Sílvia Barros

Quality of Early Childhood Education Environments: Discussion on the Concept of Quality and Future Perspectives

This chapter focuses on the quality of early childhood education and care services. The concept of quality, its basic features, and its operationalization are discussed in detail. The chapter also deals with the various critiques regarding the concept of quality. It offers arguments, on one hand, for the use of normative development as the unique criterion to define and evaluate the impact of quality characteristics and, on the other hand, for the use of a limited ecological perspective on human development as a framework for study quality. The chapter concludes with a brief mention of future perspectives about quality research and highlights the need for more effective methods to translate research findings into practice.

The quality of caregiver–child interactions in infant classrooms in Portugal: the role of caregiver education

Abstract Recent research has shown that caregiver education and training can be important in determining levels of quality in early childhood, but has mainly considered the education and training of the lead teacher. In infant child care, however, classrooms have more than one caregiver with varying levels of education and in Portugal it is less common to have a qualified teacher exclusively assigned to infant classrooms. This study examines the quality of caregiver–child interactions in infant classrooms and its association with caregiver qualifications and training, specifically the level of pre-service education and in-service training of the lead caregiver, whether she is exclusively assigned to an infant classroom or to more classrooms, and the pre-service education of the multiple caregivers in the classroom. Participants were 90 infant classrooms from Porto, Portugal. The CLASS–Infant was used to measure quality of caregiver–infant interactions. Classrooms with one lead caregiver holding at least a bachelor’s degree, whether exclusively assigned to the infant classroom or not, showed higher levels of quality. Few effects were found for in-service training. Results suggest that lead teachers with pre-service education in early childhood are likely to play an important role not only directly by interacting with children but also indirectly through team work.

Professional Development and Impact of the Early Change Project: Reflections from the Portuguese Example

This chapter focuses on the reflections and feedback from the implementation of the Early Change project in Portugal. More specifically, it discusses the particular way in which the project was implemented in Portugal, presents some experiences of the early childhood teachers who used the observational rating scales and the way that it influenced their practices. Further, it discusses the impact the use of observational rating scales had on two levels—on the professional development of the early childhood teachers and on the educational policies implemented in the educational districts that were partners in the Early Change project.

Predictors of parent-teacher communication during infant transition to childcare in Portugal

ABSTRACT Although literature reports associations between parent-teacher communication and childcare quality, little is known about how such communications are related to family, child and childcare characteristics. This study examines whether child, family and childcare experience characteristics predict the level of parent-teacher communication, and differences between parents’ and teachers’ reports of communication. Participants were mothers of 90 infants and their teachers in childcare in Portugal. Results show that both parents and teachers report higher levels of communication in higher-quality programmes. Teachers reported more frequent communication than parents. Teachers, but not parents, reported more frequent communication when children spent fewer hours in childcare. Discussion highlights the relevance of monitoring the quality of childcare contexts, especially in early ages, and to increase parent-teacher communication when children spend more time in childcare. The importance of promoting high-quality childcare and accounting for variables at the mesosystemic level of development in teacher training are also discussed.

Sensos-e: the potential and challenges of a multimedia journal of research in education

Aiming at analyzing the characteristics and affordances of a multimedia ePublication, in this paper, the authors present the Sensos-e, a scholarly multimedia journal of research in education. The published papers are analyzed, using a set of criteria to assess the potentialities and challenges of the multimedia dimension of the journal. A case study on the added value of a video in one specific Sensos-e paper is also presented to analyze, assess and illustrate the communication and educational potentialities of the journals multimedia dimension. Based on the developed analysis, the authors outline the challenges of the future of the Sensos-e.