Longitudinal studies as a part of monitoring early childhood

Prof. Dr. Yvonne Anders
Freie Universität Berlin
Department of Education and Psychology
Early Childhood Education
Longitudinal studies as a part of
monitoring early childhood
education and care in Germany
Yvonne Anders
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
November 17th, ICEC conference, Berlin
This presentation
1 The German situation
2 Methodological characteristics of longitudinal studies
3 Selected longitudinal studies on ECEC effects in Germany
4 Discussion
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The German situation
ECEC services are located within the child and youth welfare
sector for all children before enrollment into primary school
Decentralized system
Socio-pedagogic tradition
Situation-oriented, child-centred pedagogy with a special focus
on the promotion of the socio-emotional development of the
children
Educational plans / curricular frameworks have been implemented
in all federal states since 2007
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The German situation
Strong influences of social and cultural origin on school
achievements and school careers in Germany (e.g Levels et al.,
2008; Schwippert et al., 2003)
Attention for the potential in promoting early academic skills has
risen, especially with regard to compensate for disadvantages of
children how grow up in low SES families or have an immigration
background
High quality is most important to achieve beneficial effects
But: The pedagogical quality of ECEC in Germany is at average
low to moderate (Roßbach, 2005; Kuger & Kluczniok, 2008; Tietze
et al., 2013; Tietze, Roßbach, & Grenner, 2005)
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The German situation
Several initiatives that aim at improving the quality of early
childhood education and care in Germany were launched
At the same time: Growing research interest in ECEC, especially
with regard to the effects on children‘s development
What is the potential role of longitudinal studies as part of
monitoring and the development of quality of early childhood
education and care in Germany?
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What is a longitudinal study?
Cross-sectional studies compare different population groups at a
single point in time
Longitudinal studies collect data for the same subjects
repeatedly over a period of time
Longitudinal research projects can extend over years or even
decades
Longitudinal studies allow researchers to study changes over time
at the group and at the individual level
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Challenges of empirical studies in the area of
ECEC
In Germany: freedom of individual settings in implementing
education
what is happening in the centers is less
predictable than in formal schooling
Study designs need to take account of variation
Measurement of quantity and quality of ECEC
Measurement of children‘s skills and competencies, especially at
very young ages!
Comprehensive analytical frameworks considering child, family and
preschool setting are necessary
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Current large studies on the nature and effects
of ECEC in Germany
SOEP - Socioeconomic panel study
(German Institute of Economic Research, Berlin)
BIKS – Educational Processes, Competence Development and the
Formation of Selection Decisions at Pre- and Primary School Age
(University of Bamberg)
NEPS – National Educational Panel Study
(University of Bamberg + partner throughout Germany)
Evaluation of the National Initiative „Schwerpunkt-Kitas
Sprache & Integration“
(University of Bamberg, Freie Universität Berlin, PädQUIS gGmbH)
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SOEP (1)
Annual household panel study representative for the population in
Germany
Started in 1984
Currently: about 20,000 respondents from 11,000 households
Extension samples exist, e.g. ‘Familien in Deutschland’ Study (FiD,
Families in Germany).
FiD is a dataset where families with young children and those with
special needs (low income, lone parents, and large families) have
been surveyed since 2010.
All respondents over age 16 in each household are interviewed on
employment, income, childbirths, relationships, time use,
personality, attitudes, health and subjective wellbeing.
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SOEP (2)
Since 2003, all mothers of newborn children are interviewed to
obtain information on children’s health, cognitive and non-cognitive
development, temperament, child care arrangements, and
maternal wellbeing
Selected findings
Childcare choices are correlated with mothers’ personality (Bjerre,
Peter, & Spieß, 2011)
Older children and children from advantageous backgrounds are
the first to be sent to center-based care. These children have the
lowest returns from attending child care (Felfe & Lalive, 2014)
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SOEP (3)
Selected findings
Structural quality of ECEC may affect mothers’ decision to go back
to work (Schober & Spieß, 2014)
Children who attend childcare do better in school (Spieß &
Buechner, 2009)
Limitations
SOEP has only very limited information on the nature and quality
of ECEC. Interpretation of previous findings needs to consider this
limitation
But: new project adds data on preschool quality
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Prof. Dr. Yvonne Anders
Freie Universität Berlin
Department of Education and Psychology
Early Childhood Education
Educational Processes, Competence
Development and the Formation of
Selection Decisions at Pre- and Primary
School Age
Principal investigators: Cordula Artelt, Peter Blossfeld, Gabriele
Faust, Hans-Günther Rossbach, Sabine Weinert
Prof. Dr. Yvonne Anders
Freie Universität Berlin
Department of Education and Psychology
Early Childhood Education
“Structure and Impact of Quality
in Family and Institutional Settings
at Pre- and Primary School Age”
BiKS Project 2 / 3
Principal investigators:
Hans-Günther Roßbach, Sabine Weinert
Research background and main concerns
Family Setting
Global stimulation
DomainDomain-specific stimulation
Global stimulation
DomainDomain-specific stimulation
Institutional Setting
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Research questions
Identifying…
…stability and changes of early learning environments
…long term effects of learning environments
…interaction effects of learning environments
…thresholds in quality
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Design
547 children and families, who visited 97 preschool centres in
Bavaria and Hesse
Start: first year of preschool experience (age 3)
Yearly comprehensive assessements of
- children‘s development,
- home learning environment and
- preschool quality
- instructional quality in primary school
Mixed-methods design
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Concept of educational quality
Learning environments
Processes
e.g. SES of family, group
or class size in pre- and
primary school
Educational beliefs
e.g. perception of children,
educational goals and
orientations
e.g. parent-child interaction,
teacher child interaction,
activities
Global
aspects
e.g.
