An investigation into the object grouping behaviour of young children from a low socio-economic background

Bibliography: leaves 159-171.Recent studies of object grouping in infants and preschool children by Sugarman (1983) suggest that they are capable of conceptualising inter-relationships between objects - a view which differs from accounts of classification by Inhelder and Piaget (1964) and Vygotsky (1962). These studies have concentrated on Western middle-class subjects. This study investigated the development of conceptual organisation seen in the grouping of sets of objects by young children, classified as "Coloured", from a low socio-economic background. A second focus of the study was on the effect of specific task variables on object grouping behaviour. Thirty-one low income subjects divided into four age groups - 16-24, 25-30, 31-36 and 37-42 months, were given six different free sorting tasks. Each involved the presentation of a scrambled array of eight objects to be divided into two classes. In one task the objects could be classified by bi-dimensional criteria, in the others by a single criterion. Subjects' spontaneous manipulations of the objects were measured in three ways - temporal grouping, spatial grouping and grouping procedure. Verbal references to class relations were also coded. For measures of temporal and spatial grouping, frequency of consistent one- and two-class groupings and inclusiveness of constructions were noted. Grouping procedure provided a measure of whether or not both classes were simultaneously considered. An additional two tasks designed to elicit simultaneous consideration of both classes were also administered to each subject. The data was analysed for differential age and task effects on grouping. The results indicate that performance on these tasks showed the same general developmental trends and task effects as those found in recent studies of middle-class children for both unidimensional and bidimensional groupings, thus confirming Sugarman's observations and suggesting a universal process of conceptual development. However, there was some evidence of a slower rate of development and levels of verbalisation were lower than those observed in studies of middle-class children. Subjects in this study could conceptually inter-relate objects shown both in their bidimensional groupings and in mixed order grouping procedure, but the latter was evident in elicited groupings and not in spontaneous play. These differences are discussed in relation to performance variables such as response set

Stepping up to the challenge: prioritising essential services for young children

Policy brief accompanying the South African Child Gauge 2013, published by the Children's Institute, UCT

Conceptualising quality early childhood education:Learning from young children in Brazil and South Africa through creative and play-based methods

Early childhood has increasingly been acknowledged as a vital time for all children. Inclusive and quality education is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with the further specification that all children have access to quality pre-primary education. As early childhood education (ECE) has expanded worldwide, so have concerns about the quality of ECE provision, including whether its pedagogy is culturally meaningful and contextually appropriate. While these issues are much debated in themselves, often missing is a key stakeholder group for such discussions: young children. Young children have critical insights and perspectives of key importance for ensuring quality ECE. This article addresses how quality ECE can be conceptualised, through reflections on creative and play-based methods with young children, used in a cross-national project titled Safe Inclusive Participative Pedagogy. The article draws on community case studies undertake by two of the country teams in Brazil and South Africa. In contexts where children's participation is not necessarily familiar in ECE settings nor understood by key stakeholders, the fieldwork shows that children can express their views and experiences through using creative and play-based methods. We argue that these methods can become part of a critical pedagogy through ECE settings, where ECE practitioners, children and other key stakeholders engage in ongoing, challenging and transformative dialogue. In turn, critical pedagogy has the potential to strengthen local practices, challenge top-down approach, and foster quality safe, inclusive, participative early years education.</p

Early childhood education in differing contexts:The impact of the COVID-19 global health pandemic within four countries

The recent Covid‐19 global health pandemic has negatively affected the political and economic development of communities around the world. This article shares the lessons from our multi‐country project Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts (UKRI GCRF) on how children in communities in Brazil, Eswatini, South Africa, and Scotland have experienced the effects of the pandemic. This article benefits from having co‐authors from various countries, bringing their own located knowledge to considerations of children’s rights and early childhood education in the wake of the pandemic. The authors discuss different perspectives on children’s human rights within historical, social, and cultural contexts and, by doing so, will discuss how the global pandemic has placed a spotlight on the previous inequalities within early years education and how the disparity of those with capital (economic and social) have led to an even greater disproportion of children needing health and educational support

Exploring Culture, Play, and Early Childhood Education Practice in African Contexts

In Africa, as in many other parts of the non-Western world, Western-style schooling has become the institutionalized medium of organized or formal education since the era of colonization. The ubiquity of Western-style schooling in Africa is problematic when measured by the criteria that education must 1) be locally relevant and 2) transmit a society\u27s enduring values and best traditions across generations. Today, the alienating effects of schooling in Africa are a major theme in discourse on education. Cole has remarked on the large amounts of time children spend in formal schools \u27where their activity is separated from the daily life of the rest of the community\u27 (2005: 195). Serpell (2005) has lamented the absence of a connection between the Western theories that inform teaching and learning in African classrooms and the perspectives and everyday life circumstances and experiences of students, teachers, and parents in their local contexts. In the area of early childhood development (ECD), Nsamenang (2008: 142) has expressed the concern that \u27western ECD services initiate Africa\u27s children into an educational process by which children . . . increasingly gain unfamiliar knowledge and skills but sink disturbingly into alienation and ignorance of their cultural circumstances.\u2

Getting the basics right: an essential package of services and support for ECD

Morehead State Trail Blazer published on May 11, 1994.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/trail_blazer/2462/thumbnail.jp

Using Data Tools and Systems to Drive Change in Early Childhood Education for Disadvantaged Children in South Africa

In line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.2, South Africa’s National Development Plan commits to providing high-quality early childhood education to all children by 2030 to drive improved child outcomes. Prior to 2016, South Africa lacked reliable, locally standardised, valid, and cross-culturally fair assessment tools for measuring preschool quality and child outcomes, suitable for use at scale within a resource-constrained context. In this paper we detail the development and evolution of a suite of early learning measurement (ELOM) tools designed to address this measurement gap. The development process included reviews of literature and other relevant assessment tools; a review of local curriculum standards and expected child outcomes; extensive consultation with government officials, child development experts, and early learning practitioners, iterative user testing; and assessment of linguistic, cultural, functional, and metric equivalence across all 11 official South African languages. To support use of the ELOM tools at scale, and by users with varying levels of research expertise, administration is digitised and embedded within an end-to-end data value chain. ELOM data collected since 2016 quantify the striking socio-economic gradient in early childhood development in South Africa, demonstrate the relationship between physical stunting, socio-emotional functioning and learning outcomes, and provide evidence of the positive impact of high-quality early learning programmes on preschool child outcomes. To promote secondary analyses, data from multiple studies are regularly collated into a shared dataset, which is made open access via an online data portal. We describe the services and support that make up the ELOM data value chain, noting several key challenges and enablers of data-driven change within this context. These include deep technical expertise within a multidisciplinary and collaborative team, patient and flexible capital from mission-aligned investors, a fit-for-purpose institutional home, the appropriate use of technology, a user-centred approach to development and testing, sensitivity to children’s diverse linguistic and socio-economic circumstances, careful consideration of requirements for scale, appropriate training and support for a non-professional assessor base, and a commitment to ongoing learning and continuous enhancement. Practical examples are provided of ways in which the ELOM tools and data are used for programme monitoring and enhancement purposes, to evaluate the relative effectiveness of early learning interventions, to motivate for greater budget and inform more effective resource allocation, to support the development of enabling Government systems, and to track progress towards the attainment of national and global development goals. We share lessons learnt during the development of the tools and discuss the factors that have driven their uptake in South Africa