye; Seddon, Judith; Sylva, Κathy

doi:10.1080/09669760701516959

Cited by 38 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…These results may suggest ITERS-R is more demanding at the health, hygiene, materials, and activities requirements or, for some reason, centers and teachers are less prepared to assure those requirements. Mathers, Linskey, Seddon, and Sylva (2007) concluded that the ECERS and ITERS approach to personal care and hygiene is often more demanding than the UK National Standards. In Portugal, although parents and teachers agree on the high importance of those items (Barros, 2007), the national legislation and orientations are too broad to provide specific guidance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the quality of Portuguese child care programs for toddlers

Barros

Aguiar

2010

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

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We dedicate this paper to the memory of Professor Joaquim Bairrão (1935Bairrão ( -2007, outstanding scientist and mentor. Keywords:Quality Toddler child care ITERS-R Portugal a b s t r a c tThe purpose of this study was to describe the quality of toddler child care classrooms in the district of Porto, in the north of Portugal. One hundred and sixty classrooms for children between 1 and 3 years of age participated in this study. Results suggested the existence of poor average quality and absence of good-quality classrooms. Child-adult ratio was a statistically significant predictor of overall child care quality (with lower ratios associated with higher quality). The results of this study provide information on the applicability of ITERS-R to a new cultural and linguistic context, suggesting the need to enhance the quality of Portuguese programs serving toddlers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the quality of Portuguese child care programs for toddlers

Barros

Aguiar

2010

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

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“…The truth claim that ECERS/ECERS-R and ITERS/ITERS-R observations provide objective measures of global quality should also be treated with caution because of a further limitation: the items focus on resource provision at the expense of individual children's experiences (Brophy & Statham, 1994;Calder, 1996;Cassidy et al, 2005;Mathers et al, 2007). This means, for example, that a centre could rate highly on the activities subscale irrespective of whether and how children engage with the activities.…”

Section: Quality Is An Objective Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of the Conceptualisation of ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education and Care Empirical Research: Promoting ‘Blind Spots' as Foci for Future Research

Fenech

2011

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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This article critically analyses how empirical research investigating quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the period 1980-2008 has conceptualised 'quality'. Applying Foucault's notion of 'critique' to 338 peer-reviewed journal articles uncovered six interconnected truths: quality is an objective reality; quality enhances children's optimal development; quality is the domain of science/psychology; quality can be known from researchers' perspectives; quality can be understood using an ecological framework that is limited to child, familial and childcare variables; and quality ECEC is more pertinent to preschoolers than babies and infants. The article problematises these prevailing truths, arguing that the dominance of positivist discourse in ECEC research has limited how quality ECEC can be thought and talked about. An addressing of the blind spots this article identifies has the potential to lead to more developed and nuanced understandings of quality ECEC.

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“…The ECERS-R is one of the most widely used observational instruments to measure the general quality of early childhood programs serving children between the ages of 2 and 6 years (Buysse, Wesley, Bryant, & Gardner, 1999;Mathers, Linskey, Seddon, & Sylva, 2007). Revised in 1998, the newest version of ECERS-R includes additional indicators to measure program quality in inclusive settings (Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 2005).…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ECERS-R has been used in many national large-scale studies to measure program quality (Burchinal, Howes, & Kontos, 2002;Buysse et al, 1999;Early et al, 2006;Lambert, Abbott-Shim, & McCarty, 2002;La Paro, Sexton, & Snyder, 1998;Phillips, Mekos, Scarr, McCartney, & Abbott-Shim, 2000) and effectiveness of professional development (Campbell & Milbourne, 2005;Fukkink & Lont, 2007;Mathers et al, 2007). Many countries like Canada, England, Finland, Hungary, Greece, and Germany are using this instrument widely for purposes of research and program improvement.…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Quality of Early Childhood Education in China: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education

Szente

2009

Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education

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The following article introduces an exploratory study that was designed to measure the quality of early childhood education within its ever changing sociocultural context utilizing the Early Childhood Learning Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) in 40 classrooms in Beijing, China. Implications for early childhood teacher education, including the education of children with exceptional needs are addressed along with recommendations for future research.The development of Chinese early childhood education is following a distinctive trend of integrating Western educational philosophy into national curriculum guidance for classroom practices. This integration process encountered many challenges due to strong influences by unique Chinese cultural and economic characteristics and requires investigation in terms of what constitutes a high quality early childhood program in mainland China. Research on the global quality of early childhood education to help international scholars and practitioners understand philosophical change in classroom applications in China is scarce. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to present an exploratory study conducted in public kindergarten classrooms using the Chinese version of Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales-Revised and provide implications for teacher education. Introduction to the Early Education System in ChinaThe population in China exceeds 1.3 billion people representing 56 national tribes from 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 4 municipalities (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2006). Beijing, as the capital city and municipality, has over 13 million people, which is more than the number found in New York City. In order to reduce the overwhelming population density China has enforced a one-child-per-family policy throughout the nation since 1978. Being an only child, a Chinese child faces great parental expectations regarding academic achievement starting in the early years. The limited years of compulsory education provided by the Chinese government apply to children from Grades 1 to 9 in both urban and rural areas. Prior to first grade, children usually attend early childhood programs called kindergartens, which are full-day programs serving children ages 3 to 6. Facilities for children before age 3 are considered nursery schools. Traditionally, children under 3 are more likely to stay home with grandparents. In this article we focus on kindergarten programs and the corresponding early childhood teacher education programs. Public Versus Private KindergartensKindergartens in China can be divided into two categories: private and public based on funding sources. Public kindergarten means the government-whether at the federal, province, city, or local town level-has full ownership of the school. There are generally three types of public kindergartens: (1) department of education related, (2) state organization or corporation related, and (3) local town or county related (Pang, Liu, & Hu, 2008). More than half of the Chinese people reside in rur...

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Using quality rating scales for professional development: experiences from the UK

Cited by 38 publications

References 7 publications

Assessing the quality of Portuguese child care programs for toddlers

Assessing the quality of Portuguese child care programs for toddlers

An Analysis of the Conceptualisation of ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education and Care Empirical Research: Promoting ‘Blind Spots' as Foci for Future Research

Exploring the Quality of Early Childhood Education in China: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education

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