Quality in Early Childhood Education – Can it be International?

1. Professor Kathy Sylva University of Oxford
EECERAConference
TallinnEstonia2013 Quality in Early Childhood Education – Can it
be International?

2. The EPPE/EPPSE Team
Principal Investigators:
Kathy Sylva Department of Education, University of Oxford
Edward Melhuish Birkbeck, University of London
Pam Sammons Department of Education, University of Oxford
Iram Siraj-Blatchford Institute of Education, University of London
Brenda Taggart Institute of Education, University of London

3. Themes in today’s presentation
 The effects of pre-school education on
children’s intellectual and social/behavioural
development at age 11, 14 years
 (Controlling for for) effects of early learning at
home
 Outcomes – attainment or progress?

4.  Independent Variable:
Early Childhood Education
e.g. Perry Pre-school Programme
 Dependent Variable:
Children’s developmental outcomes
Establishing cause in educational research:
Experimental design

5. An experimental approach:
The High/Scope Perry Study in US
School
Achievement Tests,plus
Interviews with children
Social Profiles:questionnaires
Interviews with parents
Behaviour Ratings:teachers
Assignment to Special Education
I.Q.
Jobs
Training
Parenthood
Welfare
Crime
Pre-schoolgroupControl(noschool)
group
3 5 AGE 18 27
From Schweinhart & Weikart (1993)

6. An educational effectiveness approach:
fixed effects in EPPE
The EPPE Project uses an
educational /school effectiveness
design, which investigates ‘natural’
variation using multi-level
modelling (pupil and school level)
in order to establish effects of pre-
school attendance or quality on
children’s development over time.

7.  Five regions strategically selected in England (
 141 pre-school centres randomly selected within
regions to include: playgroups, nursery classes,
private day nurseries, day care centres run by local
authorities, nursery schools and integrated centres
 2800 randomly selected children from 141
centres; 305 children from home
 Linked study of 800 children in Northern Ireland;
‘strength of replication’
The EPPE Sample

8. EPPE has an ‘mixed methods’
design which includes:
 Quantitative methods (led by
Sammons)
 Qualitative methods (led by
Siraj-Blatchford)
50 cast studies of resilient
chidren and families
The EPPE Mixed Method Design

9. 25 nursery classes
590 children
34 playgroups
610 children
31 private day nurseries
520 children
20 nursery schools
520 children
7 integrated centres
190 children
24 local authority day care nurseries
430 children
home
310 children
Design of EPPE 3-11: 6 LA, 141 pre-schools,
3,000 children
Reception Yr 2Pre-school
Provision (3+ yrs)
Key Stage 1
600 Schools
Yr 6
Key Stage 2
1000 Schools

10. Neighbourhood
The
Developing
Child
Family
Settings
Cultural context
Immediate environment
Social and economic
context
Bronfenbrenner’s model of
human development

11. Influences on child outcomes at ages 5, 7, 11, 14
Child
Factors
Family
Factors
Home-
Learning-
Environment
Cognitive outcomes:
English & maths
Social/Behavioural:
Self Regulation
Likes to work things out for self
Pro-social
Considerate of others feelings
Hyperactivity
Restless, cannot stay still for
long
Anti-social
Bullies other children
Primary
School
Pre-School
Secondary
School

12. Sources of data
 Child cog/ social/dispositional
assessments
 Child/Family background
information, e.g. SES,
birthweight
 Interviews with all parents
 Case studies of settings and
of children who were
‘resilient’
 Observation rating scales
for quality (ECERS-R and E)

13. Early Years Home Learning
Environment (HLE at ages 3-4 years)
HLE index (Melhuish, 2001), measuring frequency of:
1. Reading with child
2. Painting and drawing
3. Library visits
4. Playing with letters/numbers
5. Teaching alphabet
6. Playing or teaching numbers/shapes
7. Playing with songs/nursery
rhymes
HLE to children’s British
Ability Scales scores as well as measures
of socio-economic status and
educational qualifications of parents.

14. 0.21 0.22
0.40
0.57
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
14-19 20-24 25-32 33-45
Net Effect of Early Home-Learning Environment on Maths at Age 10
EffectSize
HLEIndex (Pre-School)
R

15. Multilevel analysis predicting oral language skills at age 5 (primary school entry)*
Factors Effe
ct
Size
No. of Siblings (3+ vs. none) -.17
English as an Additional Language (EAL vs.
English as mother tongue)
-.24
Mother’s Qualification Level (degree vs. no
degree)
.24
Family SES (semi-skilled manual vs. professional
non-manual)
-.23
HLE: Being read to (daily vs. rarely) .27
Effects of Early Years HLE on vocabulary at 5

16. Does pre-school attendance matter
at 7 years?

17. READING at key stage 1, social class and
pre-school experience
WRITING at key stage 1, social class and
pre-school experience
The effect of social class and
pre-school attendance on literacy at age 7
1.8
2.0
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
Professional Skilled Un/semi skilled
Social class by occupation
Meanyear2readinglevel
Pre-school
Expected minimum
No pre-school
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
2.4
2.6
Professional Skilled Un/semi skilled
Social class by occupation
Meanyear2writinglevel
Pre-school
Expected minimum
No pre-school
From Sylva et al. (2004)

