Strategic Thinking in ECE in New Zealand:
Seminar, Wellington, 27 rd July 2011
Giving ALL Children a Chance to Achieve: evidence from research
Effective Pre-School, Primary and Secondary Education Project
(EPPSE 3-16)
A Longitudinal Study Funded by the
UK Department for Education 1997-2014
Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford
Institute of Education, University of London

 Intro to the EPPE/EPPSE study
 Evidence from EPPE/REPEY,
EPPNI and MEEIFP
 Exploring quality
 The short, medium and long term impact of pre-school

 The overall research design of EPPSE 3-14 Project as an example of ‘educational effectiveness’ research using valued added methods.
 EPPSE combines both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

• To compare the progress of children from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds who have differing pre-school experiences.
• To separate out the effects of pre-school experience from the effects of primary school.
• To establish whether some pre-school centres are more effective than others in promoting children’s development.
• To discover the characteristics of pre-school education in those centres found to be most effective.
• To investigate the differences in the progress of groups of children, e.g. children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Design of EPPSE : 6 Local Authorities, 141 pre-schools, 3,000 children
Pre-school
Provision
(3+ yrs)
25 nursery classes
590 children
34 playgroups
610 children
31 private day nurseries
520 children
20 nursery schools
520 children
24 local authority day care nurseries
430 children
7 integrated centres
190 children home
310 children
KS 1
862 sch
KS2
1,128 sch
KS3
739 sch
KS4
700+ sch

●
Child assessment (social/behaviour & cognitive) at 3, 4+, 6, 7, 10 ,11 & 14 years (first 16 outcomes in 2009)
● Family background at 3, 6 and 11 & 14
●
●
Interviews/questionnaires with staff
‘Quality’ rating scales in pre-school
● Case studies of effective pre-school settings
● Pedagogical observations in primary school
● School and classroom climate questionnaires
● Children’s views of school at age 7, 10
& 14
● Teachers’ views on school processes and practice in Yr 5 & Yr 9

Different influences on child outcomes
Family
Factors
Child
Factors
Home-
Learning-
Environment
Pre-School
Primary
School
Cognitive outcomes:
English & maths
Social/Behavioural:
Self Regulation
Likes to work things out for self
Pro-social
Considerate of others feelings
Hyperactivity
Restless, cannot stay still for long
Anti-social
Has been in trouble with the law

Some Key Issues
• Quality of provision formal v informal (care and education)
• Transitions – especially Summer born children
• Ratios
•
Training
• Literacy and interactions
• Appropriate curriculum and assessments

• If children come from disadvantaged backgrounds and are ‘at risk’ of social problems, then high quality pre-school/early years will make an important contribution to improving their social development.
• Children with no preschool experience (the ‘home’ group) had poorer intellectual attainment, sociability and concentration when they started school, even after taking account of home background.
• More terms in pre-school (after the age of 2 years) is related to better cognitive and social progress (dose effect).
• Children who attend pre-school settings part-time develop as well as those children attending full-time

 Integrated settings and nursery schools tend to do better
on cognitive outcomes even after taking account of children’s backgrounds.
 Integrated settings (which have fully integrated education with care) nursery schools and nursery classes are better at fostering children’s social development
 Settings with higher quality provision decreased children’s anti-social/ worried behaviour.

• Settings in the state educational sector have children who make
(comparatively) more progress than those in the private/voluntary sector.
• In the EPPE sample, nursery schools and centres that integrated education and care tended to be rated highest on quality, (e.g. ECERS and Caregiver
Interaction Scale).
• Good quality and better cognitive outcomes for children are associated with higher quality as defined by the ECERS R and E
In the most effective settings, staff had
1.
Better knowledge of the curriculum and child development
2.
Engaged more in ‘sustained shared thinking’ with children
3.
Supported children in talking through and resolving conflict
4.
Adults had warm, responsive relationships with children.
5.
Set clear educational goals.
6.
Have recognised early years qualifications.
7.
Trained teachers are amongst the staff.
8.
Parents are supported in involvement in children’s learning.


