The long-term contribution of early childhood education to children's performance - evidence from New Zealand

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Early years

Authors

Wylie C., and Thompson J., New Zealand Council for Educational Research, Wellington, New Zealand.

Publisher

International Journal of Early Years Education, Vol. 11. No. 1. 2003

Introduction

Does early childhood education affect children's later performance at school?

Developing educational and childcare provision for under-fives has been a priority for educational policy in the UK in recent years. The 'Competent Children Project', described in this paper, is an on-going project in New Zealand, which began in 1993. The researchers wanted to find out what contribution early childhood education makes to children's competency levels in the short, medium and long term. This study reports the findings for when the children were aged ten. Information had been gathered previously when the children were aged six and eight and future work is planned for when the children are aged twelve and fourteen.

The researchers found three factors that particularly contributed to the children's performance at age ten:

the length of their early education experience;
the general quality of their early education, but particularly items related to teacher-child interaction; and
the socio-economic mix of their final early education centre.

The findings complement recent UK research concerning the 'Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project: Findings from the Pre-school Period' (Kathy Sylva et al.) which identified effective provision for the pre-school child by relating child development to children’s experiences in particular centres, types of centre and practices.

Details of the EPPE project and a related practitioner summary on Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years can be found on the Internet.

Keywords
New Zealand; Early years; Mathematics; Cognitive development; Reception; Foundation; Teachers; Nursery schools; Socio-economic influences; Social skills; Attitudes; Behaviour; Key Stage 1; Key Stage 2; Literacy

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What difference did the length of children's early education experience make? Which features of early education centres were linked to children's performance at age ten? Conclusions: how can quality early education be provided to all children? How was the study designed? What are the implications of the study for preschool staff and parents? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader The long-term contribution of early childhood education to children's performance - evidence from New Zealand This digest found in Early years Send to a friend Word doc 60KB Printer friendly Collate for later Authors Wylie C., and Thompson J., New Zealand Council for Educational Research, Wellington, New Zealand. Publisher International Journal of Early Years Education, Vol. 11. No. 1. 2003 Introduction Does early childhood education affect children's later performance at school? Developing educational and childcare provision for under-fives has been a priority for educational policy in the UK in recent years. The 'Competent Children Project', described in this paper, is an on-going project in New Zealand, which began in 1993. The researchers wanted to find out what contribution early childhood education makes to children's competency levels in the short, medium and long term. This study reports the findings for when the children were aged ten. Information had been gathered previously when the children were aged six and eight and future work is planned for when the children are aged twelve and fourteen. The researchers found three factors that particularly contributed to the children's performance at age ten: the length of their early education experience; the general quality of their early education, but particularly items related to teacher-child interaction; and the socio-economic mix of their final early education centre. The findings complement recent UK research concerning the 'Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project: Findings from the Pre-school Period' (Kathy Sylva et al.) which identified effective provision for the pre-school child by relating child development to children’s experiences in particular centres, types of centre and practices. Details of the EPPE project and a related practitioner summary on Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years can be found on the Internet. Keywords New Zealand; Early years; Mathematics; Cognitive development; Reception; Foundation; Teachers; Nursery schools; Socio-economic influences; Social skills; Attitudes; Behaviour; Key Stage 1; Key Stage 2; Literacy