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Quality in Early Childhood Education: an International Review and Guide for

Policy Makers

Technical Report · November 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20363.64804

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Quality in Early Childhood By
David Whitebread
Education: an International Martina Kuvalja
Aileen O’Connor
Review and Guide for Policy University
Makers of Cambridge

With contributions
from:

Qatar Academy

P. 1
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
CONTENTS

FOREWORD 4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6

I- YOUNG CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT 8

AND LEARNING
1. EMOTIONAL 9
2. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 11
3. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 13
4. KEY TRANSVERSAL SKILLS: LANGUAGE,
SELF-REGULATION AND PLAYFULNESS 15
5. EMERGING DEVELOPMENTAL PRINCIPLES
SUPPORTING HIGH QUALITY ECE 18

II- QUALITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 20

1. KEY INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN ECE 20
• Importance of investing in ECE 20
• Development of international ECE goals 21

2. DEFINING AND MEASURING QUALITY IN ECE 25

• Defining and researching indicators of high quality 25
• Measurement of quality 31
3. INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS TOWARD
QUALITY IN ECE 33
• OECD countries 33
• Developing countries 35

4. INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLES OF HIGH

QUALITY ECE 37
• Significant approaches with international
impact on ECE 37
• NGOs and Social Entrepreneur
initiatives worldwide 40
• International case studies of ECE schools 44

III- IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE 51

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 54

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 56

REFERENCES 58

The views and opinions in this publication are solely those of the authors.
FOREWORD
The recently adopted United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call
upon Member States by 2030 to “ensure that all girls and boys have
access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary
education so that they are ready for primary education.” In this regard
the UN is correctly responding to the plethora of research studies that
demonstrate the criticality of early childhood development in predisposing
children for success in school and indeed in many other spheres of life.

We know from recent research that both the quantity and quality of
care and interactions that a child has in the very early years can have
a significant impact even on the physical development of the brain.
A study by scientists at the University of Southern California recently
published in the journal Nature Neuroscience revealed that the
children of affluent parents had, on average, bigger brains than those
from poorer backgrounds. The study noted that the regions of the
brain where the differences were most pronounced were those associated
with language, reading, memory and decision-making. It is reasonable
to conclude therefore that this developmental discrepancy was the direct
result of the fact that the children of affluent parents enjoyed higher
quality nutrition, childcare and schooling than their poorer counterparts.

Studies such as this raise profound questions about the effectiveness

of traditional education policy interventions designed to achieve equality
of opportunity and thereby enhance social mobility. At the very least they
strongly suggest that if we are genuinely interested in achieving a truly
meritocratic society, then we ought to prioritize investment in providing
strong community support and quality early childhood education for all

P. 4
FOREWORD
of our young children regardless of the relative income levels of their
parents. In this regard, it is important to identify and agree on what we
mean by quality early childhood education. This is the purpose of this
report, which hopes to serve as a guide to policymakers and practitioners
presenting them with a robust review of the science behind early
childhood development along with best practice examples of successful
interventions in different contexts.

Stavros N. Yiannouka Dr. David Whitebread

Chief Executive Officer Senior Lecturer in Psychology
World Innovation Summit & Education and Director of the
for Education Centre for Research on Play in
Qatar Foundation Education, University of Cambridge

Dr. Martina Kuvalja

Research Associate,
University of Cambridge

Dr. Aileen O’Connor

PhD Researcher, University
of Cambridge

P. 5
FOREWORD
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
There is strong and consistent evidence that high quality
Early Childhood Education (ECE) impacts children’s
academic development and their emotional and social
well-being more powerfully than any other phase of
education.
At the same time, what is understood by high quality is often not well
defined. This report argues that, in order to assess and promote quality
in ECE, we must identify which aspects of children’s early experience
and development support and predict high levels of cognitive, academic,
emotional, and social functioning in later life.

The report therefore starts with an analysis of what is known from

developmental psychology about these key early experiences and
developments. Analysis of developmental psychological research suggests
that children who are emotionally secure, curious, and playful, with
well-developed oral language and self-regulation abilities, will be most
enabled to develop as powerful learners and emotionally and socially
healthy individuals.

ECE settings which support these developments are characterized by

emotionally warm and supportive social interactions, the provision
of developmentally challenging and playful learning opportunities, dialogic
and collaborative talk, and support for child-initiated activity and
children’s autonomy.

Throughout the rest of the report, the quality of ECE and its various
elements are assessed in relation to key elements, including international
developments in ECE, methods for defining and measuring quality
in ECE, and international progress toward quality in ECE. This report
then examines a range of alternative ECE approaches, some of which
were developed by ECE pioneers in the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries and have steadily risen in popularity in countries all over the
world. Next, a range of high quality ECE initiatives across the developing
world is reviewed. Finally, the report concludes with sixteen specific
policy recommendations in order to ensure the achievement of high
quality ECE internationally.

P. 6
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
#1
YOUNG CHILDREN’S
DEVELOPMENT AND
LEARNING

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DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING
YOUNG CHILDREN’S
#1

DEVELOPMENT AND
LEARNING
This first section provides a brief overview of the main
areas of research in developmental psychology (and the
emerging contributions of developmental neuroscience)
which relate to the cognitive power and emotional health
of young children and have implications for ECE. The
psychological journey from babyhood to adolescence is
fundamentally one of increasing awareness and control
by children of their own mental processes. The growth,
development, and learning which comprise this journey
enable children to become increasingly independent of
adults or, in the language of Vygotsky (1978, 1986),
to move from being other-regulated toward being self-
regulated.
There is now a vast research literature addressing the emergence
and development of self regulation in children. The most widely accepted
definition of what is meant by this term in developmental psychology
is that offered by Schunk and Zimmerman (1994): “The process whereby
students activate and sustain cognitions, behaviors, and affects, which
are systematically oriented toward attainment of their goals”(p. 309).
The model of metacognition originally developed by Nelson and
Narens (1990, 1994), incorporating the complementary processes of
metacognitive monitoring and control, has been widely adopted, and
evidence has been accrued of young children’s much more advanced
abilities in these areas than was previously recognized.

For example, observational studies of three to five year old children

in the naturalistic contexts of their ECE classrooms, engaged in playful,
self-initiated individual and small group collaborative activities, have
revealed extensive metacognitive and self-regulatory behaviors. Monitoring
behaviors observed included self-commentary, reviewing and keeping
track of progress, rating effort and level of difficulty, checking behaviors
and detecting errors, evaluating strategies’ use, rating the quality

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of performance, and evaluating when a task was complete. Control
behaviors included changing strategies on a task based on previous
monitoring, applying a previously learned strategy to a new situation,
repeating a strategy in order to check the accuracy of the outcome,
using a non-verbal gesture to support cognitive activity, and various
types of planning activities. Many of these behaviors were observed
when children were engaged in playful constructional activities or
pretence play involving small-world scenarios with dolls and action
figures or role play involving dressing up and acting out real world
narratives or fantasy adventures (Whitebread et al., 2005, 2007, 2009).

These metacognitive and self-regulatory abilities have been shown to be

the most powerful single predictor of learning (Wang, Haertel and
Walberg, 1990), to make a unique contribution to learning performance
beyond that accounted for by traditionally measured intelligence
(Veenman and Spaans, 2005) or early reading achievement (McClelland,
Acock, Piccinin, Rhea and Stallings, 2013), and to be a key area of
weakness for many children with learning difficulties (Sugden, 1989).
The crucial role played by these abilities has been extensively
researched in relation to the development of an increasingly wide range
of domains, including, for example, mathematics (de Corte et al, 2000),
reading and text comprehension (Maki and McGuire, 2002), writing
(Hacker, Keener and Kirchner, 2009) and memory (Reder, 1996).

It has also been established that self-regulatory abilities are significantly

influenced by children’s early experiences, and that, as a consequence,
they can easily be encouraged within educational settings (Dignath,
Buettner and Langfeldt, 2008). Importantly, practices which support
children’s self-regulation have been shown to be those that make the
processes of learning "explicit" or "visible" (Hattie, 2009, 2012; Whitebread,
Pino-Pasternak and Coltman, 2015), engage them in achievable regulatory
challenges, and support and nurture their natural playfulness and
curiosity (Whitebread, Jameson and Basilio, 2015).

In the remainder of this first section, we set out key findings in relation
to children’s emotional, social, and cognitive development, the role
of language and playfulness in supporting self-regulation, and developmental
principles emerging from this body of research supporting high quality ECE.

I. EMOTIONAL
Education at its best is concerned with the whole child, and learning
to recognize and manage our emotions, what has sometimes been
referred to as emotional "intelligence" (Goleman, 1995), is a fundamental

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life skill with enormous implications for a child’s development. Cefai (2008)
has demonstrated the inextricable links between emotional and
cognitive learning. The skills of friendship and the abilities required to work
effectively in groups with others, for example, are crucially underpinned
by the growing child’s understanding and regulation of his or her emotions.

Learning is, by its very essence, a highly emotional process. As human

beings, we have evolved to enjoy learning and to be disappointed when
we cannot understand something. Our emotional responses to learning
powerfully drive our motivation to learn and to make the intellectual
effort required to do so. Modern neuroscientific research has demonstrated
the strong links in the human brain between emotional and cognitive
processes. The limbic system in the brain, consisting of a collection of
specialized glands producing hormones, regulates our emotions and is
intricately interconnected with the cerebral cortex, which makes
consciousness possible, including our conscious awareness and regulation
of our emotions (Carter, 1998).

The dominant theoretical framework of research concerned with emotional

development and its consequences for behaviour is attachment theory,
initially derived from the pioneering work of Harlow (Blum, 2002) and
Bowlby (1953). Subsequent research by Ainsworth et al (1978), Schaffer
(1996), and others has clearly shown that children form attachments to
a number of adults, including their teachers, and that they clearly
benefit from such attachments in a variety of ways. What is crucial is the
quality of these attachments, i.e. the sensitivity and responsiveness
of the adults involved to the child’s emotional needs.

Secure attachments with a range of adults, including their teachers,

enhance children’s ability to deal with the emotional challenges that they
inevitably face in preschool. Harris (1989) and Dowling (2000) have
provided extensive reviews of the research concerned with young children’s
emotional development. Young children are engaged in beginning to
understand their own and others’ emotions and can increasingly benefit
from opportunities to experience and discuss them, either through
their imaginative role-play with other children or through discussion of
stories and real events within educational contexts.

An individual’s beliefs about the value of any particular task, his or her
emotional response to it (for example, feelings of difficulty), and the
reasons attributed to previous success and failure on similar tasks (Dweck,
2000) all impact “goal-orientation” (i.e. the attitude about the goal
of the task and ability to undertake it) and thus metacognitive performance
(Boekaerts and Niemivirta 2000; Pintrich 2000). This recognition has
led Paris and Paris (2001, p. 98) to refer to self-regulated learning

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as the “fusion of skill and will.”

Within the self-regulation intervention literature, there has been a

marked shift away from the direct teaching of metacognitive skills and
strategies to a clearer emphasis on classroom “ethos” and the
emotional environment (Boekaerts and Corno, 2005; Lin, 2001). In successful
interventions supporting self-regulation in the primary classroom,
there is a strong emphasis on practices which promote a positive
emotional climate.

The dominant theoretical framework in relation to children’s motivation

development within educational settings is Self-Determination Theory
(SDT) originally proposed by Deci and Ryan (1985, 2008). Extensive
research has shown that, as predicted by SDT, teachers' support of
children’s basic psychological needs for autonomy (being in control of,
or an active agent in, one’s life), competence (being capable and
experiencing feelings of self-efficacy), and relatedness (being valued and
loved by significant others) facilitates their self-regulation, academic
performance, and well-being (Niemiec and Ryan, 2009). Such practices
involve, for example, giving children opportunities for decision making,
setting their own challenges, assessing their own work, encouraging
positive feelings toward challenging tasks, emphasizing personal
progress rather than social comparisons, and responding to and training
children’s helpless beliefs (Meyer and Turner, 2002; Perry, 1998; Nolen, 2007).

