Language- and literacy-learning opportunities in early childhood classrooms: Children's typical experiences and within-classroom variability

The present study examined the language- and literacy-learning opportunities of 400 young children enrolled in 81 early childhood classrooms to address two research aims: (1) to describe typical language- and literacy-learning experiences afforded to young children in classrooms, and (2) to investigate the extent to which young children had different experiences within classrooms. Results revealed that participating children, on average, spent over 18 min, or 20% of their day, learning in key language and literacy domains. Further, our findings highlight considerable between- and within-classroom variability in language- and literacy-learning opportunities and suggest that young children are afforded different experiences in their classrooms, particularly in specific learning domains. Future investigations ought to further unpack classroom educational practices to ensure that all young children develop the requisite knowledge and skills necessary for academic success in kindergarten and beyond.     

Providence talks: A citywide partnership to address early childhood language development

Early research has shown that there may be inconsistencies in how parents in different socioeconomic classes prepare their children to learn to read. Previous research has highlighted a “word gap” between children from low-income families and high-income families. Effects of this “word gap” are evident at the start of kindergarten and contribute to the current nationwide achievement gap in educational outcomes for low-income children. Providence Talks (PT) is a city-wide initiative launched in 2014 in an effort to close this gap. PT helps caretakers learn about the importance of speaking with their children at an early age and supports them in their ability to improve the language environments within their home. We uncover positive results for the efficacy of a citywide intervention dedicated to improving outcomes for vulnerable children across the urban landscape.     

Head start and the intensification of teaching in early childhood education

Head Start is the largest early childhood education program in the US. Echoing patterns emerging in ECE world-wide, Head Start has dramatically changed. Greater emphasis is now placed on kindergarten readiness, child and teacher assessment, professionalization, and increased competition for program funding. Drawing on a mixed methods research design, a case study was conducted that explores the nature and effects of these changes on teachers and the work of teaching within Head Start. Strong evidence of work intensification was found, a topic little explored within the wider ECE literature. In the light of this finding the authors question the model of professionalism that now dominates ECE reform.     

Computational thinking in early childhood education: Reviewing the literature and redeveloping the three-dimensional framework

Computational thinking (CT) is gaining increasing attention from researchers and practitioners all over the world to empower children in the digital era. However, there is no consensus on which components of CT to teach beginning coders in early childhood education (ECE). To address this issue, we conducted a systematic review of 42 empirical studies focused on teaching and assessing CT in ECE. We analyzed the included studies with the three-dimensional CT framework proposed by Brennan and Resnick (2012) and demonstrated how this framework could be modified to fit the context of ECE. Based on this systematic review, we sorted out the CT components that were proven suitable for young children to learn by incorporating emerging components and removing components inappropriate for young children. We thus proposed a CT curriculum framework for ECE that covers CT concepts (i.e., control flow/structures, representation, and hardware/software), CT practices (i.e., algorithmic design, pattern recognition, abstraction, debugging, decomposition, iteration, and generalizing), and CT perspectives (i.e., expressing and creating, connecting, perseverance, and choices of conduct). This systematic review and its associated CT curriculum framework provide important theoretical contributions and practical implications for early childhood CT education.     

A Parental perspective of school and familial curriculum making: a narrative inquiry of early childhood education planning in Hong Kong

This paper examines the early childhood context of Hong Kong (HK) which is characterised by an entirely privatised system. The level of knowledge a child possesses in early childhood can be a determining factor in their admission into desirable kindergartens or primary schools. Given HK’s privatised early childhood education system, the quality of a child’s learning is directly tied to the education services their parents provide independently or can afford financially. The study reported in this paper adopts a narrative inquiry approach to an under-researched area of early childhood education, namely the voices of parents within home learning environments and how the lengths they go to provide their children with a quality education.     

Quality early childhood education in Costa Rica? Policy,practice, outcomes and challenges

High‐quality early childhood education has been shown to improve school outcomes in several developing and developed nations. The history of policy around pre‐school education in Costa Rica is described as background to presenting cross‐sectional data on the emergent literacy skills of low‐income Costa Rican children in kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade from six schools (n?=?335). These data suggest that Costa Rican children show rather limited emergent literacy knowledge at the end of kindergarten. In addition, instruction in nine kindergarten classrooms is described and evaluated in order to provide vignettes of educational practice. The need for developmentally appropriate practice around emergent literacy skills and articulation with 1st grade is discussed and appropriate professional development is called for.     

