Early Childhood Behavioral Inhibition and Social and School Adjustment in Chinese Children: A 5‐Year Longitudinal Study

This study examined relations between early behavioral inhibition and social and school outcomes in Chinese children (N = 200). Data on behavioral inhibition were collected from a sample of 2‐year‐olds in China. Follow‐up data on social behaviors, peer relationships, and school performance were collected from multiple sources at 7 years of age. Behavioral inhibition was found to be positively associated with later cooperative behavior, peer liking, perceived social integration, positive school attitudes, and school competence, and negatively associated with later learning problems. Highly inhibited toddlers were generally better adjusted than others in social and school areas in middle childhood. The results indicate the distinct functional meaning of behavioral inhibition in Chinese children from a developmental perspective.     

Factors that Affect Emergent Literacy Development When Engaging with Electronic Books

This article reviews extant literature with the purpose of identifying factors that affect the potential efficacy of electronic books to support literacy development during early childhood. Selection criteria include experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational studies from peer-reviewed journals from 2000 to 2013 with a target population of 3–7 year olds. Results established the following factors as relevant to potential literacy outcomes: interactive features, quality assessment, repetition, and adult interaction. Each factor is discussed in its relationship to literacy skills in order to identify optimal conditions for literacy growth. Findings in this review are pertinent to parents, educators, legislators, and software developers who are making software decisions that will impact early childhood students at home or in school. Future research and implications are considered.     

If You're Happy and You Know It: Positive Moods Reduce Age‐Related Differences in False Memory

When tested in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, children typically exhibit fewer false memories than do adolescents or adults. Here, participants’ moods and the valence of word lists were manipulated to explore the mechanism responsible for this developmental reversal in memory performance. Children (7‐ to 8‐year‐olds), adolescents (11‐ to 12‐year‐olds), and young adults (18‐ to 22‐year‐olds; N = 270) were assigned to one of three induced mood conditions and were presented with emotional word lists. In negative moods, adolescents and adults falsely recalled more negative information than did children, showing the typical developmental reversal effect. This effect, however, was eliminated when participants were in positive moods. The findings provide support for associative‐activation theory and have important implications for our understanding of the development of emotional false memories.     

Frühpädagogische Ausbildungskonzepte in drei nordischen Ländern

In Germany, policy drives in recent years to implement first-time offcial early childhood curricula, coupled with new legislation guaranteeing entitlement by 2013 to a place in early childhood provision not only for three to six year olds but also for one and two year olds, are challenging the traditional parameters of professional work in early childhood services. Despite a flurry of initiatives by individual higher education institutions to introduce new forms of professional education/training for key workers, the required and desired professional profile is far from being clear. As one possibility of moving the discussion forward, this paper looks at current study routes and professional profiles of the core practitioners in early childhood centres in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. In each of these three Nordic countries the higher education study route leads to a bachelor degree. However. the professional profiles in each country differ considerably, ranging from a social pedagogy professional working outside the education system (Denmark), to an early childhood professional working both within a social welfare and education framework (Finland), or an early childhood and primary school professional operating within the education system (Sweden). Debating these varying profiles could be one way of clarifying both policy goals and the content of new higher education level initiatives in Germany.     

Ready for Reception? The advantages and disadvantages of single‐point entry to school

This paper arose out of a research brief undertaken for a UK local education authority that is currently considering the option of introducing a policy of single‐point entry for Reception children. This increasing trend has particular significance in the light of dramatic changes in the early years sector, not least the proposals for a new Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (EYFS). It seems timely to revisit, again, the contentious issue of school starting age in the UK, notably the prevalence of 4‐year‐olds in Reception classes. The paper reviews much of the literature on school starting age, along with related research, and evaluates the findings in the light of the current context. It would seem that an early start to education does appear to be beneficial for young children, but the age at which they start may have potentially negative consequences if they are placed in an environment that is not suited to their developmental needs. The question is not so much ‘Are 4‐year‐olds ready for school?’, but ‘Is the school ready for 4‐year‐olds?’.     

