Preschool Practitioners Research Articles

‘It’s in my interest to collaborate … ’ – parents’ views of the process of interacting and building relationships with preschool practitioners in Sweden

ABSTRACT This article aims to explore parents’ perspectives on, and experiences of, home and preschool collaboration in a Swedish context. The research question is: How do parents perceive the process of building good relationships with preschool practitioners? The data consist of interviews with 10 parents with one or more children attending preschool. The research process follows the procedures significant to constructivist grounded theory. In the results, parents stress the necessity of continuity in building trusting and authentic relationships with preschool practitioners in order to shoulder parental responsibilities from afar and facilitate children’s well-being, development and learning at preschool. Parents attempt to create prerequisites for collaboration when choosing a preschool. The relationship-building process is described in different ways; some see it as effortless, while others see it as a struggle.

Assessing the acceptability of an adapted preschool obesity prevention programme: ToyBox-Scotland.

Childhood obesity is a global public health issue. Interventions to prevent the onset of obesity in the early years are often implemented in preschool settings. The ToyBox intervention was delivered across Europe and targeted energy balance-related behaviours in preschools and children's homes through teacher-led activities and parental education materials and was adapted for use in Scotland. This study assessed the acceptability of the 18-week adapted intervention to both parents and teachers. Mixed methods were employed to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Preschool staff and children's parents/caregivers completed post-intervention feedback surveys, from which acceptability scores were calculated and presented as proportions. Focus groups were conducted with preschool staff, whereas parents/caregivers participated in semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis was applied to qualitative data following the development of a coding framework. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using SPSS and NVivo 10, respectively. Preschool staff rated the intervention as highly acceptable based on post-intervention feedback surveys (80%; mean score 8.8/11). Lower acceptability scores were observed for parents/caregivers (49%; 3.9/8). Nine preschool practitioners participated in focus groups (n = 3). User-friendliness of the intervention materials, integration of the intervention with the curriculum, and flexibility of the intervention were identified as facilitators to delivery. Barriers to delivery were time, insufficient space, and conflicting policies within preschools with regard to changing classroom layouts. Parental interviews (n = 4) revealed a lack of time to be a major barrier, which prevented parents from participating in home-based activities. Parents perceived the materials to be simple to understand and visually appealing. This study identified a number of barriers and facilitators to the delivery and evaluation of the ToyBox Scotland preschool obesity prevention programme, which should be considered before any further scale-up of the intervention.

Let's Talk About Maths: The Role of Observed “Maths‐Talk” and Maths Provisions in Preschoolers' Numeracy

ABSTRACTDevelopmental cognitive neuroscience highlights the importance of interactions between children and their environment. As young children spend increasing time in childcare, it is key to investigate the impact of “maths‐talk” and maths provisions in preschools. Qualitative insights from early educators indicate a greater bias toward counting activities than would be expected given the Early Years curriculum. In addition, we quantified the observed breadth of preschool practitioners' maths language (e.g., place‐value language), setting‐based maths provisions (e.g., quality of maths‐related activities), and their relation with children's early numeracy skills. In settings with greater practitioners' breadth of maths language, children display greater cardinality skills although our data call for the further investigation of parental socioeconomic status and education. We conclude with a discussion on the need to operationalize children's maths learning environments as diversely as possible. Enriching practitioners' skill sets may be an effective and needed way of improving early maths outcomes.

Time to Reflect

Reflect is an innovative approach to supporting children's emotional development and resilience through working with pre-school practitioners. Zoe Stephens and Gill Holt explain the method and its outcomes

The effect of language-focused professional development on the knowledge and behaviour of preschool practitioners

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effectiveness of a language-focused professional development programme on the knowledge and behaviour of preschool practitioners (sometimes called early years practitioners) in the UK. In Study 1 we determined whether the training received by practitioners is effective in improving their knowledge of how to support children’s language and communicative development. In Study 2 we tested whether trained practitioners, and practitioners from centres with embedded Language Champions, were able to implement the techniques they had been taught. For this, we video-recorded practitioners interacting, one to one, with 2- and 3–4-year-old children in their centres. We conclude that (1) practitioners retain the knowledge they have been taught, both about how children learn and about how to promote this learning, and that (2), in some respects, this knowledge translates well into practice; practitioners in centres with embedded Language Champions and trained practitioners used language-enriching behaviours when interacting with children more often than did untrained practitioners. We discuss how the translation of some techniques into overt behaviour could be made more effective.

