Collette Tayler

Trends in construction of transition to school in three western regions, 1990–2004

The construct of school readiness that focuses on children’s maturation and homogeneity of their attainment at school entry has been challenged by recent research. This research indicates that there are difficulties in assessing young children’s abilities, and there are limitations to the concomitant practice of retention. These challenges have prompted attempts to reconceptualize entry to school as a process of transition. However, transition has variously been conceptualized as: a set of teacher practices in a time‐limited period around school entry; a process of establishing continuity from home to school; and a multi‐layered, multi‐year experience. An analysis of the academic literature from 1990 to 2004 in the USA, Australia/New Zealand and Europe was undertaken to identify trends in the conceptualization of transition to school. The analysis suggests a trend towards more complex understandings of transition emphasizing continuity of children’s experience, partnership with stakeholders, and system coherence across extended time periods. However, more limited constructions persist in the academic literature, particularly in the USA and Australian/New Zealand.

Masterly preparation: embedding clinical practice in a graduate pre-service teacher education programme

This paper describes the implementation of the Master of Teaching degree which was introduced at the University of Melbourne in 2008. The programme aims to produce a new generation of teachers (early years, primary and secondary) who are interventionist practitioners, with high-level analytic skills and capable of using data and evidence to identify and address the learning needs of individual learners. The programme marks a fundamental change to the way in which teachers have traditionally been prepared in the University of Melbourne and builds a strong link between theory and practice. This linking occurs within a new partnership model with selected schools. The model was influenced by the Teachers for a New Era programme in the USA and by the clinical background of senior faculty. The programme sees teaching as a clinical-practice profession such as is found in many allied health professions; this understanding is also embraced by the university’s partnership schools. These schools are used as clinical sites, actively involving their best teachers in the clinical training component. These teachers are recognised as members of the university and are highly skilled professionals who are capable of interventionist teaching and who use appropriate assessment tools to inform their teaching of individual children.

Accounting for Quality in Australian Childcare: A Dilemma for Policymakers.

This paper examines Australian policy on quality for early childhood education and care (ECEC). It investigates the existing national quality assurance system, Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) and its application in childcare centres. However, Australia’s recently elected federal government has shown enormous interest in improving quality in ECEC with implications for policy change. While international research emphasises the importance of process quality Australian policy and practice has focused on structural quality. Further, ambiguity exists in defining quality in ECEC exacerbated by a dearth of Australian research. Five limitations of the current structural‐based QIAS were identified based on international and national research. The paper argues for an urgent need to address the limitations of policy on quality childcare which should be driven by evidence‐based process quality.

Listening to Children: A study of child and family services

This paper reports on child data generated in a pilot project of the ACCESS Study of Child and Family Services , an investigation of the degree to which child and family services meet user needs within local communities. Based on theoretical perspectives drawn from social capital theories, the pilot study was undertaken by a partnership of local early childhood services within the precinct of Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane (Australia) and included two childcare centres, two kindergartens/ preschools, one playgroup and one primary school. Seventy-six children aged 3-8 years were asked, in informal conversations with their caregivers, to comment on their experiences in the service and to consider possible advice they might give to children coming into the service. Theoretical perspectives from the sociology of childhood are used to examine childrens accounts of their lived experience in early childhood services.

Quality and Early Childhood Education and Care: A Policy Initiative for the 21st Century

The expectation of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is that higher quality inputs will produce higher quality outcomes for children. There are many ways that outcomes may be expressed and measured, though current procedures emphasize threshold quality. However, threshold quality is essentially an entry-level concept — once the entry requirements are met, quality is assumed to have been attained and subsequently sustained. A more sophisticated, comprehensive procedure is needed. For more than a decade ECEC policy in Australia has been generally weak, fragmented and dominated by matters related to quantity (market issues) rather than quality (pedagogical issues), despite the rhetoric. What should be measured to identify quality in ECEC settings? What should a quality directed ECEC policy emphasize? This paper addresses significant issues in determining and measuring quality for a comprehensive ECEC policy and the links to a rating system in Australia.