Robots, jetpacks and time machines: children's ideas of English in the future

This article describes children's views of what English will be like in ten years time. Children from year 2 (6–7 year olds) and year 6 (10–11 year olds) took part in a study which involved discussion, writing activities and interviews. It was found that, on the whole, these children saw English in the future as being a balance between traditional methods of teaching and learning and technological innovations and advancements. For these children, technology will become an essential part of their education and their lives outside school.     

The Human Figure Drawings of Normal Children and Those with Mild Learning Difficulties

The human figure drawings of 18 children with mild learning difficulties (MLD) were compared with those of 18 children with the same chronological age (mean 10 years, 4 months) and those of 18 children with the same mental age (mean 6 years, 0 months). The MLD children's drawings were similar to those of the 6‐year‐olds in terms of the number of developmental items they displayed; both these groups scored significantly lower than the 10‐year‐olds. Teachers could easily distinguish the 10‐year‐olds’ figures, but not those drawn by the MLD children and the 6‐year‐olds; they routinely confused the two. These findings suggest that, although their development is slower, MLD children follow a normal rather than a deviant developmental pattern.     

Issues in early childhood education

Abstract

This paper raises some of the key issues affecting the educational opportunities of children from birth to seven. These include: services for children under five, four‐year‐olds in primary school classes, equal opportunities, training and status of early years professionals. The paper emphasises the influence of concepts of early childhood and the need for UK policy makers to recognise babies and very young children as people, and to acknowledge their capabilities.     

The Multiple Subfunctions of Attention: Differential Developmental Gateways to Literacy and Numeracy

Attention is construed as multicomponential, but the roles of its distinct subfunctions in shaping the broader developing cognitive landscape are poorly understood. The current study assessed 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds (N = 83) to: (a) trace developmental trajectories of attentional processes and their structure in early childhood and (b) measure the impact of distinct attention subfunctions on concurrent and longitudinal abilities related to literacy and numeracy. Distinct trajectories across attention measures revealed the emergence of 2 attentional factors, encompassing “executive” and “sustained–selective” processes. Executive attention predicted concurrent abilities across domains at Time 1, whereas sustained–selective attention predicted basic numeracy 1 year later. These concurrent and longitudinal constraints cast a broader light on the unfolding relations between domain‐general and domain‐specific processes over early childhood.     

Changes in children’s cognitive development at the start of school in England 2001–2008

Since 1997, England has seen massive changes in the Early Years including the introduction of an early childhood curriculum, free pre‐school education for three‐year‐olds and local programmes for disadvantaged communities. Many of these initiatives took time to introduce and become established. Beginning in 2001, and each year thereafter until 2008, the authors collected consistent data from thousands of children when they started school at the age of four on a range of variables, chosen because they are good predictors of later success. These included vocabulary, early reading and early mathematics. Children from the same set of 472 state primary schools in England were assessed each year. This paper contributes to the existing studies of educational trends over time by examining the extent to which children’s scores on these measures changed over that period; in general, they were found to have remained stable.     

An Exploration of Children's Experiences of Art in the Classroom

Despite the numerous benefits art has for children, research suggests that there is a lull in the development of expression in children's drawings during the primary school years and that many children give up on art between the ages of 10 and 12. Research investigating this phenomenon has taken an educational focus and aimed to identify potential shortcomings in the primary education system which could impact negatively on children's artistic development and interest in art. This article builds on previous educational research by exploring children's perceptions of the art education they receive. In this small exploratory study semi‐structured interviews were conducted with six children in each of the Key Stages of English compulsory education: Key Stage 1 (5–6 year olds); Key Stage 2 (7–8 year olds); Key Stage 3 (11–12 year olds) and Key Stage 4 (14–15 year olds). A qualitative thematic analysis is used to explore children's experiences of art in the classroom, the kinds of support they receive in art lessons and how art lessons can be improved. It is hoped that the exploration of children's experiences of art in the classroom will enable movement towards an engaging and relevant approach to art education.     

Systems and Cascades in Cognitive Development and Academic Achievement

A large‐scale (N = 552) controlled multivariate prospective 14‐year longitudinal study of a developmental cascade embedded in a developmental system showed that information‐processing efficiency in infancy (4 months), general mental development in toddlerhood (18 months), behavior difficulties in early childhood (36 months), psychometric intelligence in middle childhood (8 years), and maternal education either directly or indirectly (or both) contribute to academic achievement in adolescence (14 years).     

