01/03/2023 - 30/06/2024
2: High quality early childhood education and care for enhancing learning outcomes for primary and secondary students
2: High quality early childhood education and care for enhancing learning outcomes for primary and secondary students
The researchers working on WP 2 will begin with a comprehensive analysis of the research about the impact of early childhood education and care on the development of children’s basic skills at primary and secondary school. Based on this work, they will produce a set of quality indicators that will frame a self-applied quality assessment tool. This tool will be piloted in 18 early childhood education and care centres across Europe. A large-scale survey will then be conducted in 12 European countries to gain a global picture of the quality of these centres. The final task is to discuss the findings with young children, families and staff of the centres involved in this work package to make policy recommendations for high quality early childhood education and care.
The first task is to carry out a special analysis of published studies assessing the impact of early childhood education and care on the development of basic skills in primary and secondary school students. Based on this analysis, the researchers will then produce a set of quality indicators for early childhood education and care which promote the successful development of basic skills in later stages of a child’s school career.
Building on these results, the second task of WP2 focuses on developing a self-assessment tool called ‘the Self-Assessment Quality Instrument for ECEC Centres’, (SAQE). It will be piloted in 18 early childhood education and care centres with 36 educators.
The third task will be a Europe-wide and UK survey of early childhood education and care centres. Findings from the second task will inform this survey which will be conducted in 12 countries – three in the north, three in the centre, three in the south and three in the east. Survey questionnaires will be easily accessible and available in the official languages of the countries selected. The survey responses will be analysed using various statistical methods to find out the quality of early childhood education and care in Europe and highlighting those aspects which determine high quality provision.
The final task will feature the voices and experiences of children (aged 4-6 years), families and staff linked to the centres involved with this work package. Team members will host a total of 15 focus groups – five partners carrying out three focus groups each. These discussions will focus on policy recommendations for early childhood education and care in the light of the research findings in this work package.
WP 2 leader: Universidad De La Iglesia De Deusto Entidad Religiosa, Spain