Comparing aspects of the process quality in six european early childhood educational settings

The European project ‘Early Change’ (http://earlychange.teithe.gr) attempts to evaluate the quality of early childhood education (ECE) environments of six European countries, Greece, Portugal, Finland, Denmark, Cyprus and Romania. The purpose of this paper is to compare the level of two dimensions of the process quality of these environments a) Space & Furnishings, and b) Personal Care Routines. Theorists, practitioners and researchers agree that in order to provide qualitative education to young children, one of the basic needs of all children must be met; that need is the protection of their health and their safety. A high quality early childhood education program must contain a safe and stimulating environment for the child (Lindsey, 1998). Such an environment includes indoor space, outdoor space, furniture, and room arrangement, and it is considered an integral part of a high quality early childhood program. 117 early educators from the six participating countries attended the training seminars about the evaluation of ECE quality using the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale-R (ECERS-R). The trained educators evaluated the 8 indicators of the subscale ‘space & furnishings’ and the six indicators of the subscale ‘personal care routines’ in approximately 600 early childhood classrooms from six European countries. The results of this study highlight the similarities and differences concerning the specific dimensions of the process quality of ECE environments in six European countries, and reflect the diversity of ECE environment across these countries. The findings of this study may provide a valuable insight to researchers and educational policy makers for an enhanced understanding of the cultural diversities and the strengthening of the common values and targets of the European Union.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Qualidade em educação pré-escolar

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quality of early childhood environments: Discussion on the concept of quality and future perspectives.

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Preschool Teachers’ Ideas about Practices to Promote Peer Relations: Using Q Methodology to Determine Viewpoints

AbstractAn internationally accepted definition of early childhood inclusion includes the right to achieve a sense of belonging and membership, positive social relationships, and friendships. Although Portuguese preschool curriculum guidelines value child- child interactions as an outcome by itself and as means to achieving other development and learning outcomes it does not explicitly mention social participation indicators. Additionally, information is lacking on Portuguese preschool teachers’ beliefs, priorities, and practices specifically related to the support of peer relations. This study was developed in the scope of the project Enhancing peer relationships: Preschool teachers’ ideas and practices. One of its goals is to understand Portuguese preschool teacher's ideas about what is important in supporting peer interactions, relationships, and group membership, for children with and without disabilities. To pursue this goal Q methodology was applied. We developed a Q sample consisting of 74 items that reflect a range of possible interventions targeted at enhancing social inclusion and peer interactions and relationships. The P sample was composed by 43 preschool teachers and their individual Q sorts were subjected to principal components analyses (PCA) followed by varimax rotation. A seven-component solution, explaining 55.5% of the variance, was considered the starting point for the decision-making process on the number of components to be considered as the best solution. Both statistical and conceptual criteria are being used to determine the final number of viewpoints. This presentation describes this decision-making process and the results will be discussed according to their implications for the global project