Quality of Pre-school Learning Environment in Palestine

Al-Azkiyaa - Jurnal Antarabangsa Bahasa dan Pendidikan

Quality learning environment of early childhood setting has long been debated and discussed, foreseeing the impact on children’s physical, cognitive, emotional and social outcomes. The widespread usage of global quality measures such as the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Revised (ECERS-R) has led to a new perspective of assessing the quality. Therefore, this paper focuses on an evaluation on quality learning environment of an Islamic-based child care and education centre using four subscales of ECERS-R, namely space and furnishings, personal care routines, language reasoning and programme structure. The findings indicate that the daily planning and implementation of activities do reflect the quality. To a certain extent, by using ECERS-R as a reference, it was noted that the subscales of language reasoning and programme structure are closely followed, even though there is a gap in terms of some items in space and furnishings and personal care routines. In addition, there a...

Recent literature has emphasized the importance of early childhood education and its impact on human development and later life outcomes. It is described to be the fundamental stage in developing cognitive, social, emotional and psychomotor skills. Having good foundation leads to huge future benefits, however, researchers argue the benefits of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) highly depend on quality provided. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the countries that was alerted of the need to develop Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) for its high return as investment in human capital. Hence was the need for the policy of " providing quality in the early childhood education and care ". Exploratory thematic analysis method was used to examine the case of ECEC in two kindergarten schools in Dubai. Based on interviews with schools principals and analysis of documents like Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) inspection reports over three years, it was concluded that there is good progress in terms of care, health and safety, while teaching quality and learning outcomes still need development.

2014

Using ecological systems theory as a framework, to study in the early childhood education field there should be an understanding of links between structural indicators of quality and children's development. There is a need to understand the mechanisms by which structural quality affects process quality, which requires examining what actually happens in the early childhood education care centers. Due to the recognition of the significance of early childhood years worldwide, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of early childhood education programs in Turkey. However, the increase in the quantity of such programs brings the question of quality. As in every system in which early childhood education and care can be considered as one, for the continuous improvement, quality characteristics of these centers should be continuously licensed and inspected by the supervisor institutions. More emphasis should be given to the educational and developmental evaluation of the children enrolled in the centers, to understand the effect of the education and care received from the center. In terms of quality, structural factors are easier to observe than process factors and thus, easier to measure and regulate, but they are considered to impact the desired outcomes for children. This study aims to understand the structural quality of these centers based on the Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Provider Survey -Organized Facility (Group Setting) Section I: Director Questionnaire and section II: Teacher / Caregiver Questionnaire developed for the International Association for the Evaluation of the Educational Achievement (IEA) Preprimary Project, Phase 2 are administered as the data collection tool and descriptive analysis is conducted to the results of self-reported questionnaire from 55 early childhood education centers.

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2009

This research was studied with survey model in order to examine pre-school educational environments in respect of some variables. Sample of study consisted of preschool with in the government primary schools, autonomous preschools, preschool with in the private primary schools and private preschools. Findings of research revealed that school type, number of children in classroom, number of floors in building and garden situation influence pre-school educational environments

2015

In Pakistan, the focus of educators and policy makers has been primarily limited to curricular planning and policy making, with little or no attention given to the worldwide changing trend in early childhood education; the construction of a stimulating learning environment, and its subsequent influence on the performance of a child. The present study was aimed at assessing the quality of the offered learning environment in private early childhood education centers of Lahore, with the globally accepted tool for quality assessment of classroom environments, the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R). A non-probability convenience sampling method was used, primarily due to willingness to participate of private institutes offering early childhood education services for children aged between 3-5 years. From the findings it was concluded that while there is a varying range in quality of available learning environments, an overall low quality is under practice by majority schools. In the light of these findings, implications for further research to stress the overwhelming impact of learning environments on child performance are discussed, along with the need for policy makers and educators to re-think and re-design the current curriculum and practices of early childhood education accordingly.

2008

By TAMADER JASSIM AL-THANI This study investigated and compared the quality and nature of Arabic and English speaking preschools' curricula in the State of Qatar. To the researcher's knowledge, this is the first study to investigate, compare and assess the preschool curricula currently provided in the State of Qatar. Four major research tools were used including structured teacher's questionnaire, structured teachers' interviews, structured classroom observations and structured mother's questionnaire. The teachers' questionnaire sample consisted of 107 teachers, 81 Arabic school teachers and 26 English school teachers. The classroom observations sample consisted of 17 preschools, 9 Arabic speaking schools and 8 English speaking schools. Teachers' interviews sample consisted of 18 Arabic speaking preschool teachers and 16 English speaking preschool teachers. The mother's questionnaire sample consisted of 50 mothers randomly selected from 17 Arabic speaking schools. Study findings included the following: (1) the English preschools had many advantages over the Arabic preschools in terms of all the seven domains of the teacher's questionnaire. (2) the Arabic speaking preschools are of lower quality in terms of all domains of the teacher's interview. These include: teachers' qualifications, experience, duties, wages, teacher-child ratio, type of curriculum, teaching approaches,

The purpose of this research was to assess the quality of early childhood care and education (ECCE) environment in Somali Regional State of Ethiopia. In the study, health, nutrition, personal care routine, protective care and safety, organization and management philosophy of preschool centres, and children's experience and learning opportunities in preschool centres were examined. For the study, 37 preschool centres were selected from five Zones of the Somali Regional State from which 44 preschool teachers, 10 school principals and five Zonal level ECCE focal persons participated in the study. Questionnaire, interview, and an observation guide were used to collect data. The collected data was analyzed through one-sample t-test. The findings of the study indicated statistically significant differences between expected means and observed means of health, nutrition, personal care routine, protective care and safety practice, organization and management philosophy of preschool centres, and children's experience and learning opportunities in preschool centres. Finally, based on the findings, conclusions and recommendations were drawn.

2017

As the importance attached to preschool education has increased in recent years, researchers have begun to discuss the quality of educational and care services. This study aims to show the views of assistant teachers working at preschool educational institutions concerning quality, investigate their influence on quality, and reveal the effect of quality on education. The study was conducted in Eskişehir, Turkey, in the 2014–2015 academic year. It was conducted with assistant teachers in classrooms in two different schools. Six teachers and six assistant teachers took part in the study. The survey model and the phenomenological design, which is a qualitative research method and design, were employed. The Teacher Interview Form and the Assistant Teacher Interview Form developed by the researchers were used for collecting data. Data were gathered through interviews which lasted almost 40 mins (each interview) on predetermined dates. The research data were analysed via QSR-Nvivo 8. Both teachers and assistant teachers stated that the quality of preschool education can be improved not only by upgrading the physical condition of schools but also by taking into consideration all of children’s developmental areas. Based on the interviews with the teachers concerning the influence of assistant teachers on the quality of education, it was concluded that assistant teachers can contribute to improving the quality. As assistant teachers work both inside and outside of classrooms, teachers have less workload and more chances to deal with students.