Using early care and education quality measures with dual language learners: A review of the research

As the number of young dual language learners (DLLs) in early care and education (ECE) programs is increasing, it is critical to examine how well measures of the quality of practices in these settings reflect the needs of the diverse groups of children being served. This review of the research literature addressed these questions for ECE settings serving children birth-five: whether quality differs for settings serving high proportions of DLLs compared to typical samples, whether existing quality measures exhibit similar psychometric characteristics and associations with child outcomes in settings serving DLL and non-DLL children, and whether DLL-specific measures perform differently than general measures of quality. The search procedure produced 10 research studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the review out of approximately 3800 that were found initially and more than 300 that were reviewed. These studies included 10 out of 46 identified measures of ECE quality, including both general and DLL-specific measures. Findings suggested that widely used general ECE quality measures function similarly for DLLs compared to typical populations with regard to overall quality, psychometric characteristics, and child outcomes. Further research is needed to broaden the knowledge base for a wider variety of measures, beyond center-based settings, and beyond Spanish-speaking DLLs, as well as to enhance methodological approaches. There appear to be potential research opportunities through numerous existing studies that included DLL populations but had not analyzed their data in regard to these groups.     

Adverse childhood experiences and associated health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundThe Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente developed the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scale to identify negative experiences in childhood. The goal of this study is to systematically review outcomes associated with the ACEs in the CDC-Kaiser ACE scale to understand the diversity of outcomes associated with this scale.MethodsThe authors conducted a search of English language articles published through September 30, 2016 using OVID Medline®; Ovid Medline® Daily; Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-indexed citations; ERIC®; HAPI®; and SCOPUS®. Articles were selected by trained reviewers based on a priori inclusion criteria including: research, healthy sample, used the CDC-Kaiser ACE scale, and assessed some health outcome. Two reviewers used an abstraction form to independently collect data from each study. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio associated with ACE scale scores were aggregated and compared.ResultsFrom 3167 unique titles, we identified 96 articles that assessed health outcomes associated with the ACEs in the CDC-Kaiser ACE scale. There were more studies focusing on psychosocial/behavioral outcomes than medical outcomes. The majority of the included studies were retrospective, observational, and relied on the same data set. Psychosocial/behavioral outcomes had higher odds ratio than medical outcomes with increasing ACE scale scores.ConclusionsExposure to multiple ACEs is associated with a wide variety of outcomes. This data suggests a benefit of screening for ACEs using this scale and highlights the need to find interventions to ameliorate their effects.     

A qualitative study of the current transformation to rural village early childhood in China: Retrospect and prospect

By far, literature regarding Chinese early childhood education and care (ECEC) has primarily focused on Youeryuan in urban settings. Youeryuan is the everyday Chinese term used for ECEC programs serving children ages three to six, which does include the U.S. version of the kindergarten year. This paper will refer to Youeryuan rather than the Western definitions of preschool or kindergarten so as to maintain authenticity. Furthermore, this paper will focus on the history and development of rural Youeryuan based on a qualitative study of the government-owned, privately operated Youeryuan that represent the current reform initiatives in early childhood in China. Through teacher and administrator interviews, onsite observations using ECERS-R, and school documents, the lead author immersed herself in rural Youeryuan as part of a larger ethnographic study in China in the midst of economic and educational transformations. The findings of this study revealed themes related to increased government investment, improved school policies, the lack of instructional materials, curriculum and instruction issues, local government support for professional development, administrative support for instruction, and the need for mentoring for teachers.     

Service-learning in early childhood teacher education: Using service to put meaning back into learning

Service-learning is defined as a teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. In this study, conducted at an American University, we describe a cascading model of integrating early childhood teacher education and service-learning for preservice teachers who then implemented the combined model in their field classrooms with young children. Examples of the projects from the two cohorts of 25 and 26 undergraduate students are provided. We demonstrate that service-learning projects provide an instructional avenue for preservice students to teach in an integrated and/or experiential manner in their field classrooms and discuss why service-learning is an appropriate and meaningful strategy to use with preservice teachers and children.     

Dialogic classroom talk in early childhood education: The effect on language skills and social competence

The first purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of dialogic classroom talk on children's language skills (i.e. oral communicative competence and receptive vocabulary knowledge). The second purpose was to examine the effect of this type of classroom talk on children's social competence (i.e. theory of mind and social acceptance). A total of 17 teachers and 311 children (aged 4–7 years) participated in this study. Eight teachers participated in an 8-week intervention directed at dialogic classroom talk. Multilevel analyses revealed that the intervention had a significant effect on children's oral communicative competence. No significant effects were found on children's receptive vocabulary knowledge, theory of mind, and social acceptance. The results of this study indicate that dialogic classroom talk is beneficial for children's oral communicative competence. Further research is required in order to investigate how dialogic classroom talk might affect receptive vocabulary knowledge and social competence as well.     

