The IEA Preprimary Project
Age-Seven Follow-Up
Characteristics of Early Childhood Programs and Children’s Development
by Jeanne Montie
Senior Research Associate
W
hat are the essential elements of an early
childhood program for promoting optimal
child development? The final phase of an international
longitudinal study, the IEA Preprimary Project, gives
us some insight into this question that concerns all
who are interested in the best early care and education
environments for children.
The IEA Preprimary Project is a cross-national
study of preprimary care and education sponsored by
the International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement (IEA). The purpose of the
study is to identify how characteristics of preprimary
settings—such as teacher background and training,
teacher-child interactions, child activities, and types of
materials available—are related to children’s language
and cognitive development at age seven. The study is
unique because many diverse countries participated
and used common instruments to measure family
background, teachers’ characteristics, structural characteristics of settings, children’s experiences, and children’s developmental status. High/Scope Foundation
served as the international coordinating center for this
study, and Foundation staff, working collaboratively
with researchers in 15 countries, were responsible for
sampling, instrument development, data analysis, and
the writing of six reports, the final one in press.
86% of the children were also included in the study at
age seven.
Members of the international study team, working
with High/Scope researchers, developed the measures
used in the study. Data collectors used three observation systems and three questionnaires/interviews to
collect data when children were four years old. The observation systems included time-sampled information
about how teachers schedule and manage children’s
time, what children actually do with their time, and
the behaviors teachers use and the nature of their involvement with children. Children’s cognitive and language developmental status was measured at age four
and age seven.
Data collectors also interviewed teachers and families to gather family background information and
teachers’ and parents’ expectations about what is im portant for preschool-aged children to learn. A questionnaire that focused on the structural characteristics
of the settings, such as patterns of operation and
physical characteristics of the environment, was ad ministered to teachers and caregivers.
The type of data analysis used allowed investigators to examine the relationship between setting variables at age four and children’s cognitive and language
outcomes at age seven while controlling for family
influences, children’s prior ability levels, and some
cultural influences. As a result, the relationships between setting variables and children’s outcome scores
are unambiguous.
Study Method
The study sample included over 1500 children in se lected early childhood settings who were approximately
four and a half years old. Data for the final phase of
the project were collected in settings in 10 countries:
Finland, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland,
Italy, Poland, Spain, Thailand, and the United States.
Each country’s research team chose to sample settings
that were used by large numbers of families in the
community or were important for public policy rea sons. Across all participating countries, an average of
Selected Study Findings
Four consistent findings emerged across all countries.
The first pertains to the relationship between the types
of activities teachers proposed and children’s language
outcomes. The activities teachers proposed in the
classroom were divided into the following four types:
Reprinted from High/Scope ReSource, Spring 2005, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 11–12
© 2005 High/Scope Educational Research Foundation
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• Free activities: children were allowed to choose
Implications for Educators and
Policymakers
what to do
• Physical/expressive activities: gross- and fine-motor
The wide range of environments throughout the
world in which young children grow and learn creates
challenging questions for everyone concerned with
providing high-quality programs for them. The IEA
Preprimary findings tell us that teaching practices
do matter; how teachers set up their classrooms
and the activities they propose for children do make
a difference.
Across diverse countries, child-initiated activities
and teachers’ level of education appear to contribute
to children’s later language performance. Minimization
of whole-group activities and a greater number and
variety of materials in preschool settings appear to
contribute to children’s later cognitive performance.
These findings highlight the importance of (1) allowing children to be active participants in their own
learning and (2) providing ample opportunities for
children to choose their own activities, work individually or in small groups, and work directly with a variety
of materials.
Although more research is necessary to establish a
pattern of cause and effect and explore the learning
mechanisms involved in these relationships, those in
the early childhood field can use these findings to examine local policies and practices and make changes
where advisable.
________________
For more information on this study, please e-mail
the author at jmontie@highscope.org. The final monograph of the IEA Preprimary Project, in press, will
include detailed information about the final phase
of the project. Earlier monographs are available online at www.highscope.org/welcome.asp
physical activity, dramatic play, arts, crafts, and
music
• Preacademic activities: reading, writing, numbers,
mathematics, physical science, and social science
• Personal/social activities: personal care, group so-
cial activities (such as show and tell), and discipline
Children from classrooms in which the predominant proposed type of activity was free choice demonstrated the best language performance at age seven,
significantly better than children from classrooms in
which personal/social activities were predominant. The
second consistent finding was that children’s language
performance at age seven was greater when their preschool teachers had more years of full-time schooling.
Two additional findings were related to children’s
cognitive skills. Children who spent less time in
whole-group activities in the preschool setting
(whole-group activities are those the teacher proposes
for all children to do at the same time—sing songs,
play games, listen to a story, or work on a craft or a
preacademic activity) showed improved cognitive performance at age seven. Children’s cognitive scores at
age seven also were higher as the number and variety
of equipment and materials available to them in preschool settings increased.
Reprinted from High/Scope ReSource, Spring 2005, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 11–12
© 2005 High/Scope Educational Research Foundation
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