Underpinning all this, however, an emotional climate which is warm,

responsive, non-judgmental and in which emotional issues are openly
discussed and addressed is fundamental to supporting children to
develop emotional well-being, resilience, and positive attitudes about
themselves as learners, which are crucial to enabling children to
derive the most positive benefit from their educational experiences. Cefai
(2008) has produced a very useful review of approaches to promoting
children’s resilience in the classroom.

II. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Developing a range of social competencies is a vital part of children’s
development, for two clear reasons. Developing social skills is an
important aspect of education in its own right but also enables young
children to learn with and from adults and other children.

Human beings are essentially social animals and develop a range of social
skills and abilities at a very young age. Work by Trevarthen and Aitkin
(2001) and Meltzoff (2002) has shown that babies expect other human

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beings to interact with them and imitate humans who do so. By the age
of 18 months, children imitate others’ intentions rather than blindly
copying their actual performance. Before they are two years old, many
children begin to offer support and help to others (e.g. by touching
the person in distress, verbally expressing sympathy, offering comforting
objects, or fetching someone else to help).

There are, however, significant individual differences in this area. Dunn

et al. (1991) showed that the quality of the child’s early social relationships
and the extent to which they are discussed and sensitively managed
within the family had a significant impact upon early social understanding
and developing abilities to form and maintain relationships and friendships
with others. There are clear implications here for the kinds of discussions
and the value of children working collaboratively together on tasks,
which can be valuably supported by teachers during children’s early
years in school.

Children’s friendships have been shown to be particularly important

(Dunn, 2004). Friendships provide a powerful context within which
children can develop social skills and understandings. Sanson, Hemphill
and Smart (2004) have reviewed the extensive evidence that children
with well-developed friendship skills approach novel situations with
confidence (arising, as we have seen, from secure emotional attachment)
and are most able to regulate their behaviour and emotions and to negotiate
and resolve disagreements. As regards implications for ECE practice,
Howe (2010) has contrasted the poor outcomes for social competencies
and friendships arising in classrooms where individual performance is
emphasized and children are grouped by ability with the positive social
outcomes in classrooms where cooperation is emphasized and working
on tasks collaboratively in mixed-ability groups is a more common feature.

The extensive research on styles of parent-child interactions, arising

from the classic research of Baumrind (1967) and Maccoby and Martin
(1983) has demonstrated the benefits of high parental responsiveness
combined with high expectations by the parents of the child. The significance
of responsiveness was, of course, independently identified by the
attachment research reviewed earlier. “Authoritative” parents are the
most emotionally warm and affectionate toward their children. In
addition, however, they also set clear and consistent standards for their
child’s behaviour and convey high expectations for performance. At
the same time, they demonstrate clear respect for the child’s developing
need for autonomy and independence and support the child’s adherence
to the standards and rules established through discussion and negotiation,
explaining their reasoning rather than simply asserting their authority.
This style has been shown to support children’s developing self-efficacy

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and self-regulation and, hence, their success as learners. Authoritative
parenting has also been found to be associated with a range of positive
outcomes in relation to children’s social competence. As children, they
most easily make relationships with other children and adults and are
generally the most popular amongst their peers. This work provides us
with principles which can equally well be applied to the ECE classroom.

III. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

There is not space within this brief review to adequately address the
vast literature on children’s cognitive development. However, a few
strands are worth identifying which have important messages for ECE.

Modern cognitive developmental psychology owes a great deal to the

work of Jean Piaget, which was first brought to the attention of the
English speaking world by Flavell’s (1963) influential overview. Piaget
transformed our understandings about early cognitive development
through a vast amount of observational studies demonstrating the active
nature of children as learners. Subsequent research building on his
ideas has clearly established children as “meaning makers” or “little
scientists” who actively construct their own understandings of the
world (Donaldson, 1978).

In relation to education, what emerges from this area of research is that

we need to clearly recognize the difference between teaching and
learning. Young children do not passively receive the information we provide
for them. They are engaged continually in a process of active interpretation
and transformation of new experiences and the information derived from
them. If we want to help young children to make sense of their educational
experiences, we must ensure that we place new tasks in contexts with
which they are familiar and which carry meaning for them.

Beyond this, through a range of newly emerging technologies such as

habituation, video observation, eye-tracking, computer modeling,
and neuroscientific techniques, cognitive psychologists over the last 30 to
40 years have uncovered an impressive range of processes by which
the human brain learns. They have also established that many of these
processes are there and fully functioning at birth or mature very quickly
during the first four to five years of life, as the brain increases in size
fourfold (largely as a consequence of a rapid increase in the number
of synaptic connections between neurons in the cerebral cortex).

Goswami (2008) has provided an extensive review of the many experiments

which have shown the very early emergence of this range of basic

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learning processes. These include “statistical learning” through which
young children identify patterns in their experience and actively use
them to express themselves (eg; in learning language) or to develop
basic concepts and ideas about the physical and social world. This
has the clear implication that the role of the educator, at least in part,
is not to directly teach the rules or concepts that children need to
understand but to provide children with rich, playful, and meaningful
experiences from which they can develop their own, much more
securely understood ideas. Linked to this is the strong evidence from
a range of studies, for example, that children whose preschool model
is more instructionally and academically oriented make significantly
less academic progress in comparison to children who attend child-
initiated, play-based preschool programs (Marcon, 2002).

We noted in the section on social development above that children are

very well attuned to learn from others through imitation, as evidenced
by the work of Meltzoff (2002) and others. This ability is enormously
enhanced as a tool for learning by the ability for imitation which is
not only immediate (i.e. carried out while the to-be-copied behaviour
is still perceptually available) but also deferred (i.e. performed on a
subsequent occasion). Deferred imitation crucially depends upon our
ability to mentally represent objects and events in memory. This ability
again appears to be present from an early age and to develop rapidly in
very young children. Meltzoff (1988) identified deferred imitation in
children as young as nine months old. At this age, he demonstrated that
they could reproduce novel actions they had observed up to 24 hours
later (when presented with the same toy), but later work has shown that
by the age of two years children are capable of showing deferred
imitation after delays of two to four months.

For the ECE educator, this indicates that practical demonstrations can
be very helpful when supporting children’s skill development, particularly
as adult modeling often leads to children doing far more than simply
copying. For example, in one study with children aged between 27 and
41 months, after an adult acted out a sequence of pretence activities
with dolls, the children’s subsequent play with the dolls included many
more imaginary acts which were as likely to be novel as they were
to be copies of the adult’s activities (Nielsen and Christie, 2008).

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IV. KEY TRANSVERSAL SKILLS:
SELF-REGULATION, LANGUAGE, AND PLAYFULNESS
Two further mechanisms which powerfully underpin children’s learning
impact upon them across the emotional, social, and cognitive spheres:
children’s developing oral language abilities and their playfulness.

The crucial role of oral language in early childhood development is, of

course, well established, and a growing body of evidence indicates its
relation to the development of early metacognition and self-regulation.
An American study of 120 toddlers in New England, for example,
showed strong relationships between vocabulary size at 14, 24 and 36
months and a range of observed self-regulatory behaviors, such as
the ability to maintain attention on tasks and to adapt to changes in tasks
and procedures (Vallotton and Ayoub, 2011).

Three key areas of research in relation to oral language, learning, and

development have important implications for high quality ECE. First,
investigations relating to episodes of joint attention between adults and
young children have indicated that these are crucially important in
children’s development of their language abilities. Within these interactions,
it has further been demonstrated that adults who follow children’s
interests, rather than attempt to shift the conversation to their own
agenda, are far more effective in fostering children’s language
development (Schaffer, 2004). This has very significant implications for
the style of dialogue which is likely to be most productive within ECE
classrooms. The EPPE study in the UK, a large longitudinal study of factors
leading to effective ECE provision, identified episodes of “sustained
shared thinking” between adults and children as characteristic of high
quality preschool settings which significantly impacted a range of
emotional and cognitive gains, even over-riding the effects of social
disadvantage (Sylva, Melhuish, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford and
Taggart, 2004).

In relation to adult-child interactions, within the cognitive sphere, the two

key elements in effective “scaffolding” of young children’s self-regulation
have been consistently identified as the extent of metacognitive talk,
including the explicit verbalization by the adult of explanations and
strategic questions (Neitzel and Stright, 2003; Robinson, Burns and
Davis, 2009) and the contingency of the support offered by the adult
(Pino Pasternak, Whitebread and Tolmie, 2010). A series of studies within
educational contexts reported by Ornstein, Grammer, and Coffman
(2010), has demonstrated that the amount of contingent “metacognitive
talk” is a strong predictor of academic outcomes. They demonstrated

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that children taught by first grade maths teachers who regularly made
suggestions of memory strategies the children could use and asked
metacognitive questions aimed at eliciting strategy knowledge from the
children, such as ‘how could you help yourself to remember this?’,
showed significantly improved strategy use and ability to remember relevant
mathematical facts related to these differences at the end of the first
grade, and that these differences were still present at statistically
significant levels three years later, at the end of the fourth grade.

On the emotional side, support for children’s feelings of autonomy

appears to be crucial. Emotional warmth has been found to be generally
associated with various elements of children’s self-regulation, including
persistence on tasks (Pino Pasternak et al., 2010; Suchodoletz, Trommsdorf
and Heikamp, 2011). However, there is also some evidence to suggest
that, in combination with low cognitive demands, emotional warmth can
result in a lack of autonomy and excessive help seeking and less
effective development of self-regulation (Pino Pasternak et al., 2010;
Puustinen, Lyyra, Metsapelto and Pulkinnen, 2008). The central
significance from a motivational point of view of support for children’s
sense of autonomy emerges from a wide range of studies, both in
classrooms and in the home. Over-controlling interactions between
parents and children have consistently been related to poor self-
regulatory development (Stevenson and Crnic, 2012), while parental
support for their children’s autonomy has emerged in a number of
studies as a key predictor of self-regulation and academic achievement
(Mattanah, Pratt, Cowan and Cowan, 2005; Pomerantz and Eaton, 2001).

In a range of classroom-based research, these particular features of

social interactions have been placed in the wider context of classroom
organization and structures. Perry (1998), for example, has shown that
classrooms supporting high levels of children’s self-regulation were
characterized by challenging and open-ended activities, opportunities
for children to control the level of challenge and opportunities for them
to engage in self-assessment, autonomy, support, and encouragement
of positive feelings toward challenge and emphasizing personal progress
and mistakes as opportunities for learning.

Finally, in relation to collaborative group work among peers, there is

also a significant body of research investigating the factors which lead
to significant learning. Thus, it has been shown that by encouraging
young children to use constructive “rules for talk” when they are working
in collaborative group, the quality of their talk, their self-regulatory
abilities, and their learning can be significantly enhanced (Mercer, 2013;
Coltman et al, 2013).

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The second area of research investigating the specific abilities and
processes which significantly contribute to the early achievement of
self-regulation is concerned with children’s play. Neuroscientific
studies reviewed by Pellis and Pellis (2009), for example, have shown
that playful activity leads to synaptic growth, particularly in the frontal
cortex, the part of the brain responsible for all the uniquely human higher
mental functions.

