When Does Preschool Matter?
When Does Preschool Matter?
复制标题
DOI：
10.1353/foc.2016.0010
复制
发表时间：
2016-09-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Yoshikawa, Hirokazu;Weiland, Christina;Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
我们有很多理由投资学前教育项目，包括贫困家庭和富裕家庭的孩子在入学准备方面的持续差距，过去几十年来母亲就业的大幅增加，以及学龄前儿童大脑的快速发育。但是我们对学前教育的有效性了解多少呢？在这篇文章中，Hirokazu Yoshikawa、Christina Weiland和Jeanne Brooks-Gunn报告了强有力的证据，证明学前教育可以在短期内提高儿童的语言、识字和数学技能；它还可能减少攻击性等问题行为。然而，在小学阶段，接受过学前教育的孩子的考试成绩往往与没有接受过学前教育的孩子的成绩趋于一致。许多因素可以解释这种趋同。例如，幼儿园或一年级的老师可能会专注于帮助技能水平较低的孩子提高速度，或者当孩子们从高质量的学前教育过渡到质量较差的小学课程时，他们可能会失去基础。从更长远的角度来看，一些研究发现，上幼儿园可以提高孩子的高中毕业率，并降低他们从事犯罪行为的可能性。总的来说，高质量的学前教育项目会产生更大的影响。学前教育如何产生更大的、持续更久的影响？以发展为重点的课程，加上对教师的密集在职培训或辅导，已被证明可以提高学前教育的质量。把重点放在那些既能预测长期结果，又不太可能在学校的头几年获得的基本技能上，也可能产生更持久的效果。提高小学早期的教学质量，更好地调整学前教育和小学课程，可能是维持高质量学前教育所能提供的推动作用的另一种方式。作者写道，最重要的是，如果我们想看到儿童发展和学习的持续改善，我们需要提高学前教育的质量，而不仅仅是获得学前教育的机会。
We have many reasons to invest in preschool programs, including persistent gaps in school readiness between children from poorer and wealthier families, large increases in maternal employment over the past several decades, and the rapid brain development that preschool age children experience. But what do we know about preschool education's effectiveness?In this article, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Christina Weiland, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn report strong evidence that preschool boosts children's language, literacy, and math skills in the short term; it may also reduce problem behaviors such as aggression. Over the elementary school years, however, test scores of children who were exposed to preschool tend to converge with the scores of children who were not. Many factors may explain this convergence. For example, kindergarten or first-grade teachers may focus on helping children with lower levels of skills get up to speed, or children may lose ground when they transition from high-quality preschools into poor-quality elementary programs. Taking a longer view, some studies have found that attending preschool boosts children's high school graduation rates and makes them less likely to engage in criminal behavior. Overall, higher quality preschool programs are associated with larger effects.How might preschools produce larger effects that last longer? Developmentally focused curricula, combined with intensive in-service training or coaching for teachers, have been shown to improve the quality of preschool instruction. Focusing on fundamental skills that both predict long-term outcomes and are less likely to be gained in the first years of school might also produce longer-lasting effects. And improving instructional quality in early elementary school and better aligning the preschool and elementary curricula may be another way to sustain the boost that quality preschool education can provide. Above all, the authors write, if we want to see sustained improvements in children's development and learning, we need to increase the quality of-not just access to-preschool education.