Supporting Quality Teaching

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Supporting Quality Teaching Learning in Early
Years Evidence from Projects EPPE and REPEY.

• Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford
• Institute of Education, University of London

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Effective Provision of Pre-School EducationE P P
E (UK)

• Iram Siraj-Blatchford Institute of Education,
  University of London
• Kathy Sylva University of Oxford
• Edward Melhuish Birkbeck, University of London
• Pam Sammons Institute of Education, University of
  London
• Brenda Taggart Institute of Education, University
  of London

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Aims of the EPPE research

• To establish the impact of pre-school on young
  childrens intellectual and social/behavioural
  development.
• To identify those pre-schools that are more
  effective than others in promoting childrens
  development.
• To describe the characteristics of effective
  pre-school settings.
• To establish the impact of the home and childcare
  history (before age 3) on childrens intellectual
  and behavioural development.
• To explore whether pre-school experience can
  reduce social inequalities.

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Sample

• Six local authorities
• Pre-school centres randomly selected within the
  authorities to include
• playgroups
• nursery classes
• private day nurseries
• day care centres run by local authorities
• nursery schools
• fully integrated centres
• A home sample approx 300 who have no group
  pre-school experience
• Approx 3000 children and 141 centres

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Sources of data

• Child assessments over 4 years e.g. cognitive
  tasks and social-emotional profile
• Interviews e.g. with parents and heads of
  centres, and local authority officers
• Systematic rating of quality in centres
• Documents e.g. curriculum statements, policy
  documents etc.
• Qualitative case studies of centres

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Plan of Study an educational effectiveness
design
Reception Year 1
Year 2 (5 yrs) (6 yrs)
(7 yrs)
Pre-school Provision (3yrs)
Baseline Assessment N 3,000 Exit Assessments
N 1500 Age 6 Assessments N 3,000 Age 7
Assessments N 3,000
25 nursery classes 590
children
34 playgroups 610 children
31 private day nurseries
520 children
20 nursery schools 520
children
24 local authority day care nurseries
430 children
7 integrated centres 190
children
home 310 children
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Main Findings

• Pre-school experience, compared to none, enhances
  intellectual and social development in all
  children.
• Good quality pre-school experiences support
  better cognitive and social-behavioural
  development for children.
• Good quality can be found across all types of
  early years settings, but the state sector has
  more good quality.
• For all children learning at home helps cognitive
  and social development.
• Disadvantaged children in particular can benefit
  significantly from good quality pre-school
  experiences.

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Quality

• Good quality and better cognitive outcomes for
  children are associated with higher
  qualifications in staff- especially trained
  teachers

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Home learning before 3 years
What parents and carers do is most important and
makes a real difference to development.
Activities for parents which help childrens
development include

• reading to children
• teaching children songs and nursery rhymes
• playing with letters and numbers
• painting and drawing
• taking children to libraries
• (for social outcomes) creating regular
  opportunities for play with friends.

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REPEY Case Studies

• The most effective settings provide both
  teacher-initiated group work and freely chosen
  yet potentially instructive play activities
• Excellent settings tend to achieve an equal
  balance between adult-led and child-initiated
  interactions and activities
• Siraj-Blatchford et al (2002) Researching
  Effective
• Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY), DfES

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REPEY Case Studies

• Cognitive outcomes relate to teacher/adult
  planned and initiated focused group work and the
  amount of sustained shared thinking between
  adults and children
• Effective pedagogy is both teaching, and the
  provision of instructive learning environments
  and routines
• Siraj-Blatchford et al (2002) Researching
  Effective
• Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY), DfES

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Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years
Sustained shared thinking An episode in which
two or more individuals work together in an
intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a
concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative
etc. Both parties must contribute to the
thinking and it must develop and extend.
Siraj-Blatchford et al (2002) Researching
Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY),
DfES
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Percentage of pedagogical interactions (cognitive
and monitoring) in settings varying in
effectiveness
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Percentage of high cognitive challenge activities
within each initiation category in each setting
type

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Figure 26a Curricular areas (proportionally) in
which children use computers
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Figure 27 Adult/Teacher presence at the computer
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Figure 28a Cognitive pedagogical interactions
which occurred while children were engaged in
computing activities
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Figure 29 Social pedagogical interactions when
children are engaged in computing
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? Children use computers primarily without an
adult present. ? When practitioners are
present they are more likely to be fully
qualified teachers. ? Children are encouraged
to discover for themselves, while the adult
provides encouragement, questions and management
if appropriate.
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The role of the teacher Enquiry Questions 3
Questions can often be started with I
wonderwhat, if, why, how, when, where
Information and Communication Technology
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The role of the teacher Enquiry Questions 7
Positive questioning
I dont know, what do you think? Thats an
interesting idea. I like what you have done
therewhat Have you seen what X has donewhy I
wondered why you had Ive never thought about
that before Youve really made me think What
would happen if we did
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The role of the teacher Enquiry Questions 8
Making sense words
I think I agree I imagine I disagree I
like I dont like I wonder
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For further information about EPPE visit the EPPE
website at http//www.ioe.ac.uk/cdl/eppe/
Also at http//www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/upl
oadfiles/RR356.pdf http//www.parliament.the-stati
onery- office.co.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmeduemp
/3860062101.htm