A range of experimental psychology studies have consistently demonstrated

the superior learning and motivation arising from playful approaches
(including child-initiated and teacher guided) as opposed to instructional
approaches to learning in children (Sylva, Bruner and Genova, 1976;
Pellegrino and Gustafson, 2005; Whitebread, D. Jameson, H. and Basilio,
M., 2015). Individual differences in playfulness have been shown to
be associated with measures of cognitive development (Tamis-LeMonda
and Bornstein, 1989) and of emotional well-being (Berk, Mann, and
Ogan, 2006). Christie and Roskos (2006) have reviewed evidence that a
playful approach to language learning, as opposed to formal instruction,
offers the most powerful support for the early development of phonological
and literacy skills.

Within educational research, a range of studies have indicated the

relationships between play opportunities, self-regulation, learning, and
development. For example, a recent study demonstrated that early
self-regulatory skills were significantly related to the amount of
unstructured time children experienced within their home context
(Barker et al., 2014). In a series of studies with three to five year old children
in ECE settings, Whitebread and colleagues showed that at this
early age children could be observed developing their skills of intellectual
and emotional self-regulation within playful activities (Whitebread
et al, 2005, 2007; Whitebread, 2010). A growing number of educational
studies suggest that early play experiences enhance young children’s
academic achievement by supporting the early development of self-
regulation (Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews and Morrison, 2009). Children
who attend preschools based predominantly upon models emphasizing
play rather than academic outcomes have been found to achieve
higher scores on measures of self-regulation (Hyson, Copple and
Jones, 2007).

The increasingly structured and supervised nature of children’s lives

in modern societies (half the world’s children now live in cities) and
the consequent lack of play opportunities is recognized as a serious
cause for concern on a number of grounds (Whitebread et al, 2012).
Gray (2011), for example, has demonstrated the relationship in the USA
between the decline in children’s free play and an increase in

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child psychopathology.

The accumulated evidence in this area clearly indicates the need for
educational provision, particularly in the early and primary years,
which affords opportunities for children to play freely, encourages parents
to recognize the importance of children’s play, and provides playful
learning approaches within the school curriculum.

V. EMERGING DEVELOPMENTAL PRINCIPLES

SUPPORTING HIGH QUALITY ECE
This first section has reviewed key findings from developmental psychology
research which have significant implications for educational practice
in ECE classrooms. It is a very brief review of a huge body of research,
and many interesting findings and lines of research have been omitted.
However, the broad picture of the over-arching significance of supporting
children’s developing self-regulation, including cognitive, emotional,
social, and motivational dimensions emerge clearly. The role of language
and communication and playfulness in supporting these developments
has also been briefly indicated.

This research presents considerable challenges to ECE practitioners

and implies a considerable move away from what might be regarded
as a “traditional” model of teaching. However, as reported in many
intervention studies, once ECE practitioners embark on this course,
they quickly perceive the advances in their children’s motivation, engagement
with their learning, and progress as powerful learners, and they become
enthusiastic advocates of an approach to teaching which has such
demonstrable rewards.

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QUALITY IN EARLY
#2

CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
This section reviews evidence of the importance of
establishing high quality ECE, followed by a brief historical
review of the development of international ECE policies.
Next, approaches to defining and measuring quality in
ECE are reviewed, followed by an analysis of progress
in OECD and developing counties. Finally, examples of
approaches, social entrepreneurial initiatives, and
particular schools illustrating elements of high quality
ECE are briefly described.

I. KEY INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN ECE

Importance of investing in ECE

ECE is a fairly new area of educational research and policy. Traditionally,
where they existed, kindergartens and preschools around the world
mostly provided child minding services rather than education. However,
at the beginning of the 1980s, interest in ECE emerged from research
on children’s early development showing that their experiences in their
early years are critical for later academic achievements and overall
well-being.

Evidence now exists from around the world of these long-term benefits.
Following on from the original Perry Preschool Project (Schweinhart,
1993), there have been further studies in the US (Campbell, Ramey,
Pungello, Sparling, and Miller-Johnson, 2002) and many other countries,
including Argentina (Berlinski, Galiani, and Gertler, 2009), Bangladesh
(Aboud and Hossain, 2011), Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South
and South-east Asia (Grantham-McGregor, Fernald, Kagawa, and Walker,
2014), Ethiopia, Peru, India, and Vietnam (Rolleston, James, and Aurino,
2013). Significantly, much of this evidence has further shown that ECE
programs specifically benefit children from low socio-economic
backgrounds. For example, results from longitudinal studies, such as
the Abecedarian Project (Campbell et al., 2002) in the US, showed that

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enrolment in ECE significantly enhanced adult outcomes such as further
education, employment, and participation in healthy behaviors and
reduced crime rates, particularly in disadvantaged children.

OECD reports, however, have demonstrated that provision alone is not

sufficient to achieve these positive outcomes. The quality of the provision
is also crucially important. Indeed, while lower quality ECE provision
may reduce operating costs and might be an incentive for providers to
expand access, the research clearly demonstrates that children are more
likely to have language, social, and developmental problems in low-
quality provisions. The effects of quality variations are also strongest,
perhaps not surprisingly, for children living in poverty and whose
parents have little education (OECD, 2001, 2006).

In addition, research carried out by economists has shown that high

quality ECE programs have many long term economic benefits (Heckman,
2006, 2011; Heckman, Pinto, and Savelyev, 2013). According to Engle et
al. (2011), increasing preschool enrolment to 50 percent of all children
in low and middle-income countries could result in lifetime earnings
gains of 14 to 34 billion US dollars. High quality ECE interventions
targeting disadvantaged children in the US have been shown to have
an annual return rate of 7 to 16 percent (Heckman, 2011; Rolnick and
Grunewald, 2007). Evidence from developing countries confirms this
claim. For example, a study reporting the effects of a randomized
intervention carried out in Jamaica in 1986 and 1987 showed that the
intervention increased earnings by 25 percent, which was sufficient for
the intervention group to catch up to the earnings of a non-disadvantaged
comparison group identified at baseline (Gertler et al., 2014). A recent
report by the World Bank concludes that “the evidence on the returns
to investment in ECD [early childhood development] is clear. […] Investing
in ECD has high potential to help achieve the Bank’s twin goals of
eliminating poverty and increasing shared prosperity” (Sayre, Devercelli,
Neuman, and Wodon, 2015, p. xiv).

Furthermore, it has been shown that remedial education interventions

targeting young school drop-outs or adults with poor basic skills are
far more costly than early interventions such as ECE and are of limited
benefit. Setting high minimum standards is therefore an investment not
only in children but also in the future of society in general (OECD, 2006).

Development of international ECE goals

Alongside the developing research into the impact of ECE and the various
initiatives and policy developments by international governments,

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the United Nations has worked throughout the second half of the twentieth
century and into the new millennium to establish internationally
agreed upon goals for the provision of high quality ECE. We set out the
development of these goals in this section and review progress in ECE
policies, provision, pedagogy, and curriculum internationally in the next.

The right to education was first recognized by the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948). In the Convention on the Right
of the Child, Article 29 (1), the State Parties agree that the education of
the child should be directed to:

• the development of the child’s personality, talents, and mental

and physical abilities to their fullest potential,
• the development of respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms and for the principles enshrined in the Charter
of the United Nations,
• the development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her
own cultural identity, language, and values, for the national
values of the country in which the child is living, the country from
which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different
from his or her own,
• the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society,
in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of the
sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and
religious groups, and persons of indigenous origin, and
• the development of respect for the natural environment
(United Nations, 1989).

Following up on the UN’s general right to education, UNESCO’s initiative

World Declaration on Education for All was produced, with more
specific education goals (to be achieved by the year 2000) and with an
expanded vision of education (World Conference on Education for All,
1990). The goals included:

• Universal access to learning,

• A focus on equity,
• Emphasis on learning outcomes,
• Broadening the means and the scope of basic education,
• Enhancing the environment for learning, and
• Strengthening partnerships by 2000.

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These targets were not achieved by the year 2000, but the Education for
All (EFA) movement was reaffirmed in that year and six new internationally
agreed upon educational goals were designed to meet the learning
needs of all children, youth, and adults by 2015. These Millennium
Development Goals were set out in the Millennium Declaration (United
Nations, 2000) which was agreed to in a summit of 189 world leaders
and included the following goals:

• Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood

care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and
disadvantaged children,
• Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children
in difficult circumstances, and those belonging to ethnic
minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary
education of good quality,
• Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and
adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning
and life-skills programs,
• Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2015 and achieving gender equality by 2015, with focus
on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement
in basic education of good quality, and
• Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring
excellence of all, so that recognized and measurable learning
outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy, and
essential life skills.

While, as we will see in the next section, these goals were not achieved
by the year 2015, there was considerable progress toward the general
primary education enrolment and gender equality at all levels of education.
Some positive developments included:

• From 1999 to 2008, an additional 52 million children were

enrolled in primary school.
• The number of children out of school was halved in South
and West Asia.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, enrolment rates rose by one third
despite a large increase in the primary school age population.
• Gender parity in primary enrolment has improved significantly
in the regions that began the decade with the greatest
gender gaps.

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• Government expenditure on education has risen very significantly
in recent years in most developing countries (Burnett and
Felsman, 2012).

Relatively little has been achieved, however, with regard to pre-primary,

early education, and care (Burnett and Felsman, 2012). The vagueness
of the goals regarding ECE worldwide and governments in different
countries interpreting them in their own way and the overwhelming
emphasis placed on participation rather than on the quality of learning
have been generally recognized as possible contributing factors to
this failure (UNESCO and UNICEF, 2012).

Progress toward universal enrolment has also slowed. This is in part a

consequence of the fact that it is increasingly challenging to reach the
most marginalized children. Also, in some countries, universal primary
enrolment has lost momentum as a political priority, in part precisely
as a result of success so far and the perceived need to shift focus and
resources to other education levels (Burnett and Felsman, 2012).

In addition, as noted by Burnett and Felsman (2012) the quality of education

remains alarmingly low in many countries with millions of children still
emerging from primary school with reading, writing, and numeracy skills
far below expected levels. It has also been recognized that current aid
levels for basic education fall far short of the $16 billion estimated to be
required to meet the EFA goals (UNESCO, 2011). An argument has
been made by some that, in contrast to the health goals, to an extent
the unambitious nature of the education millennium goals contributed
to the inability to attract greater resources. As has been reported by a
number of commentators in this area, the evidence has slowly mounted
and become very clear that the quality of programs is key to improving
the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children (Administration
for Children and Families, 2002; Britto, Yoshikawa, and Boller, 2011;
La Paro, Pianta, and Stuhlman, 2004; Paulsell, Boller, Hallgren, and
Mraz-Esposito, 2010; Yoshikawa, 1994).

Recognizing these challenges, however, the Millennium Development

Goals were succeeded by the Sustainable Development Goals set out in
2015 in a document entitled Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development. The SDGs were first formally discussed
at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held
in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012, and a final document was adopted at the
UN Sustainable Development Summit September 25–27, 2015 in
New York, USA. This document sets out the following goals, which have
a much clearer focus on quality and how to achieve it:

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• By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality
early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education
so that they are ready for primary education.
• Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability,
and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive,
and effective learning environments for all.
• By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers,
including through international cooperation for teacher training
in developing countries, especially the least developed countries
and small island developing States.

II. DEFINING AND MEASURING QUALITY IN ECE

Defining and researching indicators of high quality
How governments and other policy-making institutions define high quality
education differs across countries, societies, and cultures. According
to UNESCO (2015), quality of ECE should “reflect local values and
perspectives on young children’s development as well as scientifically
established predictors of their cognitive, language, and socio-emotional
development. “ This is clearly in line with the position we developed in
Section 1 of this report. However, in practice, the current proposed
universal Education for All indicators of quality, developed by UNESCO
and reflecting much of the recent literature in this area, involve a much
wider range of indicators, including space and furnishing, personal care
routines, listening and talking activities and interactions with children,
program structure, relationship with parents and staff, and response
to staff professional development needs (UNESCO, 2015; UNESCO
and UNICEF, 2012). These various indicators are predominantly categorized
as either related to (i) structural or (ii) process quality.