Assessment in early childhood education: threats and challenges to effective assessment of immigrant children

Research indicates that early childhood professionals gather assessment information to monitor child development and learning, to guide curriculum planning and decision making, to identify children who may have special needs, to report and communicate with others, and to evaluate programmes. A review of literature indicates that immigrant children have low achievement assessment scores as compared with mainstream American children, also immigrant children enter kindergarten already behind their mainstream American peers. The current study explored early childhood teachers' perceptions of assessment measures used with immigrant children and the challenges faced when assessing immigrant children. Findings of the study reveal that there are several factors that make early childhood teachers fail to gather effective assessment information from immigrant children. Unless the factors are addressed, planning for effective curriculum for immigrant children using assessment data will continue to be a challenge for early childhood teachers. Factors that continue to affect gathering effective assessment data from immigrant children include language barriers, cultural clashes, socio‐economic factors, and culturally and linguistically biased assessment measures.     

Effects of early education programs and practices on the development and learning of dual language learners: A review of the literature

This article describes the results of a comprehensive review of the research literature from 2000 to 2011 evaluating the effects of early care and education practices on the developmental outcomes of dual language learners (DLLs) from birth through 5 years of age. Across 25 studies that met inclusion criteria, study samples consisted primarily of Latino or Spanish-speaking children 3–5 years of age enrolled in center-based programs. The analysis focused on features of the early education programs and practices (intensity and language of instruction) and research methods (sampling, research designs) in relation to child outcomes for the various types of research interventions evaluated in these studies (center-based programs, professional development, curricula, and instructional strategies). On the basis of a few large-scale scientifically sound studies, the review found at least some evidence to suggest that DLLs benefitted from attending widely available, well regulated programs such as Head Start and public pre-k, particularly with respect to improving language and literacy skills. However, because the extant research has not systematically accounted for the separate effects of language of instruction versus type of intervention, very little can be concluded about how these factors contribute to the positive main effects of these interventions.     

Implementation of a relationship-based school readiness intervention: A multidimensional approach to fidelity measurement for early childhood

The implementation efforts of 65 early childhood professionals involved in the Getting Ready project, an integrated, multi-systemic intervention that promotes school readiness through parent engagement for children from birth to age five, were investigated. Digital videotaped records of professionals engaged in home visits with families across both treatment and comparison conditions were coded objectively using a partial–interval recording system to identify and record early childhood professionals’ implementation of intervention strategies and their effectiveness in promoting parent engagement and interest in their child. Adherence, quality of intervention delivery, differentiation between groups, and participant responsiveness were assessed as multiple dimensions of fidelity. Early childhood professionals in the treatment group relative to the comparison group demonstrated greater frequency of adherence to some intervention strategies, as well as higher rates of total strategy use. In addition, significant positive relationships were found between years of experience, education and quality of intervention delivery. Quality of intervention delivery was different by program type (Early Head Start versus Head Start). Adherence in the treatment group was correlated with the rate of contact between parent and early childhood professional during the home visit.     

Comparing beliefs about appropriate practice among early childhood education and care professionals from the U.S., China, Taiwan, Korea and Turkey

The purpose of this study was to examine what, if anything, caregivers and teachers of 3- to 5-year-old children from the U.S. (n = 412), China (n = 244), Taiwan (n = 222), Korea (n = 574), and Turkey (n = 214), had in common in terms of self-reported beliefs and self-reported practices related to the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) policy statement for developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). DAP is widely endorsed by early childhood education and care professionals in the U.S. and is assumed to have far reaching impact on curricular beliefs and practices throughout the world. Pearson correlations and one-way ANOVA were used to compare overall mean scores for beliefs measured by the Teachers Beliefs Scale (TBS) to those of practices measured by the Instructional Activities Scale (IAS) [Charlesworth, R., Hart, C. H., Burts, D. C., & Hernandez, S. (1991). Kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and practices. Early Child Development and Care, 70, 17–35]. Item-by-item analyses were conducted using factor analysis and χ² analyses within and across countries. Similarities emerged related to, in particular, those beliefs and teaching practices associated with integrating across the curriculum, promoting social/emotional development, providing concrete/hands-on materials, and allowing play/choice in the curriculum.     