Collaborative inquiry as an authentic form of professional development for preschool practitioners

The purpose of this case study was to propose collaborative inquiry (CI) as counterdiscourse in professional development literature by acknowledging the multiple forms of personal and professional knowledge of five preschool practitioners. Data were collected from transcripts of CI group meetings, semi-structured participant interviews, researcher field notes, and observations during classroom visits and meetings with participants. In the findings practitioner goals and research questions, conversation and small talk, informal and shared readings, student documentation and artifacts, and collaboration were identified as important tools and processes as group members engaged in CI alongside participation in a voluntary quality improvement rating system at their preschool.

A Video Based Intervention to Support Children’s Social, Emotional and Mental Health

The intention of Reflect as an innovative intervention was to enhance and highlight the building blocks of Five to Thrive (Kate Cairns Associates 2012: Respond, Cuddle, Relax, Play and Talk) and help pre-school setting practitioners see how applying more of these principles could support positive change in a child’s behaviour. The report provides background, research and theory behind the approach and intervention, and explains why it was chosen in this situation. It gives a description of how it is delivered in practice, so that it can be reproduced.Key findings suggest progress in 2 main areas; 1) children’s behaviour, emotional literacy and self-regulation and 2) change in the practitioners’ approach to managing behaviour, their perception and attitude towards the children. Results from ratings by parents and pre-school staff using a standardised measure of behaviour (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), showed improvements in children’s behaviour by decreased scores in behaviour difficulties sub-scales post intervention. The Overall Stress data from staff ratings combined scores for 4 difficulty measures (emotional, behavioural concerns, hyperactivity/inattention and peer relationships) showed that 4% of children were functioning close to the ‘Average’ band pre-intervention, compared to 50% post intervention. Furthermore, staff ratings showed significant reductions to the number of children scoring at the most concerning ‘Very High’ difficulties band; 67% pre-intervention compared to 29% post intervention. All children made progress against individually set learning behaviour goals.Progress and usefulness of Reflect was also evidenced qualitatively from setting staff evaluations and perceptions of the workers who delivered the intervention.

Preschool practitioners’ and immigrant parents’ beliefs about academics and play in the early childhood educational curriculum in five countries

Children Crossing Borders is a comparative study of how early childhood education and care programs in England, France, Germany, Italy, and the US are approaching the task of working with children of recent immigrants and of areas of agreement and disagreement in beliefs about what should happen in preschool of recent immigrant parents of young children and their children’s teachers. The method used in the study is a version of video-cued ethnographic interviewing, in which preschool parents and practitioners were shown 20-minute videos of days in preschools in their own and other countries and asked for their reactions and evaluations. This paper focuses on how immigrant parents and preschool practitioners talk about the ideal balance of academic preparation and play in the curriculum. A key finding is that immigrant parents tend to favor greater emphasis on academic instruction than do their children’s teachers, except in France, where teachers as well as parents see preschool as a place for academics rather than for play. Our analysis suggests that reasons for immigrant parents’ preference for a greater academic emphasis include past experience with education in their host country; pragmatic concerns about their children’s vulnerability to failing in school; and ideological beliefs about curriculum and pedagogy that are tied to a larger social conservatism as well as to social class.

