Improving quality of teaching and child development: A randomised controlled trial of the leadership for learning intervention in preschools

Abstract

IntroductionSubstantial research indicates that high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) confers a wide range of benefits for children, yet quality in ECEC remains inconsistent. Given the variability in training and qualifications, one strategy for improving ECEC quality is in-service professional development (PD).MethodsThe current study evaluated an evidence-based in-service PD programme, Leadership for Learning, via a cluster randomised controlled trial involving 83 ECEC services and 1,346 children in their final year of pre-school.ResultsResults indicated significant improvements in teaching quality across treatment centres and child development outcomes in language, numeracy and social-emotional development.DiscussionThis study provides strong support for making evidence-informed PD routinely available for ECEC practitioners.

Profiles of Chinese preschoolers' academic and social–emotional development in relation to classroom quality: A multilevel latent profile approach

“…The results indicate the importance of actively promoting scientific and mathematic inquiry, adapting instruction to children's individual and group needs, and engaging in higher order pedagogies such as sustained shared thinking. It also extends the discussion on quality by outlining the need to improve the quality of science and math activities, teachers' awareness of diversity, and the support of children's critical thinking (Siraj et al, 2018;Vygotsky & Cole, 1978). In particular, it informs the focus of teachers' professional development and the direction of relevant intervention studies.…”

“…ECERS-E math scores in preschools even predict children's math achievement in grade one (Aboud & Hossain, 2011) and this suggests that preschool teachers can help children sustain their mathematics development in primary school by structuring classrooms with high-quality math instruction. The positive influence of literacy, math, and diversity quality, as measured by ECERS-E on children's early numeracy development, was also identified by Howard et al (2018) in a more extensive clustered randomized controlled trial study-Fostering Effective Early Learning (Siraj et al, 2018).…”

“…Under this perspective, classroom quality is domain‐specific and contains elements specific to the intent and content of the learning domains (Shulman, 1986). For example, the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale‐Extension (ECERS‐E; Sylva et al, 2003) is widely used to evaluate classroom quality specific to teachers' instructional practice in literacy, numeracy, science, and diversity (e.g., Anders et al, 2012; Howard et al, 2018; Siraj et al, 2022; Sylva et al, 2006). It was developed from the Effective Provision of Preschool Education project, which involved over 3000 children and traced their development longitudinally from age 3 to 7 to investigate the impacts of preschool education and care on child development (Sylva et al, 2006).…”

“…Positive impacts are especially robust when early years' settings are high quality (e.g., Melhuish & Gardiner, 2019;Siraj et al, 2018). However, when exploring the associations between classroom quality and child development, most research has adopted a variable-oriented approach and has linked quality measures to children's separate learning domains (e.g., Hu et al, 2020;Siraj et al, 2022;Su et al, 2021). As a result, quality measures found to be related to one developmental domain might or might not be related to other domains.…”

“…Following decades of international research, there is now a widespread academic consensus that children who attend quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs tend to demonstrate better cognitive-, behavioral-, and social-emotional (SE) outcomes than those who do not (Pianta et al, 2021;Rao et al, 2012;Sylva et al, 2006). Positive impacts are especially robust when early years' settings are high quality (e.g., Melhuish & Gardiner, 2019;Siraj et al, 2018). However, when exploring the associations between classroom quality and child development, most research has adopted a variable-oriented approach and has linked quality measures to children's separate learning domains (e.g., Hu et al, 2020;Siraj et al, 2022;Su et al, 2021).…”