Leading News & Analysis How much is Literacy a Part of Early Childhood Education?
How much is Literacy a Part of Early Childhood Education?
The Education Review Office 2011 report on Literacy in Early Childhood Services was released by the Minister of Education at ChildForum's early childhood national policy forum.
The ERO report shows how literacy is valued and practised in early childhood services. The data presented in the report cover 350 teacher and parent-led early childhood services and 3 home-based networks reviewed by ERO during Term 4, 2009 and Term 1, 2010.
A difficulty with the presentation of findings in the report is that the findings are reported as general statements and figures are not often given. The words "many", "most", and "some" are used to describe number and frequency.
Generally the findings show that things could be a lot better in regards to literacy teaching and learning across the early childhood services reviewed. A big tick is given for educators in most services holding a shared understanding of literacy and teaching.
Some concerning findings are:
- Only about half of the services referred to literacy in their philosophy statement
- While most services budgeted for literacy related resources, in many of these services there was "evidence of ad hoc purchases of books, art and writing materials, and computer software with no specific learning purpose in mind" (p. 15)
- Almost half did not differentiate their provision for literacy teaching and learning for boys and girls - boys in particular were found to not be well catered for, finding literacy activities to be boring and formal programmes uninteresting.
- In regards to supporting the learning of Maori children, many services incorporated basic instructions and greetings but did not extend further.
- 60% of services did not have at least some focus on literacy outcomes as part of self-review. "Generally, literacy review was not well embedded in services' practice. It was mostly informal, lacked timeframes and did not focus on how services knew literacy teaching and learning had improved" (p. 32).
ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education review the information and expectations for literacy available to early childhood services.
For guidance on what an early childhood service can do to be top in literacy learning and teaching click here to go to an indepth article ...
If you don't have time to get into the literacy literature to learn what to look for and what is important, ChildForum has prepared the following short list of 5 indicators of good literacy teaching and learning. This set of indicators can help you to tell in quite a broad sense an early childhood service that is likely to be doing very well in the literacy area apart from one that is likely to be doing poorly.
In the early childhood education setting do you see:
- Picture books and extensions of literature are valued e.g. puppets, learning games based on stories, dramatic play props, recipes?
- Educators setting aside time to read each day to, and with, children?
- Educators showing pleasure and personal interest in children’s oral language and early writing efforts?
- Educators following children’s interests and abilities in providing for literacy learning?
- Educators noticing and evaluating how your child is progressing and talking with you about the next steps for supporting literacy development (source ChildForum.com, 2011)
In the article (click here to go to it) we discuss key areas in which ERO identified services could do better, namely:
- the valuing and promotion of literacy, including not just buying books and resources on an ad-hoc basis (having a literacy policy is an important first step);
- catering for children with different needs and abilities in literacy;
- promoting literacy for boys and girls;
- promoting literacy for children from different ethnic groups; and,
- going beyond simply providing activities, to also being concerned with literacy outcomes - what children are learning, noticing how children's learning is progressing, reviewing how to better support children, and incorporating children's and parents perspectives.
If you are a family member, educator, head teacher, or someone helping at or working in, or running an early childhood service, the article provides essential information.