Curricular quality and day-to-day learning activities in pre-school

The purpose of this paper is to show how curricular quality is related to the day-to-day activities experienced by children and the pedagogical activities of staff, both coded through systematic target-child observations. Data were drawn from the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) and the Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY) studies. Curricular quality was measured by coding the ECERS-E, an English curricular extension to the well-known ECERS-R. In centres scoring high on the ECERS-E, staff engaged in pedagogical practices that included more 'sustained shared thinking' and more 'direct teaching' such as questioning or modelling. In high-scoring centres, children were also observed participating in more activities associated with early reading, emergent writing and active listening. Children in centres assessed as 'adequate' spent more time in activities associated with the 'Physical Development' and 'Creative' curriculum. Thus the ECERS-E gives higher scores to pedagogical practices and activities where staff take a more active role in children's learning, including scaffolding young children's play, especially in the communication and literacy domains of the curriculum.