School Readiness Internationally

Lately there has been a lot of talk about what it means to prepare children for school.  What things do young children need to know to be successful in school?  How do we track this or assess preschool age children in a way that is developmentally appropriate?  Is there a right and a wrong way to teaching standards to young children?

Through my conversations with Job Swain this week, I learned that England also has been dancing with the idea of what it means to prepare children for school.  He mentioned that there was talk of more formalized preschool lessons that may becoming the new standard to better help prepare children for school.  He says schooling has changed since he was a teacher.  Now, there is some play, but it is structured by the teacher and combined with formal desk lessons.  He mentioned "Ofsted" had just been on the radio that morning (Thursday, April 3, 2014) talking about the need for all children to have to learn to do basic counting, be able to write their name, read some simple text etc before they start school at 4 yrs old.  This is what state policies in my area are starting to push for as well.

I looked up more information about this online.  http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/are-you-ready-good-practice-school-readiness Indeed an article had just been published Thursday morning called Are You Ready? Good Practice in School Readiness.  The article was a lengthy compilation of results that had been found from centers found to be the most successful in preparing disadvantaged and vulnerable children for school. While this article recognized that there were various views on the definition of school readiness, it still understood that "the quality of a child's early experience is vital for their future success" and that "gaps in achievement between the poorest children and their better-off counterparts are clearly established by the age of five" (Ofsted, 2014, p. 4).

I found many similarities in the things they found the schools did well or right with the children there that has been noted as working well for children in America.  I agree, as the article recognizes, that it is important to establish where each child is developmentally as they begin in your program so you know how to work with them and understand their strengths and areas that need further developing.  I agree in the involvement of parents in the assessing to find the baseline of children as well as their involvement in their child's education. I agree that some "adult-directed teaching session" in small groups can be advantageous to all children, but I don't believe that they should be a majority of the teaching.  I was excited to see that this survey recognized the importance of social and emotional development in young children and the role that being able to form good relationships has on language and communication skills as well as being provided opportunities to recognized their feelings.   Further, this study recognized that school readiness also included physical development, both gross and fine motor, as well as the ability to care for their personal needs.

The last part of the article I found interesting and related it directly to what Mr. Swain had mentioned with the settings being more teaching directed activities.  The article stated, "the majority of pre-schools and children's centres increased the proportion of adult-directed teaching over the academic year to increase children's readiness.  Without exception, we encountered adult-led discrete sessions for groups of children in all settings" (Ofsted, 2014, p.23).  Now, the article doesn't specifically mention what teacher-directed activities included, as I am sure this would look different in the variety of settings.  However, this is where I believe that many people,  especially those not in the early childhood field, begin to confuse what this may look like.  To some, teacher-directed lessons may be visualized as children sitting around tables or in a group on the floor learning directly from a teacher.  While this may be the case at times, teacher-directed learning can also be referred to as intentional planning and teaching as children play in child-initiated activities.  High quality, well trained teachers can be successful in teaching through modeling, questioning, explaining, encouraging, and even facilitating during play.  This learning can be so natural, so discrete and hidden into the play, that it may be hard for the untrained eye to understand all the learning that is taking place. 

The article mentioned that "play is essential for children's development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, think about problems and relate to others" (Ofsted, 2014, p.24).  If we can instill this value in early educators, parents, politicians, and the general public everywhere, we would be able to help others understand all that it means to provide children the opportunities to learn through a play based environment.  While school readiness may not have a universal meaning, it is clear that universally we are all struggling with what it really entails, and how to best teach and measure this.  One thing that is clear for all, we need to be doing a better job at helping to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their peers.  We need to be able instill learning values and concept while they are young so they can continue with them while they are older!