High Quality Early Years Education

This project sought to identify the features of a high-quality early years curriculum that best supports holistic child development.
Teacher educator practitioner plays with young early years children in nursery
Title: Insights Into a High-Quality Early Years Curriculum 
Funding: The Montessori Group
Staff: Professor in Early Childhood Education Professor Verity Campbell Barr, Associate Professor Dr Jan Georgeson, working alongside Lecturer in Education (Early Childhood Studies) Dr Katherine Evans and Doctoral Teaching and Research Assistant Sasha Tregenza
 
This project sought to identify the features of a high-quality early years curriculum that best supports holistic child development.
The quality of early years education is well established as facilitating the holistic development of young children and providing the foundations to their life-long learning. However, while the quality of early years education has been well research and theorised, there has been less of a specific focus on the quality of the early years curriculum.
The aim of the Insights Into a High-Quality Early Years Curriculum project was therefore to explore the perspectives of multiple stakeholders on what are the features of a high-quality early years curriculum?
The research was undertaken in four core stages:
  1. A Delphi survey of experts (e.g. academics, sector representatives)  
  2. Nominal group technique focus groups with educators  
  3. An appreciative inquiry of practice  
  4. Learning walks with educators   

Key findings 

The early years curriculum is distinct to all other stages of education, requiring a clear definition to facilitate its articulation. A curriculum typically sets out a course of study in line with the transmission of knowledge and skills, but an early years curriculum is less prescriptive and more iterative.  
  • The early years curriculum is an emergent, expressive and contextual curriculum, with an emphasis on responding to the needs and interests of the child, while offering autonomy of exploration, in support of their development.  
  • The early years curriculum is a collaborative curriculum, where the pedagogy of the early years curriculum upholds an approach that follows the child and supports the child’s expression through a collaboration between the child and the educator.  
  • The early years curriculum is an integrated curriculum, cutting across subjects, topics and forms of knowledge. 
  • The knowledge and expertise of educators is central to the quality of an early years curriculum. Educators utilise knowledge of child development in their interactions with children to support a personalised approach to learning, that differentiates for an inclusive curriculum.  
  • Curriculum in early years education is most strongly represented through practice, but it can be hard to articulate and would benefit from a set of linked concepts. Current concepts are more associated with pedagogy and need to be reframed in the context of discussions on curriculum.  
  • Initial and continued training for staff in early years education should include content on curriculum to create confidence in its articulation.  
Download the report

This report is now available in PDF format from Montessori Global Education:
Insights Into a High-Quality Early Years Curriculum (montessori-globaleducation.org)

Research with Plymouth Institute of Education

Research in Plymouth Institute of Education (PIOE) is both excellent and highly distinctive, with its lifelong and life-wide approach; foregrounding the vital role learning plays in society and culture. Our researchers explore how and why people learn at every stage of life, from babies to the very old. We have strong research links and networks across the world and a wide range of externally funded national and international research projects.
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