Structural quality examines features of the ECE setting which enable

high quality processes to be put in place. Features of structural quality
are more easily defined and measurable in comparison with process
quality and are thus more likely to be the more heavily regulated aspect
of ECE quality (Phillips and Howes, 1987). For the same reasons,
the vast majority of the research on ECE quality has been carried out on
structural aspects. These include a long list of factors such as staff/child
ratio, group size, teacher qualifications and training, stability of staffing,
staff wages, indoor and outdoor play provision, health and safety,
scheduling of time, meeting of staff needs, curriculum, educational space,
and materials.

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Process quality concerns the dynamic aspects of ECE programs. It refers
to the effects of ECE experiences which the child encounters in ECE
settings. Process quality reflects the social, emotional, and physical
interaction the child has with materials, peers, and teachers on a
daily basis (Tietze, Cryer, Bairrão, Palacios, and Wetzel, 1996). This also
includes the handling of everyday personal care routines.

Process quality has been found to be more predictive of child outcomes

such as well-being and developmental outcomes than structural
quality (Litjens and Taguma, 2010; Peisner-Feinberg et al., 1997; Whitebook,
1989). However, this statement must be considered with caution given
the interplay between both aspects of quality. For example, there are limits
to what even the highest quality teacher can achieve with limited
resources. Process quality examines practices and educational interactions
between the child and practitioner as well as the child’s interactions
within his or her environment. A child who experiences high-quality ECE
processes is thought to reap the benefits of superior language,
intellectual, and physical development as well as advanced social skills
and self-regulatory abilities. The teacher in this situation would
provide positive interactions, attention, support, guidance, and a variety
of enriched play experiences and learning opportunities in a safe
environment. Examples of specific indicators of process quality include
teacher practice and instruction, interactions between the child and
caregivers, child and peer interaction, child and material/environment
interaction, personal care practices, and parent and community
participation.

Process and structural quality cannot, however, be viewed as two

separate entities. Rather, there are overlaps and interactions between
these two aspects of ECE quality. Research has been carried out to
identify the nature of the relationship between structural and process
quality in order to help policymakers identify focal areas for quality
improvement (Cryer, 1999). Indicators of structural quality such as
staff/child ratio, teacher qualifications, and wages have consistently
been observed to be significant predictors of process quality (Phillipsen,
Burchinal, Howes, and Cryer, 1997). ECE settings where these
structural indicators are regulated have consistently shown better process
quality scores than unregulated centers. Regulated settings were
more likely to show more sensitivity and be more responsive to children
than unregulated settings; quality assessments have found 13 percent
of regulated settings to provide inadequate care while 50 percent of
unregulated settings were found to provide inadequate care (Helburn,
1995; Galinsky, 1994). Cryer (1999) suggests that multiple aspects of
structural quality must be simultaneously considered in order to
show improved effects in process quality.

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Evidently there are numerous factors to be considered when evaluating
the quality of ECE provision. A brief review of those factors which have
been shown to contribute to high quality ECE and to the positive outcomes
for children discussed in Section 1 of this report will be set out below.

The physical environment

The first area to be considered is the physical environment of the child.
This refers to the location, accessibility, safety, building, indoor and
outdoor spaces, play and teaching materials, equipment, and so on.
Some of the main conclusions from research in this area are as follows:

• The quality of the environment is strongly linked to the quality

of learning outcomes (OECD, 2012).
• A combination of indoor and outdoor play involving opportunities
for a wide repertoire of play opportunities is beneficial (OECD, 2012).
• Resources should be accessible and suitable for the emerging
interests of the child and be open-ended for multiple
possible uses .
• Well-defined spaces and boundaries are associated with more
positive classroom interactions and more time spent exploring
the materials, equipment, and facilities (Prochner, Cleghorn,
and Green, 2008; Zaslow, Martinez-Beck, Tout, and Halle, 2011).
• ECE settings should provide a good standard “space per child,”
as this contributes to lower levels of stress for the child (Honig, 2002).
• The richest outdoor play spaces are often natural and unplanned,
consisting of adventure playgrounds in which children can use
surrounding natural resources to organize, create, and build their
own environments and activities (Bartlett, 2002; Hartle and
Johnson, 1993).

Staff qualifications
One of the most prominent indicators of quality is teacher education
and training (Blau, 2000; Mc William, Ridley, and Wakely, 2000; NICHD
Early Child Care Research Network,, 2002). Pianta et al. (2005) found
that teachers’ education, training, and experience with four year olds
significantly predicted classroom quality. Van leer (2008) found that
teachers with more than a Bachelors degree had higher scores on the
ECERS teaching and interaction scale (see next section) than teachers
with an Associates degree. However, it has also been argued that
experience gained within ECE settings might contribute to the skillset
in delivering a high quality ECE program (Early et al., 2007). In line with
this, research has also found that classroom quality is higher in

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classrooms of at least moderately experienced teachers (Phillipsen,
Burchinal, Howes and Cryer, 1997). Beyond this, ECE practitioners
with specific training in ECE and children’s development have been
found to engage in more interactions with children and have been
rated as more positive and less authoritarian in their instructional
style (Arnett, 1987; Roupp et al., 1979). Children of such teachers have
been found to have greater social, language, and cognitive abilities as
opposed to children of teachers without specific training (NICHD Early
Child Care Research Network, 2000). Systematic in-service training has
also been shown to be a stronger predictor of program quality than
teacher education and experience when it includes i) active workshops,
ii) a curriculum model providing both theory and application, iii)
multiple workshop sessions, iv) classroom visits with observations, and
v) feedback and opportunities for teachers to reflect upon learning and
shared experiences (Phillipsen, Burchinal, Howes and Cryer, 1997).

Leadership
In addition to teacher quality, it is essential that the backbone of the
operation, the leader/principal/head teacher/director and administrative
staff provide teachers with the support and guidance they need to do
their jobs. There is a dearth in research regarding quality of leadership;
however, the little research that exists suggests that a high quality
leader should provide guidance to staff and students, take responsibility,
show confidence and professionalism, communicate to a high standard,
build strong relationships, have the ability to meet staff needs and be
flexible in thought and behavior, provide a vision for the direction of
standard of the center, and participate rather than dominate decision
making (Morgan, 2000; Scrivens, 1999; Rodd, 1996).

Ratio and group sizes, teacher-child interaction, and stability of care

A range of factors associated with the quality of social interactions
in the ECE classroom also make a crucial difference to children’s ECE
experience and are associated with improved outcomes. Research in
this area has shown that:

• Lower staff/child ratios are associated with higher process

quality, while higher ratios are associated with lower process
quality (Burchina et al., 2002). Larger group size is also
associated with lower process quality. For three year olds, the
maximum class size recommended is 18 with a child to teacher
ratio of 9:1, and for four year olds the maximum class size is 20
with a slightly higher ratio of 10:1.
• Teachers’ interactions with children in smaller groups are
more responsive, warm, and more emotionally supportive (NICHD

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Early Child Care Research Network,, 2000).
• Teacher-child interactions and relationships play an integral
role in child development and academic achievement (Gerber et
al; 2007; Mashburn et al., 2008; Rimm-Kaufman, Curby, Grimm,
Nathanson, and Brock, 2009).
• High turnover of staff can have a negative impact on children
when their attachment bond with the teacher is broken; in
centers with high staff turnovers, a low level of child adult-interaction
has been found (Phillips, Scarr and McCartney, 1987) and high
staff turnover can lead to more aggression and behavioral problems
in preschool (Howes and Hamilton, 1993; McCartney et al, 1997).

Duration and dosage of provision

While there are mixed research findings about the impact of program
intensity (part-time or full-time), the duration of program participation
seems to be more consistently associated with long-term intellectual
gains and future achievement (Love et al., 2003; Melhuish et al., 2004).
Positive signs of increased duration include greater vocabularies,
word analysis, and math achievement and better memory ( Belsky, Vandell,
Burchinal, Clarke-Stewart, McCartney, Owen, and The NICHD Early
Child Care Research Network., 2007; Glass, 2004). Higher “dose” programs
also have more visible long-term impacts, as they more often reduce
“fade out” effects (Euridice, 2009). However, some literature has pointed
to the potential negative effects of non-maternal care on child attachment
and security during the first months or years of a child’s life, noting increased
chances of externalizing aggression and disobedience (Belsky et al.,
2007). However, such negative behavioral problems are relatively short-
lived and can be reduced through good quality and consistent care
(Love et al., 2003).

Parental and community participation

In order to ensure the best quality ECE, families and teachers must work
together in many aspects of promoting child development, socialization,
and education. Through this cooperation, the child experiences
continuity both at home and in the ECE settings. By encouraging parents
to become involved early on, greater parental involvement in later
primary and secondary school is also likely. By establishing strong
relationships with parents, teachers can better understand the child,
involve parents in the learning process, and provide them with information/
referrals to other services. Parents can also provide their views and
insights on the education of the child and, together with the teacher,
design the best possible curriculum for the individual child’s needs
(Mitchell, 2007). Quality involvement of parents can lead to home support

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of children’s learning, such as reading with their children, capitalizing
on natural opportunities for learning, and making learning materials
available at home, too. Parental engagement, especially in ensuring
high-quality children’s learning at home and communicating with ECE staff,
is strongly associated with children’s later academic success, high
school completion, socio-emotional development, and adaptation in society.

Curriculum/teaching and learning processes

Curriculum is a key determinant of quality ECE. It refers to the content
and methods used for learning and development and serves as the
foundation on which pedagogy is developed. The term “pedagogy” refers
to the clarification of objectives, “What to teach?” and the processes
for how it should be taught (UNICEF, 2012). There are many aspects of
quality to consider when assessing ECE goals, contents, and pedagogical
practices (Litjens and Taguma, 2010). A high quality, well-implemented
ECE curriculum should provide developmentally appropriate support
and cognitive challenges that can lead to positive child outcomes
(Frede, 1998).

There is still little uniformity in the type of curriculum approach

for the youngest and oldest children in ECE which raises questions of
the relevance, age-appropriateness, etc. of curricula. Areas of official
curricula which receive the most official focus are academic areas such
as math and literacy, especially in countries where assessments are
carried out early on during primary school. It has been argued that a high
quality curriculum should give equal precedence to both cognitive and
social development and view each as complementing the other. A combined
curriculum with this approach would contribute to high quality ECE
and improved social behavior (Bennet, 2004; Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).
Sweden is considered to have a high-quality ECE in part because its
curriculum places the same value on social and cognitive learning
(Sheridan et al., 2009; Pramling and Pramling Samuelsson, 2011).

Beyond this, some clear evidence of pedagogical practices which impact

positively on children’s emotional, social, and cognitive development
have emerged from the research:

• “Social pretend play” and “child-initiated play” lead to better

co-operation, self-regulation, and interpersonal skills (Bodrova
and Leong, 2010; Nicolopoulou, 2010).
• Children are more competent and creative across a range of
cognitive areas when they are given a choice of different, well-
organized, and age-appropriate activities (CCL, 2006).
• Implementing such activities in small groups can encourage

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greater autonomy (Eurydice, 2009; Laevers, 2003) and provides
more space for spontaneous or emergent learning (NIEER, 2007).
• Arts activities can boost children’s attention, improve cognition,
and help children develop their mental representation abilities
i.e., how to think about what they cannot see (Litjens and
Taguma, 2010).
• Consultation with children to elicit their perspectives and their
active input in decision making can increase their self- esteem
and foster social competence (Broström, 2010; Clark et al.,
2003; Sommer et al., 2010).
• In order to maximize learning, development, and social outcomes,
ECE curricula should combine child-initiated with teacher-initiated
content and activities (Sheridan, 2011; Sheridan et al., 2009).