Challenging partnerships in Australian early childhood education

Partnerships that form to advance early childhood education are influenced by history and purpose. They are enacted in diverse social, cultural, economic, geographic and educational contexts. Using the theme of ‘strong and equal partnership’ between family and school, and taking a theoretical standpoint that values social cohesion and the agency of the child, this paper investigates ways in which partnership developed in three different Australian contexts. Particular early childhood programs in Queensland and Western Australia, and a literacy support program in New South Wales fostered education partnerships between parents and teachers, and among professionals, as a key component of effective curriculum. The prevailing management approaches and conceptions of power in the contexts enabled partnerships to be enacted in different ways. Reflection on the program management of curriculum work may be valuable in settings where players are working to achieve a cohesive approach to early education, especially an approach that foregrounds the agency of the child.

Learning in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care Settings: Changing Professional Practice.

For the first time across Australia, early education and care services are subject to a single, national set of regulations and standards governing the quality of provision. Concurrently, a set of outcomes for all children aged from birth to 5 years and a ranking system to make transparent the performance of programmes have been developed. This article outlines a Victorian project to address this major policy change through the establishment of early childhood integrated professional learning communities. Early findings have implications for effective professional practice and the pre-service preparation of early childhood specialists who implement learning programmes for young children.

Variations in the Availability and Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care by Socioeconomic Status of Neighborhoods

Abstract Research Findings: This article provides Australian evidence of the availability and quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in low–socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods. There is less availability of ECEC in low-SES areas in Australia, and these programs provide a lower average quality of care than in more advantaged neighborhoods. Families tend to travel short distances to ECEC programs (Mdn = 2.9 km), and therefore families in low-SES areas are limited in the programs they can choose or are faced with higher transport costs than families in more advantaged neighborhoods. This study uses government licensing data from a population of 6,937 ECEC services together with a sample of 2,494 children enrolled in 421 ECEC classrooms. Practice or Policy: Established measures of the local ECEC market tend to overestimate its size and in turn the availability of ECEC. Measures of ECEC market density should be tested for sensitivity to reductions in size. SES gradients are observed within local ECEC markets, meaning that attempts to lift supply and quality in low-SES areas require specific and targeted policy intervention.

Towards inclusion: provision for diversity in the transition to school

Policies of inclusion challenge the construct of readiness and require schools to prepare for the diversity of children as they transition to school. However, there is limited empirical evidence concerning how this challenge is met. This paper presents two Australian studies that investigate inclusive practices in the transition to school. Study 1 examined the predictors of child outcomes across a sample of 1831 children in 39 schools. The results indicate that both quantity and quality of programme provision influenced outcomes and that programme effects were particularly potent for children with diverse abilities and backgrounds. Study 2 focuses on pedagogy in three of the schools to highlight how this provision can be achieved. Results show that provisions were reactive, that saliency of childrens needs directed school practices and that professional knowledge impacted on measures of quality. Inclusive processes accounting for both child progress and broader family and teaching influences are necessary for improved transition to school.

Children’s mathematical and verbal competence in different early education and care programmes in Australia

This study investigated the relationship between children’s attendance at different types of early childhood education and care programmes and their mathematical and verbal skills. Analyses of data from 1314 children participating in an Australian longitudinal study, the E4Kids project, revealed no relationship between children’s verbal ability and the early childhood education and care programme attended, but mathematics results tell a different story. At the first measurement, children who consistently attended only informal care outperformed children who either consistently attended a formal early childhood education and care service type or attended a mix of formal and informal care. The development of mathematical and verbal competencies between first and second measurements, 1 year later, did not differ between children who attended different types of early childhood education and care. Early childhood educators in Australia are required to provide programmes that incorporate both mathematical concepts and language development. However, many early childhood educators describe uncertainty about how to support children’s mathematical learning. Further professional development and support in this area is necessary.