A feasibility study with process evaluation of a preschool intervention to improve child and family lifestyle behaviours

BackgroundAround a fifth of children starting school in England are now overweight/obese. There is a paucity of interventions with the aim of obesity prevention in preschool-age children in the UK. Previous research has demonstrated some positive results in changing specific health behaviours, however, positive trends in overall obesity rates are lacking. Preschool settings may provide valuable opportunities to access children and their families not only for promoting healthy lifestyles, but also to develop and evaluate behaviour-change interventions.MethodsThis paper presents a cluster randomised feasibility study of a theory based behaviour-change preschool practitioner-led intervention tested in four preschool centres in the North East of England. The primary outcome measures were to test the acceptability and feasibility of the data collection measures and intervention. Secondary measures were collected and reported for extra information. At baseline and post intervention, children’s anthropometric, dietary and physical activity measures as well as family ‘active’ time data were collected. The preschool practitioner-led intervention included family intervention tasks such as ‘family goal-setting activities’ and ‘cooking challenges’. Preschool activities included increasing physical activity and providing activities with the potential to change behaviour with increased knowledge of and acceptance of healthy eating. The process evaluation was an on-going monthly process and was collected in multiple forms such as questionnaires, photographs and verbal feedback.Results‘Gatekeeper’ permission and lower-hierarchal adherence were initially a problem for recruitment and methods acceptance. However, at intervention end the preschool teachers and parents stated they found most intervention methods and activities acceptable, and some positive changes in family health behaviours were reported. However, the preschool centres appeared to have difficulties with enforcing everyday school healthy eating policies.ConclusionsThe findings from the current study may have implications for nursery practitioners, nursery settings, Local Educational Authorities and policy makers, and contributes to the body of literature. However, further work with preschool practitioners is required to determine how personal attitudes and school policy application can be supported to implement successfully such an intervention.Trial registrationISRCTN12345678 (16/02/17) retrospectively registered.

Science verbs as a tool for investigating scientific phenomena – a pedagogical idea emerging from practitioner-researcher collaboration

This paper communicates the pedagogical idea of approaching scientific phenomena through verbs. The idea has sprung from a collaboration between preschool practitioners and a researcher, addressing science education in preschool (children aged 1-5 years). Drawing on a joint problem inventory, the project group aimed to create a teaching model that supports inquiry-oriented approaches to science, and teachers’ ability of distinguishing chemical processes and physics phenomena in everyday practice. The core idea of the teaching model turned out to be a list of everyday verbs, connected to scientific phenomena. Starting from verbs appear to help teachers to recognise the scientific phenomena in everyday practice. Further, the verbs guide the formulating of questions that can be answered by scientific inquiry, such as: ''what matters to how something melts/rolls/mixes?''.

Parent training: effectiveness of the Parents Plus Early Years programme in community preschool settings

Evidenced based parent training (PT) programmes offer an important intervention strategy to improve early behavioural and emotional difficulties for young children. Initial research highlights the benefits of incorporating PT within local community services such as preschools. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Parents Plus Early Years (PPEY) programme when delivered by preschool practitioners in their communities. Parents of 277 preschool children completed a seven week PPEY programme, with outcome measures collected pre- and post-intervention. The results indicate parents completing the PPEY reported reduced parental stress and child difficulties as well as improved parenting satisfaction and parenting goal achievement. The results demonstrate the unique attributes and potential that preschool PPEY programmes can offer as a cost effective and sustainable resource for early intervention with young children and their families.

New technologies, old dilemmas: theoretical and practical challenges in preschool immersion playrooms

This paper describes some of the findings emerging from a small-scale pilot study investigating the potential of a tablet app, Our Story (Ar Stòiridh), to enhance language-learning opportunities for children in Gaelic-medium preschool playrooms. The intervention drew on design-based research, a methodology for investigating the relationships among educational theory, designed artefact and practice. A significant feature of this approach is the close collaboration between researchers and practitioners in identifying the problem to be addressed by the intervention and refining, through successive iterations, the solution. Detailed documentation of the process enables the researchers to keep track of practical barriers or facilitators, and often leads to design changes. In this case, it emerged that there were marked differences between the researchers' and the practitioners' beliefs about effective language learning in the early years, a finding which would have had a bearing on the development of the design beyond the pilot phase. It is argued that this finding has implications for theoretical understanding of how preschool practitioners set about supporting children as they learn a new language in immersion-style settings; and of how to design practical interventions, such as the use of digital technologies to support early language learning or professional development for preschool practitioners in such settings.