Measurement of quality
With a growing emphasis being placed upon the importance of quality
ECE programs, stakeholders strive to ensure that complementary
programs of the highest quality are being implemented to ensure the
best possible outcomes for participating children. ECE services must
meet a minimum standard of quality in order to have a positive impact
on development and society (UNICEF, 2012). In order to establish
ECE services of high quality, a variety of instruments have been developed
and tested to measure quality. Research indicates that instruments
developed to measure quality in ECE can be used reliably and demonstrate
validity also. Consequently researchers have been using such
instruments with confidence all over the world (Whitebook,1989; Peisner-
Feinberg et al., 2001; Zill et al., 2003).

Some such instruments may be all-encompassing and assess the overall

structural and process quality of ECE, while others have been developed
to assess one specific indicator associated with quality ECE. Some
instruments evaluate ECE quality for all children in the group, while others
assess the quality of the individual experiences of children. There are
also a number of instruments which focus specifically on either the
learning environment, teacher quality, parent/guardian participation,
leadership, system-level indicators of quality, the teaching and learning
process, school readiness outcomes, and the curriculum.

The most widely used instrument is The Early Childhood Environment

Rating Scale –Revised (ECERS-R), (Harms, Clifford and Cryer, 1998).
ECERS-R is the most widely used measure of ECE quality in both research

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and educational settings (Sakai, Whitebook, Wishard and Howes, 2003)
and examines both structural and process quality. First developed in the
USA by Harms and Clifford (1983), it has been adapted nationally and
proven to be a valid and reliable measure in contexts all over the world
in countries such as Sweden, Great Britain, China, Korea, Hong Kong,
Israel, Australia, and New Zealand (Tietze et al., 1996; Harms et al., 1998;
Sheridan and Schuster, 2001). ECERS-R (revised version) was updated
in 1998 in response to researcher feed back and to changes in ECE and
also to include aspects pertinent to children with disabilities and
to incorporate cultural sensitivities. There is a new version, ECERS-3 in
development at the time of writing. A complementary supplement to
ECERS-R, ECERS-Extension (ECERS-E) has also been developed to provide
greater insights and evaluation of quality aspects associated
with curriculum.

A sister measure of ECERS-R is the Infant Toddler Environment Rating

Scale-Revised edition (ITERS-R), (Harms et al., 2003). Similarly to
ECERS-R, it is used to assess universal aspects of ECE pertinent to child
development. However, it is suitable for use with much younger
children, from birth to 30 months.

The Observational Record of Caregiving Environments (NICHD Early Child

Care Research Network, 2000) served as a foundation for the development
of the widely used Classroom Assessment Scoring System or CLASS
(Pianta, Paro and Hamre, 2008). ORCE was developed to assess process
quality of individual children’s ECE across different settings such as
home or centers and also across a wide age span (Pugh and Duffy, 2013).
Parental and professional ECE care of individual children can be
evaluated with this measure as well caregiver-child interaction. CLASS
has mainly been used with US samples. It has also been used by
Finland, and there has been preliminary use with German samples also.
In contrast to ECERs, CLASS focuses on process quality by measuring
the emotional and instructional climate of the classroom.

Similarly, Classroom Practices Inventory or CPI (Hyson, Hirsh-Pasek

and Rescorla, 1990) has also been used to assess the emotional climate
of the ECE classroom. The overarching aim of this tool is to assess
whether classroom, curriculum practices, teacher behaviour, child
activities, and teacher-child interactions are developmentally sensitive
and appropriate. While previous instruments alluded to the caregiver-
interaction relationship, a number of instruments assess the aspect
of process quality in greater depth. One such instrument is the Individualized
Classroom Assessment Scoring System or inCLASS (Downer, Booren,
Hamre, Pianta and Williford, 2011). inCLASS measures children’s
classroom engagement in interactions with teachers, peers, and tasks

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(Williford, Whittaker, Vitiello and Downer, 2013).

A widely used measure of the quality of the relationship between caregivers

and children and the type of interaction ECE teachers have with
children is the Caregiver Interaction Scale or CIS (Arnett, 1989). This
observational tool rates the emotional climate, discipline style, and
sensitivity and responsiveness of the teachers with the children.

A number of tools have been developed with greater emphasis on

teaching and learning processes and teacher quality. One notable tool
is the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure or ECCOM
(Stipek and Byler, 2004). ECCOM focuses on the approach rather than
the content of the instruction as well as the social climate and
classroom management. The PQA or Preschool Program Quality
Assessment -2nd Edition (High/Scope Educational Research Foundation,
2003) aims to evaluate quality of best practices in ECE and to identify
staff training needs. Originally developed by High/Scope, it is used both
in High/Scope centers and in any ECE program which is center-based.
PQA scores are significantly related to child developmental outcomes.

III. INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS TOWARD

QUALITY IN ECE
OECD countries (OECD 2012, 2014)
In most OECD countries, education begins for most children before
the age of five with over 84 percent of four year olds being enrolled in
ECE and primary education. Over the past decade, many countries
have increased their focus on ECE, resulting in the extension of compulsory
education to lower ages in some countries (despite evidence suggesting
that a later school start is more beneficial; Whitebread and Bingham, in
press), free ECE, universal provision of ECE and care, and the creation
of programs that integrate care with formal pre-primary education.
Publicly funded pre-primary education tends to be more strongly
developed in the European countries of the OECD. Private expenditure
varies widely between countries, ranging from five percent or less in
some countries to 25 percent or more in others. As a percentage of GDP,
expenditure on pre-primary education accounts for an average of
0.6 percent of GDP with significant differences between countries.

With respect to staff/child ratio, across 19 OECD countries, on average,

it is regulated that a kindergarten or preschool staff member can have,
at most, 18 children, while a child care staff member can have approximately

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seven children at most in a child care center. Family or domestic care
services tend to be regulated with stricter staff/child ratios, but there is
little data available on family day care. The average ratio, among the
countries with available data, is 1:5. Staff/child ratio is also an important
indicator of the resources devoted to pre-primary education. Another
indicator of quality often reported is “space per child.” In general, indoor
space requirements in OECD countries are largest for family day
care, followed by child care centers and kindergartens/preschools.

Regarding staff education, OECD countries have a wide range of

qualifications for staff working in the ECE sector. Kindergarten/preschool
teachers generally have higher initial education requirements than
care center (nursery) staff or family care staff, while some countries have
a unified qualification for all workers. Initial education for kindergarten/
preschool teachers is often integrated with that of primary school teachers
to ensure smooth transition for child development. Professional
development tends to focus on I) pedagogies and instructional practices,
II) curriculum implementation, III) language and subject matters, IV)
monitoring and assessment, and V) communication and management.
Common challenges that OECD countries face in establishing a high-
quality workforce include I) raising staff qualification levels, II) recruiting,
retaining, and diversifying a qualified workforce, III) continuously up-
skilling the workforce, and IV) ensuring the quality of the workforce
in the private sector.

Unlike developing countries, most OECD countries have a curriculum

or learning standards from age three up until compulsory schooling.
As regards to the content, Nordic countries specify what is expected from
staff rather than prescribing expected child outcomes, while Anglo-
Saxon countries tend to take an outcome-based approach. Many OECD
countries focus on literacy and numeracy in their learning framework,
despite the evidence that an early start in these areas does not predict
long-term outcomes and can be potentially damaging, particularly
for children from disadvantaged backgrounds (Whitebread and Bingham,
in press). A growing body of recent research highlights the importance
of “play” (Whitebread, Basilio, Kuvalja and Verma, 2012); some countries
incorporate it as a separate subject area, while others embed it in
other content areas. A few countries have included newly emerging
elements aligned with school curriculum such as ICT.

In recent years, a growing number of OECD countries have made

considerable efforts to encourage quality in ECE. Different countries
are at different stages of policy development and implementation.
Regardless of a country’s stage, research has suggested five key policy
levers to be effective in encouraging quality in ECE:

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• Setting out quality goals and regulations
• Designing and implementing curriculum and standards
• Improving qualifications, training, and working conditions
• Engaging families and communities
• Advancing data collection, research, and monitoring

Developing countries
Unlike OECD countries, developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle
East, and Latin America still struggle to meet basic ECE goals defined
by UNESCO and UNICEF with the focus remaining on access to education
(UNESCO, 2014a,b,c andd). However, since the Dakar Education World
Forum in 2000, significant progress has been achieved in these regions.
Of the six goals agreed upon at that forum, gender equality and increased
primary enrolment rates have seen the most improvement, although
the latter remain modest.

However, within this overall picture, there have been great differences
between the developing countries and regions. For example, the pre-
primary education gross enrolment ratio (GER) in Sub-Saharan Africa
increased barely by ten percent in ten years from 18 percent in 2000
to 28 percent in 2010 (Sub-Saharan Africa 2013 EFA Report | Global
Education for All Meeting, 2014), placing the region behind all other
regions in the world. Palestinian Authority Territories showed a drop of
38 percent in their GER, and Iraq’s GER has been negligible at only
3.8 percent. The wars in Iraq and Syria and the Palestinian on-going
turmoil are key factors impacting children’s access to pre-primary
and government efforts to provide such programs in these countries.

On the other hand, as a result of state plans to increase GER, Algeria

achieved a large expansion in ECE enrolment, from two percent in 1999
to 75 percent in 2011 (UNESCO, 2014a). Also, there was a significant
increase in access to preschool education in Latin American and Caribbean
countries. From 2000 to 2010, GER rose from 52 percent to 66 percent
in this region, which places it in a relatively favourable position in international
terms (Araujo, Lopez-Boo, and Puyana, 2013; UNESCO, 2014b).

One of the most important indicators of quality ECE, teacher qualifications,

remains a major issue in developing countries. Overall, the proportion
of teachers trained to national standards is particularly low in pre-primary
education. Although the number of teachers at this level has increased

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by 53 percent since 2000, in 40 of the 75 countries with data, less than 75
percent of teachers are trained to the national standard (UNESCO, 2014d).

Recent policy reports emphasize the importance of ECE quality (Britto

et al., 2011), especially the importance of quality in early childhood
teaching (UNESCO, 2015). What is particularly relevant for developing
countries is the finding that the poorest and most at risk children
have the most to gain from good quality ECE services and that achieving
equitable access to them can reduce inequality in their societies
(Engle et al., 2011). Despite these findings, negative conditions, such as
remote geographical areas, low teacher salaries, lack of training
programs, materials, and resources, and the paucity of trained teachers
frequently hamper efforts to introduce or implement minimum
acceptable standards in ECE contexts in these countries.

Staff training and qualifications are inconsistent across and within

countries (Mathers et al., 2014), often resulting in the uneven provision
of quality care (Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development,
2013; Karuppiah, 2014). Relying on insufficiently trained staff can lead to
disappointing results. In general, the low pay and status of early
childhood workers undermines the possibility of recruiting and retaining
high-caliber staff (Karuppiah, 2014). High staff turnover also damages
the relationships which are important for children’s development (Gialamas
et al., 2013; Mathers et al., 2014). Just as for the OECD countries, the
involvement of parents and community in the ECE in developing countries
is emphasized as one of the most important indicators of quality ECE.

