https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(11)60555-2.pdf

Inequality in early childhood: risk and protective factors for early child development

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(11)60889-1.pdf

Strategies for reducing inequalities and improving developmental outcomes for young children in low-income and middle-income countries

Early educational intervention has been proposed to partially offset the impacts of poverty and inadequate learning environments on child development and school success. A broad range of early educational interventions are found to produce meaningful, lasting effects on cognitive, social, and schooling outcomes. However, all interventions are not equally effective. Two major U.S. programs perform relatively poorly. Research provides some guidance regarding the features of highly effective programs, but much remains to be learned. New experimental studies of key program features would have a high payoff.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/333/6045/975.full.pdf

Effectiveness of Early Educational Intervention

EE1290 Positive Behaviour Guidance This course provides a foundation for understanding and guiding children's behaviour. Students will learn the principles of guidance and strategies needed to guide behaviour in positive ways. The focus will be on understanding behaviour and implementing techniques that foster positive relationships and self-esteem, and create opportunities for learning. Major Topics: Introduction to child guidance Influence of adult variables Developmentally appropriate practice for guidance Characteristics of children Self-development Communication as the basis for positive guidance Observation Indirect guidance of behaviour Direct guidance of behaviour

幼兒教育（Early Childhood Education）

Among 440 early childhood teachers, half were randomly assigned to take a 14-week course on effective teacher-child interactions. This course used the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) as the basis to organize, describe, and demonstrate effective teacher-child interactions. Compared to teachers in a control condition, those exposed to the course reported more intentional teaching beliefs and demonstrated greater knowledge of and skills in detecting effective interactions. Furthermore, teachers who took the course were observed to demonstrate more effective emotional and instructional interactions. The course was equally effective across teachers with less than an associate’s degree as well as those with advanced degrees. Results have implications for efforts to improve the quality of early childhood programs through the higher education system.

/pdf/a-course-on-effective-teacher-child-interactions-effects-on-13pjmfv4xw.pdf

A Course on Effective Teacher-Child Interactions Effects on Teacher Beliefs, Knowledge, and Observed Practice

Early childhood education is at the nexus of basic developmental science, policy research and analysis, and the applied disciplines of education and prevention science. The field has become one of the most vibrant areas of scientific activity in terms of the connections among scientific advances and theory, program design, policy, and classroom practices. But despite the potential links between research and evaluation on the one hand and program development, practices, and public policy on the other, there are too many key areas in which public policy and practice are not well aligned with the knowledge base. These misalignments, as well as a host of questions emerging from new areas of scientific development (e.g., connections between physiological or genetic processes and behavioral development) and practice-based realities (e.g., the need for focused, intensive, and effective professional development of teachers), point to areas in which new research is needed. The aim of this monograph is to provide an analysis of the research evidence in four major domains of work in early childhood education, identifying points at which evidence is not well aligned with public policy or practice, and a set of questions to guide the next wave of research in this rapidly growing field. Overall features of the preschool landscape, including those tightly regulated by policy (such as entry age or eligibility) and those more directly related to child outcomes (such as quality of classroom interactions), are stunningly variable across settings and across time. Reasonable evidence suggests that these features also vary as a function of family background factors. The resulting picture is one of too many children and families falling through too many cracks and seams at too many levels. Thus, even in a policy and program development environment in which early education is valued and prominent and recognition of the need to close gaps and seal seams is growing, the realities point to a fragile and vulnerable nonsystem through which many of our most fragile and vulnerable citizens pass. Demographic shifts will place tremendous pressure on early education and child care in the United States in the coming decades—a trend that is well under way in many states. The consequences for preschool program eligibility and enrollment, available slots, preparation and support of staff, and program resources such as curricula are enormous. It is abundantly evident that the features of the preschool landscape—connections among child care, preschool, and schools; links between families and the adults who teach their children; capacities of the ‘‘system’’ for fostering positive development in children who increasingly vary by race, culture, language, and economic background—will undergo tremendous strain. The pressures imposed on this context and these relationships by the sheer variability present in the children and families will itself be a considerable threat to the viability of the capacity of preschool to promote positive developmental change. Compelling evidence from well-controlled research shows that preschool programs have lasting positive effects on young children’s cognitive and social development. The evidence comes from studies of child care, Head Start, and public school programs using a wide range of research methods, including experiments. Lasting positive impacts have been found for large-scale public programs as well as for intensive programs implemented on a small scale, but even some of the intensive small-scale interventions were public school programs. Some evidence has shown negative effects on social behavior, but the negative effects have not been confirmed by experimental studies. Cost–benefit analyses have shown that

/pdf/the-effects-of-preschool-education-what-we-know-how-public-51ujvd4av9.pdf

The Effects of Preschool Education What We Know, How Public Policy Is or Is Not Aligned With the Evidence Base, and What We Need to Know

As researchers have focused on better understanding those circumstances under which home visiting can lead to positive effects on parent and child outcomes, there has been growing interest in examining variation in the experiences of families within these programs, including the quality of the helping relationships between home visitors and parents. The current study examined how participating mothers perceive the helping relationship, using information collected from the Early Head Start National Research and Evaluation Project. Results suggest that although maternal report of the helping relationship is biased towards positive ratings, it remains a significant predictor of program participation, over and above general program satisfaction. Implications for measurement development and program interventions are discussed.

The helping relationship and program participation in early childhood home visiting

Part I: What We Did and Who We Are Transition The Background: Early Head Start History and an Introduction to the Mothers Theoretical Perspectives and Research Method Part II: Andreya: An In-Depth Case Study Preface to "Andreya" and The Cast of Characters Up to Age 15 Becoming a Mother Mother of Two After Moving Out Part III: Family and Romantic Relationships Mothers with their Parents Matters of the Heart: Romantic Relationships Raising Children Young Fathers in Mothers' and Children's Lives Part IV: Beyond the Family Neighbors and Friends Helping Children and Families: Home Visitor Roles and Dilemmas Child Care Arrangements: Options and Preferences Violence Part V: Implications Implications for Researchers, Practitioners, and Policymakers Commentaries Research voice Practitioner Policy voice

Kathy R. Thornburg

Papers

The Effects of Preschool Education What We Know, How Public Policy Is or Is Not Aligned With the Evidence Base, and What We Need to Know

The helping relationship and program participation in early childhood home visiting

Keepin' on : the everyday struggles of young families in poverty