supportive
climate
Domain –
specific
aspects
e.g. literacy,
numeracy
Contextual characteristics
Child development
e.g. coping strategies
in every day life,
social skills,
cognitive development
Tietze, Roßbach & Grenner (2005)
Structures
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Process quality of learning environments:
Summary: Level of quality
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Family
Preschool
Primary
school
Global stimulation
Domain-specific stimulation: literacy
1 = inadequate, 7 = excellent
Domain-specific stimulation: numeracy
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Process quality of learning environments:
Summary: Level of quality and stability
1
Family
2
3
4
5
6
7
low
moderate
low to moderate
Preschool
low
low to moderate
low to moderate
Primary
school
low
low
low
1 = inadequate, 7 = excellent
Global stimulation
Domain-specific stimulation: literacy
Domain-specific stimulation: numeracy
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Quality effects on numeracy development
Model 1
3 years
4 years
y11
y13
5 years
y15
intercept
slope
1 Child and
family
background
factors
age 3
age 4
age 5
2 HLE
3 Structural
preschool
characteristics
4 Process quality
of preschool
Anders et al., 2012
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Findings (1)
Child and family background factors affect initial numeracy skills
and growth
HLE shows an effect on initial numeracy skills -> advantages are
maintained over the preschool years
Aspects of structural quality are related to initial numeracy skills
No effect of ECERS-R, but ECERS-E, especially subscale
mathematics is related to growth (Anders et al., 2012)
The longer children experience high quality, the higher the benefit
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Further Findings
Domain specific quality in mathematics (ECERS-E) has an effect
on development between ages 5-7 (Anders et al., 2013)
Instructional quality of mathematics lessons in primary school has
no effect (Anders et al., 2013)
Effects of preschool quality on development in mathematics show
stable at later ages, impact of instructional quality grows (Lehrl et
al., in preparation)
No effect of preschool quality on development in literacy (Ebert et
al., 2013)
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Compensatory effects for disadvantaged
children?
Family x Preschool
Mathew effect
Preschool x Primary school
Additive effect
Family x Primary school
Compensatory effect
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The Initiative „Early Chances“
Funder: Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens,
Women and Youth
400 million € to expand 4,000 daycare centres throughout
Germany into so-called “core daycare centres for language &
integration”
Additional half-day professional qualified to promote language
learning in the daycare centre: “language expert” focusses
on the promotion of children under three and children from
disadvantaged backgrounds
Additional funding (2,500 € per daycare centre)
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Framework of the Evaluation Study
Principal Investigators:
Hans-Günther Rossbach, Yvonne Anders, Wolfgang Tietze
Design
Longitudinal study: 3 measurement points
Sample:
n=335 (daycare centres), n=1331 families and children
Treatment groups
Core daycare centres with „normal“ support (n=89)
Consultation daycare centres (n=82)
Core daycare centres with additional professional development and
training (verbal*) (n=86)
Control group (n=78)
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3. Framework of the Evaluation Study
Research questions
Changes observed at the level of the daycare centres
Effect(s) of the language expert within the team
Effects on children‘s language and social development
Effects on families
Mixed methods
Online Survey and Questionnaires
Interviews
Observations (daycare centre quality)
Tests
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Findings
High variance between centres in realizing the initiative
„Early Chances“
Implementation difficulties diminish over the course of
the project, implementation depth rises
The depth of implementation of language education
(measured for example by team-meetings, role
acceptance, in-house trainings) has impact on process
quality
Differences in process quality can be explained by
further professional support
Further analyses will link to children‘s development
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Discussion (1)
Longitudinal studies help to understand the early development of
children‘s abilities and competences
The development of social disparities can be identified and
monitored very early in children‘s lives
Existing studies highlight importance of parental activities and the
quality of the home learning environment
The findings can feed into ECEC policy
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Discussion (2)
Existing studies document that global preschool quality in
Germany is moderate, academic quality is low to moderate
Studies document the stabilities of the quality of different learning
environments
Studies underline how structural characteristics (e.g. children with
an immigration background) are associated with process quality
Research provides evidence on the effects of preschool quality on
children‘s development and how learning environments interact in
shaping children‘s development
Findings support domain-specific view on children‘s learning and
development
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Discussion (3)
Studies provide evidence on effective implementation of policy
and professional development
Discussion of innovative quality concepts and measurement of
quality (e.g. via effectiveness) is needed
Different types of longitudinal studies are needed for further
monitoring and quality management: Large-scale studies on
regular ECEC and ist effects on children‘s development,
controlled (quasi-)experimental studies to investigate the effects
of specific pedagogical approaches, longitudinal studies that
attend the implementation of political strategies and initiatives
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References
Anders, Y., Grosse, C., Roßbach, H.-G., Ebert, S. & Weinert, S. (2013). Preschool and primary school influences on the development of
children’s early numeracy skills between the ages of 3 and 7 years in Germany. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 24(2),
195-211.