Prereading
Early number concepts
Language
ECERS-E
Average total
Literacy
Maths
Science/Environment
Diversity
ECERS-R
Average total positive* positive* positive# positive positive positive
Space and furnishings
Personal care
Language and reasoning
Activities
Interaction
Programme structure positive
Parents and staff positive#
* When change of centre is not in model # verging on statistical significance
Non-verbal reasoning positive positive positive# positive positive#
Spatial awarenes s

Independence and concentration
Cooperation and Conformity
Peer Sociability Anti-social/
Worried
ECERS-E
Average total
Literacy
Maths
Science/ environment
Diversity positive# positive# positive# positive# positive# positive#

What parents and carers do is most important and makes a real difference to development. Activities for parents which help children’s development include:
 reading to children;
 teaching children songs and nursery rhymes;
 playing with letters and numbers;
 painting and drawing;
 taking children to libraries;
 (for social outcomes) creating regular opportunities for play with friends.

5
4
3
1
0
2
Training:
Relationship between Quality and Manager Qualification:
EPPE evidence
Literacy
Level 2
Mathematics Science and environment
Level 3 / 4
Diversity
Level 5

EPPE -ECERS-R and Manager Qualifications
4
3
2
1
6
5
0
Language reasoning
Level
2
Activities
Level
3 / 4
Interaction
Level
5
Programme structure
Parents and staff

The best settings in terms of implementing the FP appear to have the following common characteristics:
 More detailed, focused planning.
 Lead practitioners with good leadership and management skills and the ability to allocate effective roles for other adults whilst planning together for children’s learning
 Guided and supported play activities with higher levels of adult-child interaction that support children’s thinking.
 Clear and dynamic vision and leadership from setting heads who have a good grasp of effective early years practice and are able to communicate this effectively to FP staff.
4th December, 2006

 The best settings did not slavishly adhere to the FP guidance but took it seriously and built the FP into existing good practice.
 A move away from over-formal practice in the basics towards a more experiential, child centred and adult guided, play based practice.
 The leadership of the setting has a culture of investing in staff development.
 Some well trained and qualified staff who have a good understanding of child development and pedagogy and who actively support other staff in working with children.
4th December, 2006


An episode in which two or more individuals “work together” in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative etc. Both parties must contribute to the thinking and it must develop and extend.



Percentage of high cognitive challenge activities within each initiation category in each setting type
60
40
20
0 good excellent child initiated child but adult adult initiated

20
0
60
40
Good Excellent Reception classes
Shared sustained thinking Instruction Monitoring

60
40
20
0
Time spent by children in different social groupings across settings of varying effectiveness
Good
Alone/1:1 Child pair
Excellent
Small group
Reception classes
Whole class

From: SirajBlatchford, I. (2009) ‘Early Childhood Education’ in Maynard, T. and
Thomas, N. (Eds.) An Introduction to Early Childhood Studies,
(2nd Edition) London: Sage Publications (in press)
Table 1: OECD Curriculum Outlines
Teacher’s initiating activities
Teacher’s extending activities
Differentiation and Formative
Assessment
Relationships and conflict between children
Sustained
Shared
Thinking
EEL [1]
High
Scope
“Introducing new activities”
“Enriching interventions”
“Sharing
Control”
“Participation as partners”
“Observe children”
“Plan -
Do -
Review”
“Work out sustaining relations”
“Adopt a problem solving approach”
“Engagement”
“Authentic dialogue”
Reggio
Emilia
“Development of short and longterm projects”
“Sustaining the cognitive and social dynamics”
“Teachers first listen don’t talk”
“Warm reciprocal relationships”
“Reciprocity of interactions”
EPPE/
REPEY
Correlations found with effective practice
Correlations found with effective practice
Correlations found with effective practice
Correlations found with effective practice
Correlations found with effective practice

Investing in good quality
EYFS provision is an effective means of achieving targets concerning social exclusion and breaking cycles of disadvantage, but more is only better if the quality is
right.

Playful learning for children is based on the following ideas:
• Building on and extending the child’s interests
• The child is usually active physically, socially and intellectually
• The learning is exploratory without necessarily fixed outcomes in mind
• Playful learning motivates children to try more challenging learning
• Children use, apply and extend their knowledge, skills and understanding through active exploration
• In social contexts children develop their capacities for cooperation and collaboration and can often explore complex ideas

Supporting playful learning involves the use of a suite of strategies including:
• Creating well resourced environments with rich materials
• Being involved and interacting with children as they play and explore
• Maintaining a purposeful focus on the child’s learning and development
• Modelling expressive language and consciously extending children’s vocabulary
• Constructively engaging with children to scaffold and extend learning
• Using sustained shared thinking strategies to build on child-initiated activity to extend knowledge, skills and understanding

Pre-reading at school entry
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Low duration
Low quality High quality
High duration

