The impact of pre-school on young children's cognitive attainments at entry to reception.

This digest found in

What were the aims of this study and how was it designed?

The study is part of a large scale, longitudinal study investigating how effective different types of pre-school provision are in promoting young children’s progress and development. An overview of this major study, Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE), is given below, followed by clarification of the specific aims of this particular part of the study.

The EPPE study
The EPPE study followed the progress of 3000 children aged 3 plus in a variety of pre-school settings. The initial study was designed to recruit 500 children, 20 from each of between 20 and 25 centres from six different types of provision. These included nursery classes, playgroups, private day nurseries, Local Authority day-care nurseries, nursery schools and integrated centres. Centres were chosen by random sampling within each Local Authority. Since some centres, such as rural playgroups, were very small, more of these centres were recruited than originally proposed. In the end, the researchers compared over 3000 children from 141 settings in six English Local Authorities. The researchers interviewed parents to collect background information about child, parent and family characteristics. The children were assessed on entry to pre-school (aged 3 years plus) as well as on entry to primary school. 95% of the children in the sample attended pre-school provision of some sort. A further 300 or so children were added to the study on entry to primary school who had not attended any form of pre-school provision. The study as a whole looks at the effectiveness of different types of pre-school provision.

This study
This particular part of the study looked closely at the attainment of all the children when they entered primary school. Its aims were to examine:

how different groups of children varied in attainment on their entry to primary school;
the impact of the amount and duration of children’s pre-school experience on attainment at primary school entry; and
how primary school entry assessments of children who had attended pre-school centres compared with their peers who had stayed at home.

The researchers examined the results of cognitive assessments upon entry to primary school and used statistical analysis to tease apart the variation caused by differences in children’s background and also the variation caused by differences in the length of time during which children had attended pre-school. The multilevel analysis used by the researchers made it possible for them to investigate the impact of different background measures on attainment. For example, they could establish the effect of a mother’s level of education or the number of siblings on patterns of attainment, whilst excluding the effects of other factors such as gender or ethnic group. Multilevel analysis thus enabled the researchers to identify which factors best explained differences in children’s attainment at entry to primary school.

Your path: Home > Welcome to The Research Informed Practice Site (TRIPS) > Themes > Early years > The impact of pre-school on young children's cognitive attainments at entry to reception. > What were the aims of this study and how was it designed?
Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What were the main factors that affected children’s early progress? How did the home learning environment affect children's development? How did family background affect children's development? How did individual differences affect children's development? How did the length of time that children spent attending pre-school affect their attainment? What conclusions did the researchers draw from their study? What were the aims of this study and how was it designed? What are the implications of the study for practitioners? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader The impact of pre-school on young children's cognitive attainments at entry to reception. This digest found in Early years Send to a friend Word doc 70KB Printer friendly Collate for later What were the aims of this study and how was it designed? The study is part of a large scale, longitudinal study investigating how effective different types of pre-school provision are in promoting young children’s progress and development. An overview of this major study, Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE), is given below, followed by clarification of the specific aims of this particular part of the study. The EPPE study The EPPE study followed the progress of 3000 children aged 3 plus in a variety of pre-school settings. The initial study was designed to recruit 500 children, 20 from each of between 20 and 25 centres from six different types of provision. These included nursery classes, playgroups, private day nurseries, Local Authority day-care nurseries, nursery schools and integrated centres. Centres were chosen by random sampling within each Local Authority. Since some centres, such as rural playgroups, were very small, more of these centres were recruited than originally proposed. In the end, the researchers compared over 3000 children from 141 settings in six English Local Authorities. The researchers interviewed parents to collect background information about child, parent and family characteristics. The children were assessed on entry to pre-school (aged 3 years plus) as well as on entry to primary school. 95% of the children in the sample attended pre-school provision of some sort. A further 300 or so children were added to the study on entry to primary school who had not attended any form of pre-school provision. The study as a whole looks at the effectiveness of different types of pre-school provision. This study This particular part of the study looked closely at the attainment of all the children when they entered primary school. Its aims were to examine: how different groups of children varied in attainment on their entry to primary school; the impact of the amount and duration of children’s pre-school experience on attainment at primary school entry; and how primary school entry assessments of children who had attended pre-school centres compared with their peers who had stayed at home. The researchers examined the results of cognitive assessments upon entry to primary school and used statistical analysis to tease apart the variation caused by differences in children’s background and also the variation caused by differences in the length of time during which children had attended pre-school. The multilevel analysis used by the researchers made it possible for them to investigate the impact of different background measures on attainment. For example, they could establish the effect of a mother’s level of education or the number of siblings on patterns of attainment, whilst excluding the effects of other factors such as gender or ethnic group. Multilevel analysis thus enabled the researchers to identify which factors best explained differences in children’s attainment at entry to primary school.