FRANZ – Does early education entail a better future?

Author(s):

Sandra SabiniJakob KostAlex KnollMargrit Stamm

Conference:

ECER 2010

Network:

11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance

Format:

Poster

Session Information

MC_Poster, Poster Session Main Conference

Main Conference Poster Session

Time:

2010-08-27

12:15-13:15

Room:

2nd Floor Hall (M.B)/ II KRS AULA, Päärakennus / Main Building,

Chair:

Contribution

The FRANZ-Project is conducted by Prof. Dr. Margrit Stamm (Department of Educational Sciences, University of Fribourg). Against the background of the international discussion to give children a good start in life by provision of an adequate early childhood education and care the project illuminates important basic issues. It is the first quantitative three-year longitudinal study of 300 full-term healthy children and their families in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. The three-waved panel study inquires the mid-term, cumulative, interactive and complementary interdependencies between the child, the family, the media and the preschool settings regarding impacts on cognitive, emotional, linguistic and social development of children (between 3 to 6 years of age).

The subject sample consists of children, families and preschool institutions from rural and urban settings. Different formal and informal preschool settings (children staying at home with family members, child-minders, day-cares etc.) will be taken into account to analyse their special influence. The data collection starts with a baseline-assessment, continuing at each transition to kindergarten respectively to school.

There are three leading research questions: (a) The issue on effects of different institutional and family preschool experiences on the development and subsequent school success and school commitment, (b) thereby the significance of family environment and media influence, and (c) the research of characteristics of preschool settings that promote development. The subordinate question refers to a type, a particular duration and time intensity of preschool setting that can, by interacting with child and family variables, maximise positive cognitive, social and emotional effects and minimise negative ones.

The theoretical heuristic background is based upon the bioecological model of human development of Bronfenbrenner & Morris (1998) describing the reciprocal influences. The scheme comprises the learning benefits of promotion in early childhood according to various settings (process), the child (person), the family’s educational setting, the media and the pedagogical institution (context). All direct and indirect interactions and relations of the child are pasted into the period of the age of 3 until transition to school (time).

Method

For cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses outcome-oriented univariate analytical procedures respectively process-oriented multivariate procedures are used. The relevant features are collected by corresponding measure instruments: (1) Child: Linguistic and mathematical skills with the LEst 3-6 (Moser & Berweger, 2007); cognitive skills with the K-ABC (Melchers & Preuss, 2003); behavioral problems with the Behavioural Assessment Questionnaire for Preschoolers (Döpfner et al., 2003). (2) Family: Education with the parenting questionnaire APQ (Reichle & Franiek, 2007); stimulation and support of the child by the HOME Inventory (Caldwell & Bradley, 1984). (3) Preschool setting: Quality with the KES-R (Tietze et al., 2005) and the Guideline question catalogue (Belsky et al., 2006). (4) Media: Media availability, family media use, parental control with the General Questionnaire on Media Consumption (Feierabend & Mohr, 2004). In addition, retrospective assessments of the first three years of age and three qualitative case studies of preschool settings will be carried out.

Expected Outcomes

With its focus the FRANZ-Project is the first nation-wide study investigating the impacts of early education on preparing children for school and also enhancing school commitment. By acknowledging the influences of the child, the family and the media in its complex interaction with the institutional setting the study contributes to issues on the international educational and literacy discourse. Hence, the results will fill a huge research gap and make it possible to generalise the findings and thereby complete and establish general early educational programmes not only for Switzerland but also for other countries. The project cooperates with the BiKS-Study (University of Bamberg) leaded by Prof. Rossbach and with Prof. Kathy Sylva and her research team (University of Oxford). With this collaboration an exchange of information and of the outcome of the studies is sure to be promoted and distributed in the fields of educational sciences. On the occasion of the European Conference on Educational Research in Helsinki the FRANZ-Project will be in the data collection stage. Therefore, an overview of the composition of the sample and of the first investigations will be given. Also, first available results of the subsample will be presented.

References

Belsky, J. (2006). Early child care and early child development: Major findings of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 95-110. Bronfenbrenner, U. & Morris, P. A. (1998). The ecology of developmental processes. In: W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.). Handbook of child psychology, 993-1027. New York: Wiley. Caldwell, B. M. & Bradley, R. H. (1984). Home observation for measurements of the environment. Little Rock: University of Arkensas at Little Rock. Döpfner, M. et al. (2003). Verhaltensbeurteilungsbogen für Vorschul¬kinder (VBV). Weinheim: Beltz. Feierabend, S. & Mohr, I. (2004). Mediennutzung von Klein- und Vorschulkindern. Ergebnisse der ARD/ZDF Studie «Kinder und Medien 2003». Media Perspektiven, 9, 453-461. Melchers, P. & Preuss, U. (2003). K-ABC. Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Chil¬dren. Deutschsprachige Fas¬sung. Interpretationshandbuch. Frankfurt: Swets & Zeitlinger. Moser, U. & Berweger, S. (2007). wortgewandt & zahlenstark. Lern- und Entwicklungsstand bei 4- bis 6-Jähri¬gen. Testinstrumente und Testhandbuch. St. Gallen & Zürich: Interkantonale Lehrmittelzentrale. Reichle, B. & Franiek, S. (2007). Erziehungsstil aus Elternsicht – Deutsche erweiterte Version des Alabama Pa¬renting Questionnaire für Grundschulkinder (DEAPQ-EL-GS). Institut für Pädagogische Psychologie und Soziologie der Pädagogischen Hochschule Ludwigsburg. Tietze, W. et al. (2005). Kinder von 4 bis 8 Jahren. Zur Qualität der Erziehung und Bildung im Kindergarten. Weinheim: Beltz.

Author Information

Sandra Sabini

University of Fribourg

Science of Education

Fribourg

Jakob Kost

University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Alex Knoll

University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Margrit Stamm

University of Fribourg Switzerland, Switzerland

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