0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0.6
0.5
Cooperation and conformity
Independence and concentration
Peer sociability

 Scores on the total ECERS-R were positively related to children’s progress in
Cooperation/conformity
 Scores on the ‘social interaction’ sub-scale were related to the development of independence and peer sociability
 Total scores on the ECERS-E were significantly related to progress in children’s
- Pre-reading (Phonological awareness, letter recognition)
- Non-verbal reasoning
- Number skills
 Sub-scale scores were related to-
- independence and concentration

• Positive relationships is a subscale made up of 10 items indicating warmth and enthusiasm interaction with children by the caregiver.
• Punitiveness is a subscale made up of 8 items indicating harsh or over-controlling behaviour in interaction with children by the caregiver.
• Permissiveness is a subscale made up of 4 items indicating avoidance of discipline and control of children by the caregiver.
• Detachment is a subscale made up of 4 items indicating lack of involvement in interaction with children by the caregiver.

Impact of quality as measured by the Caregivers Interaction Scale on cognitive and social behaviour outcomes
Prereading
Early number concepts
Independence
&
Concentration
Co-operation
& Conformity
Peer
Sociability
Positive relationships
Punitiveness
+ + + + +
-
Permissive
-
Detachment
-

READING at key stage 1, social class and pre-school experience
2.8
2.6
Pre-school
2.4
2.2
No pre-school
2.0
Expected minimum
1.8
Professional Skilled Un/semi skilled
Social class by occupation
WRITING at key stage 1, social class and pre-school experience
2.6
2.4
Pre-school
2.2
2.0
Expected minimum
1.8
No pre-school
1.6
Professional Skilled Un/semi skilled
Social class by occupation

MATHEMATICS at key stage 1, social class and pre-school experience
2.8
Pre-school
2.6
2.4
No pre-school
2.2
2.0
1.8
Expected minimum
Professional Skilled
Social class by occupation
Un/semi skilled

The impact of Pre-school Quality (ECERS-E: Educational aspects) on English and Maths
Pre-school quality is associated with Key Stage 2 performance in both English and Mathematics.
Also medium or high quality pre-school is associated with significantly enhanced attainment compared to no pre-school or low quality pre-school, and the effects are comparable in size to the effects of gender and FSM.

The Combined Impact of Pre-School Quality and Primary
School Effectiveness (Value add) - Mathematics
Primary School
Effectiveness (English):
0.8
very low / low medium / high / very high
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
Effect of Pre-School Quality and Primary School Effectiveness on
0.47
0.2
0.1
0.0
Reference Group:
No Pre-School + very low / low effective primary school no pre-school
0.34
Mathematics at Age 10
0.47
0.33
0.50
low medium
Pre-School Quality
0.48
0.53
high
Reference Group: No Pre-School and Very low / low Primary School Effectiveness

Long Term impact – Aged 10
Pre-school Quality and Self Regulation
•
Self regulation is highest in children who have attended medium or high quality pre-schools

The impact of Pre-school Quality
(ECER-R: Social/Care aspects) on Hyperactivity and Pro-social Behaviour
Hyperactivity Pro-social
•
Children who attend high quality pre-school display higher pro-social behaviour and lower levels of hyperactive behaviour
• Home children show significantly reduced levels of positive social behaviour relative to children who attended pre-school regardless of quality, however, they also show reduced levels of Hyperactivity

The impact of Pre-school Quality (ECERS-R: Social/Care aspects & ECERS-E: Educational aspect) on Self-regulation and Pro-social behaviour
Children who attended medium and high quality preschools had higher levels of ‘Self-regulation’ in Year 6 than others.
‘Home’ children were rated by teachers as having less ‘‘Pro-social’’ behaviour relative to children who had attended pre-school, although the difference is most marked for those who attended high quality.

or Tel 00 44 (0)20 7612 6219 Brenda Taggart Research Co-ordinator
(b.taggart@ioe.ac.uk)
Principal Investigators:
Professor Kathy Sylva, University of Oxford
Professor Edward Melhuish, Birkbeck, University of London
Professor Pam Sammons, University of Nottingham
Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Institute of Education, University of London
Brenda Taggart , Institute of Education, University of London
Analyses Team at the Institute of Education, University of London :
Dr. Stephen Hunt, Dr. Helena
Jeličić, Kati Toth, Diana Dragichi, Rebecca Smees and Wesley Welcomme, Dr Aziza Mayo, Donna-Lynn Shepherd