Exploring Daily Physical Activity and Nutrition Patterns in Early Learning Settings: Snapshots of Young Children in Head Start,Primary, and After-School Settings

The purpose of this research project was to gain a greater understanding of daily routines of 4–7 year olds regarding physical activity and nutrition practices in typical early learning environments. The settings selected for this observational study included Head Start, primary, and after-school learning environments in a city in the southeast. Specifically, this exploratory study focused on the research question: What are typical daily physical activity and nutrition patterns in community-based early learning settings for young children 4–7 years of age in the United States? Two overarching themes were identified through data analysis: restriction of activity and restriction of physical movement. Results indicated that children in elementary school settings had fewer opportunities for indoor and outdoor physical activity than children in other settings and that children seek to be physically active and will do so when given the opportunity. Increasing time for both structured and unstructured physical activity and play for children ages 4–7 in early learning settings was recommended by the researchers.     

Making the Gift Horse Jump the Hurdles: The Impact of the TVEI Pilot on the first Scottish Cohort

Abstract

TVEI in its pilot phase seeks to ‘test and explore’ new approaches to the education and training of 14‐18 year‐olds. Quantitative performance indicators can be used to assess its impact in two ways. ‘Whole‐school’ comparisons contrast the performance of TVEI schools with other schools nationally, and with their own performance in earlier years. ‘Within‐school’ comparisons contrast TVEI with non‐TVEI students from the same schools. Whole‐school comparisons, based on the year group which included the first Scottish pilot TVEI cohort, found no impact of TVEI on examination attainment, truancy, staying‐on at 16 or the employment of early leavers. Within‐school comparisons found a favourable (if problematic) effect on truancy, but found no significant average effect across the Scottish projects on the other outcomes. However the effects of TVEI on all outcomes varied across schools or projects. The true test of the success of the TVEI pilot is its ability to learn from this variation, and will be measured in respect of later cohorts.     

A comparison of the governing of primary and secondary schools in England

In England, governing bodies continue to be responsible for the conduct of publicly funded schools. This article compares the governing of publicly funded primary schools (for 5–11 year olds) and secondary schools (for 11–18 year olds). The research analysed policy documents and the governing of 16 primary and 14 secondary schools. The main governance mode for both primary schools and secondary schools is hierarchical and similar in nature, and the governing bodies of primary and secondary schools use broadly similar governing instruments. However, they differ in significant ways. In primary schools, governing is smaller in scale and less complex. Primary school governing is closer to the school and children, and the images held by governors of the system to be governed are better developed in primary schools. Functional knowledge was more useful in primary school governing, and the use of informal meetings as instruments of governance was more widespread in primary school governing. The findings and their implications need to be taken into account in the analysis of and policy making for school governing.     

Embedding mental health support in schools: learning from the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) national evaluation

The Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) programme was a nationwide initiative that funded mental health provision in schools for pupils at risk of or already experiencing mental health problems. The implementation, impact and experience of this programme was evaluated using quantitative and qualitative methodology involving three main studies: (1) a 1-year RCT involving 8658 8–10 year olds and 6583 11–13 year olds, (2) a 3-year longitudinal study involving 3346 8–10 year olds and 2647 11–13 year olds and (3) qualitative interviews with 26 TaMHS workers, 31 school staff, 15 parents and 60 pupils. The RCT demonstrated that TaMHS led to reductions in behaviour problems but not emotional problems for 8–10 year olds. No impact was found for 11–13 year olds. The effects on behaviour problems in primary school were enhanced by the provision of evidence based self-help materials, but not by other area level support. The longitudinal study found information giving and good inter-agency working correlated with more positive outcomes for behavioural problems in secondary schools. The qualitative findings indicated that TaMHS was well received by all groups, though challenges to its implementation were noted. Overall, findings indicate the utility of targeted mental health provision in schools, particularly in primary settings. The implications for implementation are discussed.     

