Room to improve teacher-child interaction quality

When it came to quality of teacher-child interactions, the Singapore Kindergarten Impact Project (Skip) found that pre-school teachers provided good emotional support to their young charges and held well-organised classes.

However, the study found that the quality of teacher-child interactions that stimulate children's thinking and language skills can be improved. The team suggested that this can be done through continuing professional development of pre-school teachers.

Of the 163 teachers who gave information on their qualifications, 22 per cent were degree holders in early childhood education, while the remaining were mostly diploma holders in the field.

"In early childhood education, it is important to provide the right environment for learning," said the National Institute of Education's Dr Ng Ee Lynn, the principal investigator of the study.

She said the study found that pre-school educators here provided support for children to have autonomy in their learning and a warm learning environment, which was sensitive to children's needs.

Teachers also provided consistent daily routines, and used different learning resources and materials.

Dr Ng said the finding on the quality of instructional support should be investigated further, as many studies in the United States, Europe and China also revealed gaps in the quality of teacher-child interactions: "In similar studies around the world, teachers scored better in providing the right environment than quality of their instructional support."

Instructional support focuses on teachers' use of effective strategies to improve children's higher-order thinking, and language skills. The quality of interaction was assessed by observing how the teacher worked with children in a typical school day, once at K1 and again at K2.

The Skip team used the findings to develop tools and resources with the aim of raising the quality of teaching and learning in the pre-school sector in Singapore.

For example, based on the study's findings on instructional support, the Skip professional development project team has developed training videos and resources to improve teacher-child interactions in the pre-school classrooms.

The Singapore Kindergarten Impact Project (Skip) is Singapore's first large-scale longitudinal study of pre-school children.

It followed a cohort of 1,537 children from 80 pre-schools (childcare centres, anchor operator and non-anchor operator kindergartens and Ministry of Education kindergartens) as they progressed from Kindergarten 1 in 2015 to Primary 1 in 2017.

As part of the study, the research team - comprising Dr Ng Ee Lynn, Dr Beth O'Brien, Dr Nirmala Karuppiah, Associate Professor Kenneth Poon and Dr Fannie Khng - conducted primary data collection and completed the analysis in July this year.

•The aim of Skip was to understand how factors related to the school, home, and child interact to influence children's development and future learning. It also aimed to identify how these factors contributed to the successful development of English and mother tongue language and literacy skills.

•The Skip team used a variety of data collection methods which included one-on-one child assessments, and parent and teacher surveys. The team also used tools to assess the quality of teacher-child interactions and the quality of learning environment and materials.

The team hopes to continue tracking the Skip children in later years, at Primary 5 and how they perform at the Primary School Leaving Examination. Among the questions the researchers hope to address in the future are:

• The performance of Skip children "later in life" in terms of their socio-emotional, physical, and academic well-being.

•Factors in early childhood that can predict how well a child does in later years - including the home and pre-school environment, and literacy, numeracy and executive functioning skills of children at K1.

•Factors that may moderate the children's developmental trajectories, including the quality of school environment and peer influences.

The team will also study the effect of initiatives such as the Learning Support Programme, which involves additional support for children lagging behind their peers.

Dr Ng said in future studies, the team would like to include a wider range of kindergartens to see if quality pre-school education, for example those which employ only degree holders as teachers or have smaller class sizes, can make a difference.

In the study which just concluded, Skip focused on kindergartens with a similar fee range for comparability. They included childcare centres, anchor operator and non-anchor operator kindergartens and Ministry of Education kindergartens.