O poder da pré-escola: evidências de um estudo longitudinal na Inglaterra / The power of pre-school: evidence from the Eppe Project

No âmbito do debate de experiências de pesquisa sobre a qualidade dos serviços de educação infantil, este artigo documenta as duas primeiras fases de um estudo longitudinal financiado pelo Departamento de Educação do Reino Unido. O projeto Effective provision of pre-school and primary education, 1997-2008 é o maior estudo europeu sobre a eficácia da educação pré-escolar. Apresentam-se aqui objetivos, amostra, metodologia e os principais resultados da pesquisa sobre a educação pré-escolar, que destacam a importância da qualidade nas unidades de educação infantil e mostram como a boa qualidade é essencial e traz benefícios para as crianças da pré-escola aos 11 anos de idade.(AU)

In the discussion of research experience on the quality of early childhood educational services, this article documents the first two phases of a longitudinal study funded by United Kingdom Department of Education. The Effective provision of pre-school and primary 1997-2008 is the largest European study on the effectiveness of preschool education. The article describes its aims, the sample, methodology and key findings over the preschool period. It goes on to emphasize the importance of 'quality' in child care settings and how good quality is essential for the enduring benefits of pre-school up to age 11.(AU)

Measuring the combined risk to young children's cognitive development: an alternative to cumulative indices.

In studies of child development, the combined effect of multiple risks acting in unison has been represented in a variety of ways. This investigation builds upon this preceding work and presents a new procedure for capturing the combined effect of multiple risks. A representative sample of 2,899 British children had their cognitive development measured at 36 and 58 months of age along with 10 potential risks during this period of development. Comparing a cumulative index of these risks against the previously undocumented alternative of confirmatory factor analysis using formative measurement, this study found differences favouring the factor analysis. The factor analysis procedure demonstrated greater predictive power of children's cognitive development while it systematically tested two of the assumptions implicit in cumulative risk indices.