Overall, the differences between rural and urban areas continue to be

significant in many developing countries, and it seems that governments
have yet to take part in sharing the responsibility for ECE and providing
affordable or free ECE as a long-term investment. In addition to necessary
government involvement in ECE programs, social enterprises, which
directly involve community, mothers, and families in the process of ECE,
have been shown to be a successful model of delivering ECE programs.
Two examples are Lively Minds in Ghana and Uganda and Kidogo in
East Africa. Another non-government initiative, Big Push, was launched
in 2013 by UNESCO, aiming to support selected Sub-Saharan African
countries to initiate a process of redefining EFA priorities and developing
sustainable acceleration efforts for the period 2013-2015. As part of
that initiative, the Indigenous Early Childhood Care and Education curriculum
framework was introduced. It is an innovative framework developed
by the International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa, which
emphasizes the socio-cultural contexts of child care in Africa. It is
designed to address the perceived lack of resources for conventional
models of ECE by encouraging the creative use of local resources. It

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aims at helping countries develop modalities that make access to ECE
services in general and at community levels in particular easier and
systemic, through the involvement of the adults within the households,
extended families, and communities. The modules are grounded in
socio-culturally appropriate child-bearing, education, and care principles,
and practices are adapted to the local context of the child and the
family, employing the child’s mother tongue or local language as well
promoting the use of local play materials (Sub-Saharan Africa 2013
EFA Report | Global Education for All Meeting, 2014).

IV. INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLES OF QUALITY IN ECE

Significant approaches with international impact
on ECE
Over the past few decades, there has been increasing recognition of
the idea that formal and more traditional educational approaches are
not the most appropriate settings for young children to learn in.
A number of alternative ECE approaches have steadily risen in popularity
with facilities becoming established in countries all over the world.
Notable approaches discussed here are Montessori, Steiner, Reggio
Emilia, High/Scope, Forest schools, and Tools of the Mind. A common
strand observed in these approaches is the emphasis put on the child as
the active learner with the teachers acting as collaborators, facilitators,
and partners in the learning process. While a traditional classroom might
see the teacher leading most of the learning process with some room
for independent learning and exploration, these alternative approaches
tend to be more child-led. Children are encouraged to be self-directed
learners and engage in dialogue and discussion with teachers and peers
at all stages of the learning process. While these approaches share
similar outlooks, the types of ECE experiences offered vary by curriculum,
ethos, and environment.

High/Scope facilities focus on providing the child with active, hands-on

experiences with peers and teachers, materials, activities, and ideas.
The five key experiences are creative representation, language and literacy,
initiative and social relations, movement and music, and logical
reasoning (OECD, 2004). Most activities take place indoors in “interest areas”
organized around specific kinds of play such as art or house. The day
is organized into a “plan-do-review” sequence in which children make
a plan for the day, carry it out, and reflect upon their discoveries
with teachers and peers.

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-
NOTABLE APPROACHES DISCUSSED HERE ARE
MONTESSORI, STEINER, REGGIO EMILIA, HIGH/
SCOPE, FOREST SCHOOLS, AND TOOLS OF THE
MIND. A COMMON STRAND OBSERVED IN THESE
APPROACHES IS THE EMPHASIS PUT ON THE CHILD
AS THE ACTIVE LEARNER WITH THE TEACHERS
ACTING AS COLLABORATORS, FACILITATORS, AND
PARTNERS IN THE LEARNING PROCESS.
-
Reggio Emilia places the child and teacher as researchers in the learning
process (Edwards and Gandini, 2015; Hall, Cunneen, Cunningham,
Horgan, Murphy and Ridgway, 2014). The child actively generates questions
and hypotheses about the world and carries out projects to test his
or her theories. Projects are conducted following the interests of the child.
Each part of this process is documented using multiple symbolic
languages such as art, drawing, music, print, and drama. The power of
cooperation with others is stressed as an important factor for learning
(Soler and Miller, 2003). Dialogue with others is proposed to provide the
child with an appreciation of others’ perspectives and ideas and raise
his or her awareness of the importance of sharing, discussing, and
reflecting upon ideas (Edwards, 2002). Through this shared collaboration,
children mold their personalities and direct their projects and learning.

Forest schools place importance on learning in the outdoor environment

and introduce children to navigating their learning by interacting with
the natural environment. As with Reggio Emilia, the teacher is the
surrounding environment, which encourages curiosity and exploration.
Learning is self-directed and adapted according to the child’s active
interest in situations, experiments, and problem-solving issues which
occur in the forest (Maynard, 2007). Forest schools are shown to increase
the self-esteem and confidence of the children, improve their ability
to collaborate with others as well as increase their awareness of others’
minds, and increase motivation, concentration, physical motor skills,
and language development (O’Brien and Murray, 2007). Moreover, children
show an enhanced understanding of their environment and how their
actions may impact their environment (Knight, 2011; O’Brien, 2009).

Montessori classrooms provide a slightly more structured aesthetic

environment in which books, toys, and materials have been carefully
selected to support independent learning. Children engage in long

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periods of free activity where they can self-select activities within this
“prepared environment.” Real world activities requiring practical skills
and using self-correcting materials are used (Edwards, 2002; Harris,
2008). Books with fantasy are introduced at the later age of five or six.
Children’s independence, self-direction, ability to make decisions, self-
esteem, sensorial, and practical skills take precedence over formal
education goals (Montessori, 2014). Classes generally consist of mixed
age groups allowing children to learn from expert peers and expose
them to the levels they will reach. Older children are reminded of how
far they have come and also have the opportunity to act as leaders.
Children tend to work independently or within small mixed groups.

The Steiner approach is more structured than the previous approaches.

This approach is designed to improve children’s concentration and
prepare them both physically and emotionally for learning while offering
opportunities for creative and imaginative play (Nicol, 2007). The
curriculum is designed based on the children’s stages of development
which Steiner proposed occur in seven year phases (Uhrmacher,
1995). In this approach, teachers lead and model group activities and
appropriate behavior for children under the age of seven to imitate
and do. Imaginary play is considered crucial to the physical, academic,
and emotional development of the child. Exploration and constructive
and creative play are encouraged as well as oral language stories or songs.
Play is energetic and balanced with periods of rest (Moran, John-Steiner
and Sawyer, 2003)

The final approach, Tools of the Mind, directly targets the development
of self-regulation. The main focus of the curriculum is promoting
children’s ability to regulate their social-emotional and cognitive behavior,
to improve attention, concentration, and memory, to use symbolic
representation, and also to build a foundation of early arithmetic and
literacy prerequisites (Bodrova and Leong, 2007). Self-regulation and
symbol use is taught through structured play activities (Barnett, Jung,
Yarosz, Thomas, and Hornbeck et al., 2008). The child is active in his
or her selection of activities and play and is aided by the teacher in creating
a play plan. An element of direct teacher instruction is seen in Tools
of the Mind, but a greater emphasis is placed on guiding the children to
learn to use tools to facilitate their learning.

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NGOs and social entrepreneur initiatives worldwide
Playeum Children’s Centre for Creativity
www.playeum.com
Asian culture places much importance on early academic training with
parents seeing little developmental value in play (Parmar, Harkness
and Super, 2004). To counter the lack of time children in Singapore have
for creative play experiences, Playeum has established centers for
creativity and play in which children can access high quality learning
through the medium of play programs. Playeum proposes that the lack
of play and child-led experiences leads to children losing a sense of
self and being able to think independently and creatively. While it is not
the only center to provide an outlet in which young children can play,
it stands out as the only establishment in which children have the freedom
to lead their own open-ended creative experiences. Their pedagogy
is child-centered, active, collaborative, cross-cultured, and play-based.
It is most closely aligned with that of Reggio Emilia. Adults are not
viewed as teachers; rather they are facilitators to nurture and encourage
the child’s activities and ideas. The values of the center are as follows:
experiential learning through art and play, the freedom to create, engaging
family and community, innovative environments, equal opportunities,
and self-directed learning. Key learning outcomes are to increase children’s
interest and engagement in learning, to support self-expression,
social and emotional well-being, collaboration, and also to encourage
creativity and multiple problem-solving methods and ways of thinking.
In addition to directly targeting these aspects of development, Playeum
also carries out workshops with parents and teachers and within the
community advocating the importance of play.

Centre for Inspired Teaching

www.inspiredteaching.org
The aim of this initiative is to provide quality educational experiences
by transforming the way educators teach, understand, and think about
their student’s abilities. Teachers in all stages of their careers are
targeted and trained to provide high quality, engaging instruction and
become “instigators of thought” rather than “information providers.”
It is proposed that every student has the ability to be a great critical thinker
and should spend the majority of his or her time engaging in activities
which encourage critical thinking. Rather than telling students what to
think, the Centre helps them learn the critical skill of how to think.

Students learn through independent work and collaboration with peers

and are expected to develop a great depth of understanding of the material
they are covering which is then assessed in a multitude of ways. Using

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an inquiry-based approach, student’s questions form the basis of the
curriculum by asking, investigating, and answering the questions.
The learner’s role is to “wonder, experiment, and learn,” while the teacher’s
role is to “observe, plan, and instigate.” Key learning outcomes are
to enable students to excel in the four I’s: Intellect (to become academic
and self-directed learners), Inquiry (the student as a researcher),
Imagination (the student as a creative, resilient, and resourceful thinker),
and Integrity (the student’s ability to stand up for beliefs, listen to
others, and make confident decisions). This is achieved by teachers
1) viewing the student as an expert such that the student’s ideas and
voice should be evident in every lesson, 2) ensuring mutual respect
between student and teachers, 3) ensuring students have purpose,
are persistent, and take action, 4) maintaining a passion for the job
and the learning process, and 5) using a wide range of evidence for
learning. Research undertaken by the Centre shows this innovative
approach results in high achieving students and a positive classroom
climate with positive relationships for students with teachers and
peers and teachers who bring about a sustained change in classrooms,
schools, and communities.

Sesame Street Preschools

www.sesameschoolhouse.in
Sesame Schoolhouse preschools have been established in ten cities
across India. They were established in response to the observation
that teaching styles in India were not developmentally sensitive or
appropriate for young children. They cater to young children from
age one to six years and offer four programs depending on the age of the
child: Parent-Toddler, Playground, Nursery, Prep I and Prep II programs.
They also offer afterschool programs which promote critical thinking,
communication, and collaboration skills as well as socio-emotional
development. The approach is child-centered in a fun, imaginative learning
environment, which involves the Muppets from Sesame Street. Muppets
are used to enhance the learning experience and explain difficult concepts
in simple ways through interaction, laughter, and storytelling. As well
as basic literacy and numeracy, there is also an emphasis on developing
skills as critical creative thinkers and instilling confidence and
communicative abilities. Parents are also encouraged to become involved
and continue the learning process at home.

Learning is fostered through play, movement, and exploration. The

curriculum is influenced by Piaget and Howard Gardner and is aligned
with the national curriculum which covers the developmental domains
of cognition, language, and social, emotional, physical, and creative
development. Pedagogy draws upon Montessori and Reggio Emilia

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approaches and combines this with the Sesame Street approach. Educators
must have a university degree and training in ECE. They are trained
with the Sesame Street philosophy and methodology and provided with
continuous support, training, and professional development.

Lively Minds
www.livelyminds.org
Founded in 2008, Lively Minds carries out work in Ghana and Uganda in
response to the lack of and inadequate preschool facilities available.
The aim is to improve all aspects of education by providing and assisting
in the provision of facilities, including toys, other play resources, and
training. In order to create a sustainable model, mothers are trained
to carry out educational play schemes within their communities for
three to five year olds. Free community-run play centers are set up with
the following goals in mind: encouraging children to learn through
play, promoting hygiene education, and training volunteers to run the
centers by carrying out best practices of educational play. Mothers
are educated on child development and learning and taught to utilize local
materials in their environment as learning resources. Using these
simple materials, they are trained to teach children numeracy, literacy,
and creative thinking skills through play. Children are encouraged
to explore and become independent, school-ready thinkers. Key learning
outcomes include school readiness, higher cognitive functions,
numeracy, literacy, creativity, socio-emotional skills, language development,
motor skills, and hygiene.

