Capturing quality in early childhood through environmental rating scales

Sylva, Κathy; Siraj‐Blatchford, Iram; Taggart, Brenda; Sammons, Pam; Melhuish, Edward; Elliot, Karen; Totsika, Vasiliki

doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2006.01.003

Cited by 259 publications

(233 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Tietze et al, 2013) and the United Kingdom (e.g. Sylva et al, 2006), where similar results have been reported. A central limitation of the research conducted in Austria is, that domain-specific measures of interaction quality (e.g.…”

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confidence: 61%

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Early childhood education and care in Austria: challenges and education policies

Smidt

2017

Early Child Development and Care

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After a first peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, early childhood education and care (ECEC) again plays an important role in the educational system in Austria. Over 90% of 3-5-year-old children attend non-familial institutions such as preschools. A consequence of this development is that new challenges arise, which have become the subject of scholarly discussions and education policies. A first challenge refers to the academization of the training of preschool teachers. A second challenge focuses on the need to improve interaction quality in preschools. A third challenge relates to improvements in the degree of collaboration between preschool and primary school. A fourth challenge is the need to establish a research infrastructure in ECEC in Austria to gain country-specific research evidence. This contribution aims to elucidate and examine these challenges, along with current education policies to improve ECEC in Austria.ARTICLE HISTORY

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confidence: 61%

“…quality of math-related or literacy-related interactions) have not been captured. However, if one would assume quite similar pattern of results as they had been found in other countries such as Germany (Smidt & Rossbach, 2016;Tietze et al, 2013) and United Kingdom (Sylva et al, 2006), the quality of domain-specific interactions would be low.…”

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confidence: 89%

Early childhood education and care in Austria: challenges and education policies

Smidt

2017

Early Child Development and Care

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“…In educational research, implementation of manualized curricula or instructional approaches often utilizes measures of procedural fidelity to ensure they are implemented as intended (e.g., Justice & Ezell, 2002;Lonigan, Anthony, Bloomfield, Dyer, & Samwel, 1999; Reid & Lieneman, 2006;Wasik et al, 2006); inclusion of procedural fidelity measures are considered an "essential quality" for intervention research (Gersten et al, 2005), including research on preschool curricula implementation (e.g., Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research Consortium; see http://pcer.rti.org). Within practice, procedural fidelity measures are increasingly used to determine whether teachers are using adopted programs as intended, particularly those that are considered to be "scientifically based" and for which procedural fidelity might be a key moderator of pupil outcomes (see Glenn, 2006).As important as procedural fidelity is to ensuring that curricula are implemented as intended, it must be distinguished from quality of implementation, which is decidedly more difficult to capture (Sylva et al, 2006) and likely reflects a teacher's conceptual rather than procedural skill. We use the term "quality of instruction" in this article to refer to a teacher's ability to work flexibly with students to differentiate instruction and respond sensitively to what they bring to the task, that is, to exhibit skilled performance within dynamic interactions with children in learning activities that unfold over time.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As important as procedural fidelity is to ensuring that curricula are implemented as intended, it must be distinguished from quality of implementation, which is decidedly more difficult to capture (Sylva et al, 2006) and likely reflects a teacher's conceptual rather than procedural skill. We use the term "quality of instruction" in this article to refer to a teacher's ability to work flexibly with students to differentiate instruction and respond sensitively to what they bring to the task, that is, to exhibit skilled performance within dynamic interactions with children in learning activities that unfold over time.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

Justice

Mashburn

Hamre

et al. 2008

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

510

298

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Policy-makers, administrators, researchers, and teachers are increasingly vested in ensuring the quality of preschool instruction, particularly in the areas of language and literacy. This research was conducted to characterize the quality of language and literacy instruction in 135 publiclyfunded preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils. As all teachers in these classrooms were implementing the same language and literacy curriculum, we also studied the interrelationships among procedural fidelity to a prescribed curriculum and the quality of language and literacy instruction, determining whether procedural fidelity is associated or disassociated with quality instruction. Results showed that the quality of language and literacy instruction in classrooms was low, with few teachers delivering high quality instruction. Although teachers were able to implement a prescribed language and literacy curriculum with a high degree of procedural fidelity, this was not associated with quality instruction. Few structural characteristics of classrooms of teachers were systematically associated with quality of instruction. Findings have important implications for professional development of teachers by suggesting a need for a sustained and coherent focus on the process of instruction to elevate instructional quality in language and literacy.Two-thirds of 4-year-olds currently participate in early education programs, and this figure is growing annually in light of many state-level initiatives to expand enrollment or provide universal access to preschool for 4-year-old children (Barnett & Yarosz, 2004). Complementing these initiatives are movements to improve the quality of instruction within preschool programs, particularly in the area of language and literacy. As an example, the U.S. Department of Education's Early Reading First program provides funds to preschool programs to support their achievement of "excellence" in programming, particularly the provision of high-quality instruction in literacy and language through improved classroom print richness, professional development for staff, and implementation of scientificallybased curricula. The anticipated outcome of such proactive and prevention-oriented initiatives is that more children will enter school with the skills and competencies needed to succeed in early and later reading instruction.Educational-policy initiatives that seek to improve the quality of early education, particularly in the area of literacy and language instruction, are grounded in developmental theory and empirical evidence emphasizing the continuity between children's early literacy and language development and their later achievement of skilled reading (e.g., Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 2001;Lonigan, 2006;Storch & Whitehurst, 2002;Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Evidence shows that children with well-developed language and literacy Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this ear...

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“…How these young children are spending their time in the ECEC settings and the impact it is having on their lives is a research topic worth examining, because children's early experiences have a great influence on their future lives as well as on their lives in the here and now. Valuable research has already been published in the last decade indicating that children can benefit socially, developmentally, economically and academically from attending ECEC settings (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005;Greve, 2005;OECD, 2006;Løkken, 2004;Sylva et al, 2006). Looking at what children are doing in these settings and how they are influencing their environment and making use of it for their own benefits has also been researched to some extent (Alvestad, 2010;Bae, 1996;Corsaro, 2003Corsaro, , 2015Denzin, 2010;Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1993;Greve & Solheim, 2010;Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2008;Ryan, 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%