Developing children: developmental discourses underpinning physical education at three Scottish preschool settings

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on one aspect of a study that investigated the place and meaning of ‘physical education’ to practitioners and children at three preschool settings in Scotland. We employed a poststructural type of discourse analysis to examine the developmental discourses the 14 participating practitioners drew on when talking about ‘physical education’ at preschools, during semi-structured interviews. Three main discourses around the notion of developmentalism were identified during analysis of the adults’ interview data: (1) preschool children learn and develop through play; (2) preschool children should have choices and freedom and (3) sometimes more structured activities are needed. The practitioners were heavily invested in developmental ‘truths’ about how preschool children learn and develop. They were in agreement that play is a vital element of preschool education, and that, consequently, children should be provided with opportunities for exploration and making choices. However, they also talked about sometimes ‘needing’ to restrict children's freedom and provide more adult-led activities. Our findings illustrate the strength of developmental discourses at the three settings. We suggest that preschool practitioners, as well as policy-makers and researchers, should critically reflect on the effects of taken-for-granted developmental discourses and move beyond thinking in terms of binaries such as ‘physical education versus play’ or ‘structure versus freedom’.

Parenting groups, how long is enough? The efficacy of a community-run Parents Plus Early Years Program as a preschool parenting intervention of modifiable duration

Evidence shows that low-intensity community parenting interventions are effective in addressing child behavioral problems. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the Parents Plus Early Years (PPEY) parenting intervention delivered as a single workshop or a seven-week course to a non-clinical community sample by trained preschool practitioners. A between groups, repeated measures, matched pairs design was used. 121 parents of preschool aged children participated in a PPEY seven-week course (N=89) or a single workshop (N=32). Participants were compared pre-intervention and seven weeks later on measures of child difficulties and prosocial behavior and parental satisfaction and stress. A paired samples t-test found that parents reported the seven-week intervention significantly improved child prosocial behavior. Both group formats significantly improved child difficulties, parental satisfaction, and stress. The seven-week group demonstrated significantly greater improvement in parental stress and satisfaction than the workshop group. Effect sizes showed that while both groups were beneficial, the seven-week group produced greater parent-reported gains. Findings suggest that single session parenting workshops are beneficial, though the longer courses are likely to facilitate a greater magnitude of change. Further study using a control group and follow-up testing is suggested.

Pre-school practitioners, child poverty and social justice

Purpose – Several ideas exist about social justice and how inequalities can be tackled to help families and children in poverty. The Coalition government released the UK’s first Child Poverty Strategy in 2011. Pervaded by neoliberal ideology, the strategy mentions “empowering” pre-school services and practitioners within the childcare market “to do more for the most disadvantaged” (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department for Education (DfE) 2011, p. 35). The purpose of this paper is to bring to light how Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practitioners across England have engaged with policy discussions and adopted expectations concerning their place in addressing child poverty. Design/methodology/approach – Using a phenomenological qualitative research design the paper draws upon 30 interviews with pre-school practitioners in three geographic areas of England. All interviewees worked with families and children in poverty and were senior ECEC practitioners within their pre-school settings. Findings – Many interviewees shared the Coalition’s construction of child poverty as a problem of “troubled” parenting. These views pervaded their interaction with parents and intersected with the regulatory influence of “policy technologies” to influence their practice within a context of austerity cuts. This limited practitioners’ poverty sensitivity and their promotion of social justice. Therefore this paper concludes by critiquing the contribution which ECEC practitioners can make to addressing child poverty. Practical implications – The findings suggest there may be a need for poverty proofing toolkits in the pre-school sector. Originality/value – This paper provides a rare insight into how pre-school practitioners have engaged with, adopted and adapted assumptions about their role within policy discussion over child poverty and the promotion of social justice.