The Audiovisual Temporal Binding Window Narrows in Early Childhood

Binding is key in multisensory perception. This study investigated the audio‐visual (A‐V) temporal binding window in 4‐, 5‐, and 6‐year‐old children (total N = 120). Children watched a person uttering a syllable whose auditory and visual components were either temporally synchronized or desynchronized by 366, 500, or 666 ms. They were asked whether the voice and face went together (Experiment 1) or whether the desynchronized videos differed from the synchronized one (Experiment 2). Four‐year‐olds detected the 666‐ms asynchrony, 5‐year‐olds detected the 666‐ and 500‐ms asynchrony, and 6‐year‐olds detected all asynchronies. These results show that the A‐V temporal binding window narrows slowly during early childhood and that it is still wider at 6 years of age than in older children and adults.     

Assessing metacognitive knowledge in 3–5 year olds: the development of a metacognitive knowledge interview (McKI)

Historically, early cognitive skills have been underestimated, largely as a result of the ways these competencies have been measured, which is particularly pervasive in the area of metacognition. Only recently have researchers begun to detect evidence of contextualized metacognition in 3–5 year old preschool children through the use of observational assessment tools (e.g., Whitebread et al. J Cogn Educ Psychol 3:433-455, 2007, Metacognition Learn 4:63-85, 2009). While these observational methods are a more sensitive way to capture metacognition in young children, their exclusive use may not result in a comprehensive depiction of early metacognitive competency. In the current study, we describe the development of a metacognitive knowledge interview (McKI) and what it reveals about metacognitive processes in 43 3–5 year olds (including investigating face validity). Findings indicate that the McKI (a) is a developmentally appropriate measure for 3–5 year olds, (b) is capable of eliciting articulated metacognitive knowledge when engaging in a contextualized problem-solving task, (c) shows the expected developmental trend (i.e., older children perform at a higher level and scores increased over the course of a school year), and (d) provides sufficient variation across children. Implications for future research are discussed, including the importance of using multiple measurement tools when studying early metacognitive development.     

A Childhood Free of Knowledge? Reflections on German educational policy for the early years

This article, written by a researcher on international comparisons of childhood, contends that educational expectations towards preschool education in Germany have been low for over two decades. Particularly in the 1980s, during a period of stable economic growth, policy for the early years of childhood was primarily discussed in terms of child care, in order to allow more mothers to enter the labour market. Recently, however, the educational potential of the early years is being revisited in a lively debate. Since 1996 a German law guarantees every child beyond age 3 the right to attend a kindergarten and entitles parents to choose a kindergarten suited to their needs and to their expectations concerning educational quality. What, however, is meant by ‘educational quality'? The author and a group of childhood researchers and educational journalists investigated beliefs and suggestions for ‘best practice’ in early education (the ‘World knowledge of seven year olds’, 1996‐1999, project based at the Deutsches Jugendinstitut and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Science.) In 150 in‐depth interviews people of all ages, from diverse strata of society and with varied professional experience, outlined their views on what they believe a 7‐year‐old boy or girl should have encountered, learnt to master or to question during their preschool years. The study results in a more tangible notion of what is meant by ‘key qualifications’ and ‘basic skills’ in the early years and how to promote them in a holistic way.     

Does the reason matter? How student‐reported reasons for school absence contribute to differences in achievement outcomes among 14–15 year olds

While an emerging body of research has examined the effects of school absences on student outcomes, there is comparatively little research examining the different reasons contributing to school absence, how common these reasons are, and the extent to which different types of absences are differentially associated with achievement. To address these gaps, we used data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to examine the reasons for school absence as reported by 14–15 year olds and how these reasons relate to achievement outcomes in Year 9. Only 7% of 14–15 year olds indicated they had been absent in the previous six months without parental consent, of which 46% indicated the most recent absence was due to problems at school. Of the 90% of students who had been absent with parental consent, only 6% said the most recent absence was due to problems at school. After controlling for student, family and school characteristics and Year 7 achievement, Year 9 achievement was most strongly associated with absences related to student‐ or family‐level reasons. While schools typically bear the responsibility for monitoring and responding to absenteeism, the drivers of absence may not be related to factors that schools can realistically address. For schools, addressing absenteeism requires a dual approach of preventing avoidable absences and mitigation strategies for when either avoidable or unavoidable absences occur.