Early Learning and School Readiness: Research Evidence

STUDY 2

Starting Strong V - Transitions for Early Childhood Education and Care to Primary Education

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2017)

Starting Strong V is the fifth international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report concerning early childhood education and care. It draws on data from a questionnaire and country reports to compare transition policies and practices across 30 countries.

The importance of the transition

The report revisits the crucial role of brain development in the first three years. It emphasises that poor experiences of transition between early years and primary education can undermine and even reverse benefits of early education, whereas successful transition to primary school is foundational to lifelong learning.

Getting ready

The report emphasises the value of "age- and child-appropriate pedagogical practices" for children's cognitive and social gains. It is critical of "schoolification" practices introduced in early education that "prepare" children for school, arguing that such practices detract from children's development and learning. The report also challenges school readiness models that attempt to prepare children for school, advocating instead that schools should prepare for each child joining them. Yet it notes that compulsory school starting ages have been lowering across the countries in the study, ostensibly "to give children a stronger start at primary school and to narrow socio-economic gaps". The report notes that across the 30 countries, there is considerable variation in provision made for children as they transition from childcare. Thirty one per cent of the 30 countries provide pre-primary education for children aged three (seven per cent), aged four (seven per cent), aged five (17 per cent) and aged six (10 per cent); the report describes the purpose of pre-primary education as preparation for school, identifying this as its distinguishing characteristic from early education. Among the countries in the study that do not offer pre-primary education, only UK children start primary education as young as age five. (see graphic). Fifty three per cent of children from the 30 studied countries start primary education aged six, and Sweden's children start primary education at seven.

Governance and organisation

The report reveals four challenges encountered by countries relating to governance and organisation:

• Regions lack coherence in transition approaches
• Lack of engagement
• Poor stakeholder collaboration
• Lack of equity.

Strategies to respond to these challenges include national policies to enhance coherence, statutory curricular frameworks that address transitions, guidance about transitions for stakeholders, and targeted financial support to enhance equity in transitions.

Professional continuity

The report presents three challenges in respect of supporting professional continuity for children's transitions:

• Primary school teachers enjoy higher status than early years practitioners
• Paucity of training in both sectors concerning transitions
• Barriers to co-ordination and co-operation between sectors.

Policies to deal with these challenges include equal pay for early education staff and primary teachers, provision of transition training and a legal requirement on professionals to share information across the two sectors.

Pedagogical continuity

Three challenges are identified in respect of enhancing pedagogical continuity to support transitions: different curricular approaches in each sector; poor understanding between the two sectors concerning pedagogy; and children's experiences of unfamiliar pedagogical approaches as they move to primary school. Countries have adopted strategies to tackle these challenges that include integrated curriculum frameworks, similar pedagogical approaches across early and primary education and greater collaboration between the two sectors to secure consistency.

Developmental continuity

The report presents five challenges concerning children's developmental continuity:

• Transition policies and practices are not informed by children's perspectives
• Parents do not understand the importance of transition
• Primary schools and early years settings find it difficult to engage parents of disadvantaged children
• Inequalities and lack of understanding between childcare and school staff
• Limited co-operation with other children's services.

Strategies for these challenges include new laws that enshrine children's right to participate, parent support programmes and materials focused on transition, joint training for childcare and primary school staff and teamwork across children's services.

Implications for practice

OECD draws on the evidence in this report to recommend that:

• Schools should focus more on being ready for children.
• Transition should be treated as a process of ongoing change for which responsibility should be shared across the two sectors.
• Structural barriers should be addressed in policy and practice to encourage continuity and co-operation.
• National policy frameworks should encourage high-quality local leadership.
• Transition considerations should be included in policies and practices that target support for disadvantaged children.
• Transition issues should continue to be researched and monitored.