Understanding the rationale for preschool physical education: implications for practitioners' and children's embodied practices and subjectivity formation

This paper provides an overview of selected academic research literature that underpins contemporary preschool physical education. We highlight and interrogate diverse rationales and beliefs that serve to influence and structure preschool physical education in various forms. We speculate as to how preschool practitioners and children might engage in specific practices relative to these discourses. Our consideration of preschool physical education discourses relies upon a Foucaultian analysis of the major techniques of power and also raises possibilities of conceptualising subjectivity formation through his concept of the ‘technologies of the self’. Discourses related to motor skill development, play and physical activity, in particular, appear to be prevalent in the selected literature, along with a related pedagogical discourse concerning ‘structure and freedom’. These sometimes competing discourses arguably underpin competing agendas reflecting those who advocate supporting children's free play and those who propose more structured and interventionist practices in relation to young children's physical activity. We conclude that these diverse approaches lend themselves to interpretation and negotiation in the context of preschool physical education, with specific consequences for the embodied experiences and subjectivities of preschool practitioners and children.

Physical education at preschools: the meaning of ‘physical education’ to practitioners at three preschool settings in Scotland

Background: Preschool physical education has been largely unexplored by researchers. This article examines the meaning of the term ‘physical education’, in relation to preschool contexts, to 14 practitioners working at three preschool settings in Scotland. Our focus on preschool physical education reflects a change in the language associated with young children's physical education in Scottish educational policy. The recently implemented Curriculum for Excellence refers to ‘physical education’ in relation to preschool education, whereas the previous Scottish preschool curriculum referred to ‘physical development and movement’. Methods: The study employed a poststructural type of discourse analysis concerned with identifying patterns in language use. Research methods employed were observations and interviews. Findings: Practitioners generally indicated that they were uncomfortable with the term ‘physical education’ in relation to preschool contexts. Terms they preferred included ‘physical play’, ‘exercise’ and ‘health and wellbeing’. Drawing on developmental discourses, they tended to associate ‘physical education’ with schools, positioning it as something more formal and structured than what preschool children would (or should) experience. It seemed that, for some practitioners, their privileging of play clashed with the notion of ‘physical education’. Conclusion: We suggest that researchers and policy-makers need to be aware that using the terms ‘physical education’ or ‘PE’ with preschool practitioners may be a problematic endeavour. Consulting with preschool practitioners is important for understanding why particular language, discourses and practices associated with physical education may be supported or resisted in preschool contexts. Furthermore, we suggest that preschool practitioners should critically reflect on taken-for-granted developmental discourses that position preschool children as ‘too young’ for particular experiences.

Remediating child poverty via preschool: exploring practitioners' perspectives in England

Within developed countries child poverty is a social problem with significant negative effects. With a backdrop of austerity, the UK's first child poverty strategy was released in 2011. Pervaded by neo-liberal ideology this strategy identifies preschool services as key to remediating the negative effects of child poverty on children and families as a means to ‘unlock social mobility’. Drawing on interviews with preschool practitioners working in the poorest region of England, this article provides a rare, close-up insight into how they have responded to assumptions about their role within the policy discussions and debates about child poverty. Findings reveal how those interviewed have internalised the UK Coalition government's discursive formation of child poverty and social justice. Their narratives also indicate how, alongside the child poverty strategy, ‘policy technology’ accompanying the emergence of related reforms to the preschool sector in England and financial cuts are regulative and restrictive to practitioners' thinking and actions. Although only small scale, this research identifies challenges which will potentially prevent practitioners from creating the conditions necessary to address the effects of child poverty and ensure the Coalition government's vision of social justice in England.

Dyslexia: When is the right time to diagnose?

Kate Cracknell questions whether seven is too old for a first diagnosis of dyslexia and provides some helpful tips to support pre-school practitioners in identifying early indicators.

A study of rural preschool practitioners’ views on young children’s mathematical thinking

The project Mathematical Thinking of Preschool Children in Rural and Regional Australia: Research and Practice aimed to investigate views of preschool practitioners about young children’s mathematical thinking and development. Structured individual interviews were conducted with 64 preschool practitioners from rural areas of three Australian states. The questions focused on five broad themes: children’s mathematics learning, support for mathematics teaching, technology and computers, attitudes and feelings, and assessment and record keeping. We review results from the interview data for each of these themes, discuss their importance, and outline recommendations related to teacher education as well as resource development and research.