Political prioritization of early childhood education in low- and middle-income countries

Despite a growing evidence base and global consensus on the importance of Early Childhood Education (ECE), it remains under-resourced and comparatively neglected as a policy issue. This paper seeks to better understand which factors facilitate or impede efforts to make ECE a political priority in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), applying a framework used primarily in global public health. We draw on a comparative analysis of four countries: Ethiopia, Liberia, Pakistan (Punjab Province), and Tanzania. Even though each of these countries has undertaken recent, concrete efforts to scale ECE, the political economy conditions to support sustained commitment are only partially present. National policymakers have responded to global efforts to advance early childhood development, and ideas about the benefits of ECE have gained significant traction. With few exceptions, however, civil society mobilization around ECE is relatively weak, and focusing events and prominent champions for ECE are uncommon. Taken together, these factors are consistent with a strong rhetorical commitment to early learning but a lack of sustained follow-through and resource provision.     

Mathematical language and mathematical abilities in preschool: A systematic literature review

It is well established that early general language during preschool is critical for children's mathematical abilities. In an attempt to further characterize this association between language and mathematics, an increasing number of studies show that one specific type of language, namely mathematical language or the key linguistic concepts that are required for performing mathematical activities, is even more critical to children's mathematical abilities. The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize the evidence on mathematical language and mathematical abilities. We focus on preschool children as nearly all of the existing work has been done at this age. We first explain how mathematical language has been defined across studies, and report how it has been evaluated in studies in preschool. Next, we present the results of our systematic review. Following the PRISMA guidelines and after a critical appraisal, we ended with a set of 18 papers that were all of sufficient methodological quality. In these studies, mathematical language was defined as terms that are about numbers and operations on numbers (e.g., nine), but also included linguistic terms that do not directly refer to numbers, yet are important to understand mathematical concepts (i.e., quantitative and spatial terms such as fewest and middle, respectively). Some of these studies evaluated children's performance on mathematical language tasks, while others evaluated the mathematical language input provided to the child by their (educational) environment (teachers/parents/interventionists). Mathematical language correlated positively with children's mathematical abilities, concurrently and longitudinally. It also directly affected children's mathematical abilities, as was shown by intervention studies. We discuss potential directions for future research and highlight implications for education, arguing for more support for teachers and parents to improve the use of mathematical language in the classroom and in home settings.     

The impacts of an early mathematics curriculum on oral language and literacy

Competence in early mathematics is crucial for later school success. Although research indicates that early mathematics curricula improve children's mathematics skill, such curricula's impacts on oral language and early literacy skills are not known. This project is the first to investigate the effects of an intensive pre-kindergarten mathematics curriculum, Building Blocks, on the oral language and letter recognition of children participating in a large-scale cluster randomized trial project. Results showed no evidence that children who were taught mathematics using the curriculum performed differently than control children who received the typical district mathematics instruction on measures of letter recognition, and on two of the oral language (story retell) subtests, sentence length and inferential reasoning (emotive content). However, children in the Building Blocks group outperformed children in the control group on four oral language subtests: ability to recall key words, use of complex utterances, willingness to reproduce narratives independently, and inferential reasoning (practical content).     

Interpretations of child centred practice in early childhood education and care

The globalisation of early childhood education and care (ECEC) has resulted in increased scrutiny of ECEC services, including pedagogical approaches and how best to prepare the ECEC workforce. Child-centred practice has come to epitomise ECEC pedagogy, but questions remain as to what is child-centred and how a member of the workforce becomes child-centred. Hungary represents a particular reading of child-centred practice, based on a construct of a child-loving adult. Questionnaire data illustrates support amongst Hungarian pedagogues for the importance of love in ECEC in support of a relational approach to working with children. However, observation and interview data from students indicates that the child-loving, child-centred ideal is both a weakly classified construct and that training and assessment practices create contradictory messages as to its meaning amongst students. The study has implications for how ECEC pedagogical ideals area realised in initial training and interpretations of child-centred practice.     

Governance of early childhood education and care: recent developments in OECD countries

Since the 1990s, many OECD countries have expanded their early childhood services and developed more coherent and coordinated policies. Through this process, countries have adopted very different approaches to governing their early childhood systems. Drawing from findings of a 12‐country comparative study, this article explores cross‐national approaches to the governance of early childhood systems, as well as some possible implications for future policy development. The article discusses the roles of the national government, the local authorities, the private sector and other stakeholders, such as teachers and parents, in making key decisions about how the system operates in different countries. The article calls for empirical research on the effects of governance on the nature of policies and programmes for young children and their families in different nations.