18. Does pre-school quality matter at
age 11?

19. ECERS-R
 Based on observation
 7 sub-scales:
 Space and furnishings
 Personal care routines
 Language reasoning
 Activities
 Interaction
 Programme structure
 Parents and staff
 Harms, Clifford & Cryer (1998)
ECERS-E
 Based on observation
 4 sub-scales:
 Literacy
 Mathematics
 Science and environment
 Diversity
 Sylva, Siraj-Blatchford &
Taggart (2010)
Two Early Childhood Environment
Quality Rating Scales

20. Example ECERS-E item: Food preparation (Science)
Inadequate Minimal Good Excellent
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1.1 No preparation of
food/drink is undertaken
in front of children
3.1 Food preparation is
undertaken by staff in
front of the children
5.1 Food preparation /
cooking activities are
provided regularly
7.1 A variety of cooking
activities in which all
children may take part
are provided regularly
3.2 Some children can
choose to participate in
food preparation
5.2 Most of the children
have the opportunity to
participate in food
preparation
7.2 The ingredients are
attractive and the end
result is edible and
appreciated
3.3 Some food-related
discussion takes place
where appropriate
5.3 The staff lead
discussion about the
food involved and use
appropriate language
7.3 The staff lead and
encourage discussion on
the process of food
preparation and/or
question children
about it
5.4 Children are
encouraged to use more
than one sense (feel,
smell, taste) to explore
raw ingredients

21. 0
1
2
3
4
5
Literacy Mathematics Science and environment Diversity
ECERS-Escore
Level 2 Level 3 / 4 Level 5
ECERS-E subscales by manager
qualifications

22. The effect of pre-school pedagogical quality
(ECERS-E) on English and Mathematics in Year 6

23. There is no effect of the ECERS-R on
English or Mathematics at age 11
The effect of global quality (ECERS-R)
on academic attainment

24. The social behavioural outcomes
(Goodman scale extended)
 Hyperactivity
e.g. Restless, overactive, cannot stay still for long’
 Self regulation
e.g. ‘Likes to work out things for self’
 Pro-social behaviour
e.g. ‘Considerate of other people’s feelings’
 Antisocial behaviour
e.g. ‘Bullies other children`

25. The effect of pre-school quality (ECERS-R and
ECERS-E) on self-regulation at age 11

26. The effect of pre-school quality (ECERS-R and
ECERS-E) on anti-social behaviour at age 11

27. The net effect of pre-school quality on academic progress
in English between 7 and 11 (accelerated learning
compared to peers)

28. Representation of mediated effects upon
literacy and numeracy
Early Years HLE
3+
Pre-school Effectiveness
3-5 years
Literacy
ages 7, 11, 14
Numeracy
ages 7, 11, 14
Self-regulation
at age 5

29. Quality fosters capacity for learning
how to learn
 Pre-school attendance alone led to better
attainment in English and Mathematics but this
did not translate into better progress.
 Pre-school quality (medium, high) led to greater
progress between Years 2 and 6 for English and
Maths, children who attended high quality had
accelerated learning compared to ‘home’ children.
 High quality pre-school provides children with an
initial boost to at school entry but also
promotes progress (by fostering children’s
capacity to learn?)

30. Play scenario: Katz
Four children were playing together. Three were wearing trainers
but shoes of one child lit up occasionally.
Teacher: Wow! Look at your shoes! That is so cool.
They light up when you step down.
Child 1: Yes, they do this. [Jumps up and down several
times]
Teacher: How does that happen? How does it light up?
Child 1: Because they are new.
Teacher: Um. Mine are new too but they don’t light up.
Child 2: No, because they light up when you step down
on them. [Steps down hard several times]
Quality learning: The Light-Up Shoes

31. Teacher: [Steps down hard several times] That’s funny. Mine
don’t light up when I step down.
Child 3: No, no, no, you have to have these holes [points to
the holes]
Teacher: [Pointing to the holes in her own shoe] But I have
holes and mine still don’t light up, and Josh has holes in his
trainers too and his do not light up either. I wonder why?
Child 4: I think you need batteries. Kids, you need batteries.
Child 1: Yeah, you need batteries to make them work.
[Thinks for a while]. But I did not see batteries when I put my
toes in.
Child 4: I think they are under the toes.
Child 2: I can’t feel the batteries under my toes.
Teacher: I wonder how we can find out about this?
The Light-Up Shoes (cont.)

32. Harms. T., Clifford, R. M., & Cryer, D. (1998). Early Childhood Environment
Rating Scale Revised Edition (ECERS-R). New York: Teachers’ College
Press.
Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Taggart, B.
(2010). Early Childhood Matters: Evidence from the Effective Pre-school
and Primary Education Project. Oxford: Routledge.
Sylva, K., Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Taggart, B. (2003, Second Edition 2010).
Assessing quality in the early years. Trentham Books.
EPPSE Project
http://eppe.ioe.ac.uk/
Families, Early Learning and Literacy (FELL) research group
http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/research/fell/