This initiative has led to improved socio-emotional skills among children

with teachers reporting better moods and social behavior alongside
greater confidence in the children. It has also positively impacted parenting
skills and child stimulation at home with volunteer mothers providing
70 percent more cognitive stimulation and play activities with the children
after three months of running the play centers. Mothers also report
improved confidence and self-esteem as well as improved relationships
with their children. Improved relationships between parents and
schools are also reported.

The Madrasa Pre-School Programme

www.educationinnovations.org/program/madrasa-
early-childhood-programme-mecp
The Madresa Pre-School Programme was first established in 1986
in Kenya by the Aga Khan Foundation to help parents in rural Muslim
communities improve the overall level of educational achievement of
their children and to help parents provide a positive and early start for
children. The idea is to work with local educators, community leaders,

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and parents to support locally owned and run ECE centers in Kenya,
Uganda, and Tanzania. A holistic approach to early childhood development
is taken, guided by a curriculum which integrates key religious values
and teachings. Originally mainly Muslim, children and adults from other
faiths also attend now.

The ethos is that children learn through exploring, experimenting,

discovering patterns, and building relationships with one another and
with teachers and communities. Teachers use the local environment
to find learning resources. Centers consist of learning areas including
block areas, book area, sand, water, shop, and home and so on.
Volunteers for teacher training are selected by the communities. Students
of this project have been found to make better transitions than their
peers and continue to perform well in later development also.

Centers train teachers, school administration, and management and

provide ongoing support and helps raise awareness in the community
regarding Early Childhood Development. They also collaborate with
governments and other organizations regarding good practices and policy
in ECE and development. Aga Khan Education Services works closely
with other agencies on a wide spectrum of issues, including curriculum
development, nutrition, and increasing access to quality education.

Right to Play
www.righttoplay.org.uk
This humanitarian and developmental initiative trains local volunteers
such as community leaders and teachers as coaches to deliver play
programs in disadvantaged, war-stricken, diseased, and impoverished
nations such as Africa, the Middle East, and South America. The areas
of child development targeted are education, health, and potential to
build peaceful communities.

Safe environments are created in which social, emotional, and physical

development is fostered through the use of sports and play. Programs
are tailored to and identify the individual needs of the community context
which require extra targeting, for example, education and health. After
play lessons end, the coaches guide the children through the learning
objectives and ensure their understanding of the lesson by promoting
discussion in which they 1) Reflect (reflection upon the game), 2) Connect
(make parallels between the game and a similar situation in their
own lives), and 3) Apply (discuss how to apply what they’ve learned within
the games to their lives).

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Right to Play proposes improved quality of education in school as a
result of their programs with more open lines of communication between
students and teachers, higher attendance rates, and increased active
engagement in lessons. In addition, student interactions show improvements
with better teamwork, communication, and decision making skills.
Students also show greater confidence and leadership skills individually
and become aware of their role in society and how they can make a
difference.

International case studies of ECE schools

The Riverside School, Ahmedabad, India
Doing Good AND Doing Well
www.schoolriverside.com
Riverside is a non-profit school for children of three to 17 years of age.
Preschool is a part of the school, and each grade has about 26 to 28
three to four year old children with a 1:13 staff/child ratio, with English
as the official school language. The school has a reputation for
academic excellence and for turning out well-rounded, compassionate
citizens. Metacognitive and independent thinking and learning are
encouraged from kindergarten on. Riverside promotes arts, empathy,
collaboration, team-work, digital literacy, and design thinking.

The school’s in-house curriculum emphasizes teaching transferable

skills of problem and conflict solving in different life situations and focuses
on quality of learning and student well-being. It promotes an “I CAN
mindset,” which consists of four principles: Feel (transforming helplessness
into empowerment), Imagine (brainstorming ways to take the current
situation to a preferred state for the self and others), Do (making a change
with courage and determination) and Share (sharing the story
to inspire others).

Riverside is secular in its admission policy and ensures its student

body comes from diverse social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds with
25 percent coming from underprivileged backgrounds. Family and
community provide a context for the learning process and are seen as
equal partners in that process.

All teachers in Riverside have a Bachelors degree. They design and

implement programs using the Play-Way method, experiential learning
and sensorial experiences to nurture curiosity and develop the skills
and attitudes of preschoolers all the while keeping in mind the cognitive,
physical, social, emotional, and spiritual development of the child.

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The teacher’s role is to create stimulating and safe environments,
establish relationships with parents through regular communication,
workshops, and home visits, conduct regular observations, and make
the learning process transparent. The school has a center which
runs training programs for teachers in different stages of their career,
which guarantees high quality teaching from kindergarten to
secondary school.

The pedagogy is child-centered, and the curriculum is designed to

nurture a child’s curiosity, creativity, imagination, and thinking predominantly
through play. Instruction is limited to areas of skill development and
setting routines. Teachers act as facilitators by providing opportunity
and guidance. Children are encouraged to engage in divergent thinking,
collaborate with peers, assume leadership roles in their areas of interest,
and work collaboratively to achieve their goals. Free play and structured
activities are carried out in a ratio of 60:40. Teachers also encourage
collaborative problem-solving activities.

Qatar Academy Early Education Centre and Qatar

Academy Al Wakra Preschool, Doha, Qatar
Empowering children to achieve academic excellence
and become responsible citizens
qataracademytest2.fuegodigital.com/early-education-center/
early-education-center and www.qaw.edu.qa/pre-school
Qatar Academy is a group of seven bilingual private schools and consists
of students and teachers from diverse nationalities and cultural backgrounds.

The Early Education Center (nursery) serves children from six months
to three years old, while Qatar Academy Al Wakra Preschool caters to
children from three to five years. Both offer high quality, play-based
programs in which the care, education, interests, and needs of the
children are prioritized. The local community is served by educating
children to become critical thinkers, life-long learners, and globally-
minded responsible citizens of high moral values and cultural integrity.

Closely aligned with the philosophy of Reggio Emilia, nursery and

preschool programs support social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, and
physical development in young children. Their approach is driven
by the so called “Image of the Child” principle, which represents the
academy’s belief that every child is unique, capable, a risk-taker, social,
curious, persistent, sensory, a creative researcher, and a communicator.
Programs are bilingual in both Arabic and English. The main purpose
of these ECE programs is to support language, cognitive, emotional,
social, and physical development using a child-centered, play-based

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approach facilitated and guided by teachers. Children are challenged and
encouraged to become critical thinkers and contributing members
of the Qatari society.

Teaching staff have a minimum of a Bachelors degree and specialized

child care qualifications. Staff are offered weekly opportunities for
further professional development and are also sent to study Reggio Emilia
in Italy, NESA Conferences, and other professional development
conferences and workshops identified as significant to ECE. In an effort
to have consistency, nursery and preschool teachers also attend
the same training workshops and work closely to ensure a smooth
transition from nursery to preschool.

The daily structure is flexible, with time for independent learning, one
to one with the teacher or peers, or teacher-led small groups. Children’s
interests are followed to encourage inquiry, attentive engagement,
independence, and balance among social-emotional, physical,
cognitive, and language development. Children spend time in the sensory
room, outdoors, or in the art studio. The child may also spend time
with children from other classes/age levels in another classroom or
exploring another environment. Children are also taught strategies
to deal with conflict.

A “Creative Curriculum” influenced by Reggio Emilia is in place to provide

a flexible program with room for individualization to meet the needs
of each child. It is a play-based approach where children are active
participants and co-constructors in learning. Nature plays a key
role in learning, with many resources available for children to explore.
Assessments are developmentally-based and include daily observations
and photographic evidence to document learning, which teachers
reflect upon and review at the end of day. The nursery and the preschool
maintain strong relationships with parents. These are established
through daily communications, online resources, and parent education
sessions. Children get the opportunity to present their learning to
parents in child-led conferences which empower and establish them as
independent learners.

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Anji Jiguan Kindergarten, Anji, China
Playing, exploring, and experiencing for a meaningful childhood
www.facebook.com/AnjiPlayWorld
Anji Jiguan kindergarten employs a unique, playful approach to learning
which encourages free thinking and learning, as well as the development
of relationships between children and the natural and social environment.
It is a public kindergarten, open to families from different social
backgrounds. It strongly values the child‘s connection with his or her
surrounding nature and community.

Anji curriculum follows Six Concepts to Liberate Education practices

which emphasize the importance of learning through play and which
are crucial for ECE: liberation of children’s minds (encouraging free
thinking and learning), liberation of children’s hands (encouraging children
to participate), liberation of children’s eyes (encouraging children’s
observation), liberation of children’s mouths (encouraging children’s
expression), liberation of children’s space (encouraging relationship
with nature and society), and liberation of children’s time (encouraging
children’s choice of activities). The “Anji Play” approach emphasizes
the importance of independent learning, well-being, exploration, appreciation,
and care, where children are encouraged to play independently so they
can enjoy the process of learning. Activities are play-based, with one
instructed group activity each day. Time spent in that group varies
according to children’s ages. Teachers are encouraged to play with children
unless children are fully immersed in play. Most children normally
prefer working in small groups in which collaboration is encouraged.

The lessons take place indoors and outdoors in real life societal and nature
situations. Learning and development is assessed by daily observation,
videos, and photos in class, play, and life. Parental participation is
encouraged with parents viewed as partners. The extent to which
parents become involved in the parents’ association, management,
pedagogy, and curriculum is at the parent’s discretion.

The kindergarten also follows the Live Education principle, which

proposes teaching, learning, and improvement in conjunction with the
surrounding nature and society. Close contact with nature and the
society is promoted, encouraging the combination of knowledge from
books and experience from practice.

Staff includes teaching assistants, child-care workers, and qualified

teachers, 67 percent of which have an undergraduate degree. The rest
of the teaching staff have college diplomas. Teaching staff can avail
of regular training, seminars, and further professional training.

P. 47
QUALITY IN EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
The kindergarten and primary school are closely connected and engage
in frequent communication and meetings to ensure a smooth transition
to school for the children. Primary school teachers and preschool
teachers exchange visits in order to deepen mutual understanding of
pedagogy of both sides. Observations of the children’s performance
in primary school also enables improvement of curriculum for the
kindergarten also.

Homerton Nursery, Cambridge, UK

Encouraging independence, building confident learning,
supporting problem solving and critical thinking
http://homerton.cambs.sch.uk/nursery-school/
Homerton Nursery caters to children between two and four years
from over 20 different cultural backgrounds. Giving children choice,
developing increasing independence, building confident learning,
supporting problem solving, and thinking critically (including leveling
questions appropriately) is the overriding philosophy. The learning
process is on par with the content of learning here. The nursery uses
the characteristics of learning to support children to play, explore,
develop motivation and persistence, and use their imaginations and creativity.
A great emphasis is placed on the relationship with children’s parents,
who help teachers in planning more closely according to children’s interests.

In Homerton, children are encouraged to be confident learners through

playful discovery. Highly qualified and experienced practitioners guide
them in making choices, developing their independence, and expanding
on their interest in the world around them. The nursery provides
stimulating environments and supports children in developing curiosity,
playfulness, and a desire to learn. Children are challenged and can
take risks within a safe, caring, and secure environment. The nursery
plans for children’s learning across seven areas. Three prime areas
of Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and
Language, and Physical Development are fundamental to children’s
experiences. These support learning in four specific areas: Literacy,
Mathematics, Understanding of the World, and Expressive Arts and Design.