Anders,Y., Rossbach, H.G., Weinert, S., Ebert, S., Kuger, S., Lehrl, S. & von Maurice, J. (2012). Home and preschool learning
environments and their relations to the development of early numeracy skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27 (2), 231-244.
Bjerre, L., Peter, F., & Spieß, C.K. (2011). Child Care Choices in Western Germany Also Correlated with Mother's Personality. DIW
Economic Bulletin, 5, 20-26.
Ebert, S., Lockl, K., Weinert, S., Anders, Y., Kluczniok, K., & Roßbach, H.-G. (2013). Internal and external influences on children’s
language development during preschool. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 24 (2), 138-154.
Felfe, C. & Lalive, R. (2014). Early Child Care and Child Development? For Whom it Works and Why. IZA DP, Nr. 7100 : IZA, 2012, S. 146.
Kuger, S., & Kluczniok, K. (2008). Prozessqualität im Kindergarten. Konzept, Umsetzung und Befunde. In H.-G. Roßbach & H.-B.
Blossfeld (Hrsg.), Frühpädagogische Förderung in Institutionen (Sonderheft 11 der Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, S. 159–178).
Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Levels, M., Dronkers, J., & Kraaykamp, G. (2008). Immigrant Children’s Educational Achievement in Western Countries: Origin,
Destination, and Community Effects on Mathematical Performance. American Sociological Review, 73(5), 835-853.
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References
Roßbach, H.-G. (2005). Effekte qualitativ guter Betreuung, Bildung und Erziehung im frühen Kindesalter auf Kinder und ihre Familien. In
Sachverständigenkommission Zwölfter Kinder- und Jugendbericht (Hrsg.), Bildung, Erziehung und Betreuung von Kindern unter sechs
Jahren (S. 55–174). München: Verlag Deutsches Jugendinstitut.
Schober, P. & Spieß, C.K. (2014). Local Day-Care Quality and Maternal Employment: Evidence from East and West Germany.
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research, 649. DIW: Berlin.
Schwippert, K., Bos, W. & Lankes, E.-M. (2003). Heterogenität und Chancengleichheit am Ende der vierten Jahrgangsstufe im
internationalen Vergleich. In W. Bos, E.-M. Lankes, M. Prenzel, K. Schwippert, G. Walther & R. Valtin (Hrsg.), Erste Ergebnisse aus IGLU.
Schülerleistungen am Ende der vierten Jahrgangsstufe im internationalen Vergleich (S. 265–302). Münster: Waxmann.
Spieß, C. K. & Büchner, C. (2009). Children Who Attend Formal Day Care Do Better in School: Even Many Years Later in Secondary
School. Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 5(5), 31-34.
Tietze, W., Becker-Stoll, F., Bensel, J., Eckhardt, A. G., Haug-Schnabel, G., Kalicki, B., Keller, H. & Leyendecker, B. (2013). NUBBEK.
Nationale Untersuchung zur Bildung, Betreuung und Erziehung in der frühen Kindheit. Weimar, Berlin: Verlag das Netz.
Tietze, W., Rossbach, H.-G., & Grenner, K. (2005). Kinder von 4 bis 8 Jahren. Zur Qualität der Erziehungs- und Bildungsinstitution
Kindergarten, Grundschule und Familie. Weinheim: Beltz.
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Thank you for your attention!
Email: [email protected]
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