https://heatherfblog.wordpress.com/2015 ... estioning/
A truism that needs questioning.
July 9, 2015 Character education, Early years, Teaching methods
A truism that needs questioning: The importance of ‘high quality’ preschool education.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that young children, especially those not in possession of a good middle class upbringing, must be in need of ‘high quality preschool provision’. The phrase is on every politician’s lips. David Cameron is clear about this. Nicky Morgan, Tristram Hunt and Liz Kendall are sure it will create a skilled workforce of the future and Barack Obama has pumped countless dollars into ‘high quality’ preschool programmes in the belief that research shows that ‘high quality’ provision is the key to better life outcomes.
You might be surprised to learn ‘high quality’ has a very specific meaning that goes well beyond the common sense idea that some preschools must be better run than others. The National Audit Office commissioned a summary of the evidence on the impact of early years’ provision in which they explained that “In pre-school education (3+ years), quality is most often associated with the concept of developmentally appropriate practice…