Homerton follows the national Early Years Foundation Stage program,

which is based on four important principles: 1) a unique child – every
child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable,
confident, and self-assured, 2) positive relationships – children learn
to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships
with parents and/or a key person, 3) enabling environments – the
environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s
development and learning, and 4) learning and development – children

P. 48
QUALITY IN EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas
of learning and development are equally important and interconnected.

Highly qualified and trained staff have specific training in language

development including for children who speak English as their second
(additional) language. By observing play, teachers informally assess
a child’s development in order to identify opportunities for further learning.
To ensure smooth transition to school, the head teachers of the
Centre and school meet termly as well as informally. Homerton Nursery
also caters to children with special educational needs, who are
heavily supported as required by highly qualified and experienced staff
who have had training specifically in SEND.

Learning is child-led and planned in conjunction with parental input.

Indoor, outdoor, and enrichment activities are carried out e.g. visits to the
allotment with planting, growing, cooking, and tasting, music sessions
led by a specialist, visits to a neighboring park, special visitors, etc.
Teachers join in with children’s play and model play. Children play
individually and in groups. Overall, collaborative play is encouraged.
Children are encouraged to explore and lead their own activities but are
also taught specific skills.

Additional examples of high quality pre-schools:

Blue School, New York City, USA

www.blueschool.org
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLR1joMAadss

Fuji International Kindergarten, Robina, Australia

www.fujikindergarten.com.au

P. 49
QUALITY IN EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
#3
IMPLICATIONS FOR
POLICY AND PRACTICE

P. 50
IMPLICATIONS FOR
POLICY AND PRACTICE
IMPLICATIONS FOR
#3

POLICY AND PRACTICE

The implications of the developmental approach to high
quality in ECE can be described in relation to broad
educational principles and to the nature and features
of the provision, pedagogy, and curriculum of each
ECE program or setting.
While there are universal characteristics of high quality ECE, these
need to be made relevant to the life experiences of children in the countries
and cultures within which they live. Different countries across the
world are at very different stages of development in relation to their
ECE provision. For some, access must still be a significant issue;
however, the provision of low quality ECE can be worse than no provision
at all. All countries need to strive toward achieving high quality ECE
if their children and their societies are to reap the benefits that this
education can bestow.

Key characteristics of high quality ECE emerging from this review include:

• Principles: the competent child as a citizen with developmental

rights, playful learning, active, self-regulating learners,
exploration and inquiry learning, and educating the whole child,
including emotional and social as well as cognitive and
academic areas.
• Provision: time and space for playful learning, outdoor play
offering the experience of risk, rich resources supporting children’s
creativity, generous teacher-pupil ratios, and well-trained
practitioners.
• Pedagogy: relational, play-based pedagogy promoting self-
regulatory development, emotionally warm adult-child
relationships, dialogic and collaborative talk, inquiry-based
approach, and teachers as facilitators.
• Curriculum: rich, well-resourced play opportunities including
a wide range of play types based on children’s interests and
life experiences, child-initiated activities, and avoidance of too
early emphasis on formal learning of literacy and numeracy.

P. 51
IMPLICATIONS FOR
POLICY AND PRACTICE
As we have seen from a wide range of evidence, achieving this level
of quality depends crucially on a range of structural factors which can
be directly influenced by governments and other policy-making bodies.
Most significant among these are those characteristics listed above under
the heading of “provision:”

• the level of qualifications and training of the staff,

• the resource level of the provision, including the physical
spaces available, the play materials, and the staff/child ratios, and
• the quality of the relations between the ECE setting and the
parents and local community.

In order to achieve these elements in high quality ECE, the evidence

would support the following policy recommendations:

1. Pre-school provision should be available and fully funded by the

state from the age of six months until children are seven years of age.

2. Educators working in ECE provision should be educated to degree

level in evidence-based courses specifically designed to enable
them to meet the developmental needs of children in this age range
and education should contain training in methods of research.

3. The initial training of educators should be overlapped with that of child

health and family support professionals.

4. This initial training should be systematically supported by a structured

program of in-service or continuing professional development, with the
opportunity for practitioners to gain qualifications at the Masters level.

5. Leaders in ECE settings should be specifically trained in the skills

of leadership to the Masters level.

6. A culture of “teacher as researcher” should be supported.

7. Staff/child ratios should be set at 1:4 with the youngest children and
no more than 1:10 with six to seven-year-olds.

8. The focus of the curriculum should be on supporting children’s physical,

emotional, social, and cognitive development, in the round; while the
state might set out broad guidelines reflecting cultural values, the details
of the ECE curriculum should be determined by the professional
body of educators in any particular setting, so that it can be relevant,

P. 52
IMPLICATIONS FOR
POLICY AND PRACTICE
meaningful, and developmentally appropriate for the children in that setting.

9. Key curricula priorities should include the development of children’s

oral language abilities, their emotional awareness and regulation, their
social understanding and skills, and their self-regulation abilities.

10. Assessment of children’s progress should be observation-based

and lead to a qualitative profile of the child.

11. The state should lay down minimum space requirements per child
for preschool settings, including generous indoor and outdoor provision.

12. Materials and apparatus in indoor and outdoor spaces should be

open-ended, of high quality, and accessible to the children.

13. The physical provision and materials in ECE settings should be

designed to support the full range of play experiences, including physical
play, exploratory, sorting, and constructional play with objects,
symbolic play, with the full range of means of expression and
communication, pretence and games with rules.

14. Structures should be put in place which support parental and

community support for ECE settings; the integration of services to
families with young children, including education, health, and social
services within ECE settings should be supported.

15. ECE settings should be required and funded to provide parenting

classes to their communities and to employ parental and community
liaison professionals.

16. ECE practice should incorporate the involvement of members of

the community in the work of the educational setting and opportunities
for ECE practitioners to take children out of the setting and into
the community.

Above all, the quality of the practice and execution of these 16

recommendations will, inevitably, be determined by the quality of the
ECE workforce. Enhancing this is a key challenge for governments
and one which requires significant financial investment. The evidence
from developmental psychology and from economics, however,
suggests that this is money very well spent, from which the children
will derive the abilities and dispositions to become powerful and
emotionally intelligent learners, and the countries of the world will derive
a generation of creative problem solvers that we desperately need as
we enter the twenty-first century.

P. 53
IMPLICATIONS FOR
POLICY AND PRACTICE
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. David Whitebread

Senior Lecturer in Psychology & Education and Director of the
Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and
Learning (PEDaL), University of Cambridge

David Whitebread is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology &

Education and Director of the Centre for Research on
Play in Education, Development and Learning in the
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK. He is a
developmental psychologist and is widely recognized as a
leading international expert in early childhood
development and education, and has given talks and
undertaken consultancies in this area in many countries,
including Australia, China, India, Canada, Poland, the USA,
Chile and the UK. His research interests focus on young
children's metacognitive and self-regulatory abilities, the
roles of language, social interaction and play in supporting
these important aspects of development, and implications
for early years and primary education. He has published
widely in academic journals and book chapters, and has
edited or written a number of books, including Teaching and
Learning in the Early Years (4th Ed. 2015, Routledge) and
Developmental Psychology & Early Childhood Education
(2012, Sage).

Dr. Martina Kuvalja

Research Associate, Faculty of Education, University of
Cambridge

Dr. Martina Kuvalja is an educational researcher and a speech

and language therapist. She did both her MPhil and PhD in
Psychology and Education at the University of Cambridge.
Previously she worked as a speech and language therapist,
a researcher investigating metacognition and self-regulation
in young children, and as an independent consultant. At the
moment, Dr. Kuvalja works for Cambridge Assessment (OCR)
on several projects related to educational assessment in an
English setting.

P. 54
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Aileen O'Connor
PhD Researcher, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Aileen O'Connor is a PhD researcher in the Faculty of

Education in the University of Cambridge. She has recently
completed a PhD examining the development of self-
regulation and self-directed speech in children with autism.
Her domains of expertise are special needs, behavioural
therapy and cognitive development. Her interests lie in child
development, early childhood education and well-being.

About the Faculty of Education in the University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is one of the world's oldest universities
and leading academic centres, and a self-governed community of
scholars. Its reputation for outstanding academic achievement is
known world-wide and reflects the intellectual achievement of its
students, as well as the world-class original research carried out by
the staff of the University and the Colleges. The Faculty of Education
is one of the largest groups of educational researchers and teacher
educators in the UK. This reflects a strategic commitment by the
University of Cambridge to contribute to excellence in all phases of
public education, both nationally and internationally. The Faculty has
a commitment to conducting research of high quality and practical
value. Our research is underpinned by a strong set of values which
give it purpose and direction. Particular effort is directed towards
the improvement of education with a central focus on teaching and
learning, informed by principles of inclusivity and social justice.

P. 55
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson
of Qatar Foundation, and the leadership of Qatar Foundation, for their unwavering
commitment to the cause of education globally. It was the vision and guidance of
Her Highness that led to the creation of the World Innovation Summit for Education;
without her ongoing support, this WISE Report would not have been possible.

The authors would also like to acknowledge members of the WISE team for their
dedication and invaluable assistance in the various stages of producing this WISE
Report, including in particular Dr. Asmaa Alfadala, Malcolm Coolidge, Salman Khair,
and Natalie Lundgren.

This report was made possible thanks to the help and advice from the following
individuals:

Ms Neena Mehta, Ms Jahnavi Mehta, Ms Phoram Desai and Ms Archana Todi,

educators from The Riverside School, Ahmedabad, India.
Ms Xueqin Cheng, regional director of Anji Play group.
Ms Maryam Hassa Al Hajri, principal of the Qatar Academy Al WaKra and Ms Jo Ellis,
assistant principal of the Qatar Academy Early Education Centre, Doha, Qatar.
Ms Harriet Price, head teacher of Homerton Early Years Centre, Cambridge, UK.
Prof Kathy Hirsch Pasek, Temple University, USA, and Dr Roberta Michnick Golinkoff,
University of Delaware, USA.
Dr. Pui Wah Doris Cheng, associate professor at Hong Kong Institute of Education,
Hong Kong.
Ms Sarah Wolman, head of partnerships at Lego Foundation for North America.
Dr. Pauline Slot, postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University, Netherlands.
Ms Heyi Zhang and Mr Chenyan Xu, PhD students from the Faculty of Education,
University of Cambridge, UK.

Disclaimer
Any errors or omissions remain the responsibility of the authors.

About WISE
Qatar Foundation, under the leadership of its Chairperson, Her Highness
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, established the World Innovation Summit for
Education in 2009. WISE is an international, multi-sectoral platform for
creative thinking, debate and purposeful action that contributes to building
the future of education through innovation and collaboration. With a range
of ongoing programs, WISE has established itself as a global reference in

P. 56
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
new approaches to education. The WISE Summit brings together over 1,500
thought leaders, decision makers and practitioners from education, the
arts, business, politics, civil society and the media.

The WISE Research Reports bring key topics to the forefront of the global
education debate and reflect the priorities of the Qatar National Research
Strategy.

These publications present timely and comprehensive reports produced in

collaboration with recognized experts, researchers and thought-leaders
that feature concrete improved practices from around the world, as well as
recommendations for policy-makers, educators and change-makers. The
publications will focus on topics such as system-level innovation, teacher
education, early-childhood education, new ways of financing education,
entrepreneurship education, wellbeing, twenty-first century skills and
education reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries.

This report has been reviewed by

Wendy Ellyatt, Chief Executive, Save Childhood Movement

Professor Jane Payler, Professor of Education (Early Years), The Open University
& Chair of TACTYC: Association for Professional Development in Early Years
Educators.

P. 57
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WISE would like to acknowledge
the support of the following organizations

CMYK

PANTONE
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