A study released by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) shows that the type of preschool a child attends at 4 years old, will affect how he or she learns at 7. The study, the largest of its type to date, followed 5,000 preschoolers in 1,800 schools across the world.
This begs the question; what kind of preschool should your child attend? According to Larry Schweinhart, president of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, a researcher on the study; “Early childhood education enhances a child's development when the emphasis is on children initiating their own activities, limiting instruction to a larger group and providing materials for exploration in the classroom.” In other words children need to learn to choose freely so they they can discover what they gravitate to.
According to the study the following points were without question:
Language performance at age 7 improves when:
- Academic activities were reduced and more emphasis was placed on free choice of play, arts and crafts, music and practicing motor skills.
- The preschool teachers are well educated and are aware how their students learn.
Thinking skills at age 7 improve when:
- Children are in a less structured environment
- The number and array of tools and materials they have to choose from increases.
In a nutshell, children become better thinkers and perform better when they fully participate in their own learning. With that in mind, a parent should look for the following in a potential school as suggested by the National Association for the Education of Young Children
- Are children spending time with tools and materials or are they left unattended and expected to sit quietly for a lengthy period.
- Do children have access to various activities during the day? Are different toys available that teach them different skills such as building blocks, crayons, sandbox etc
- Do the teachers work with individual children or break them up in small groups or is everything done in a larger group setting?
- Does the classroom display the children's work and promote individual expression?
- Are children learning in context of their everyday experiences such as counting by taking attendance or the alphabet by identifying things in nature.
- Do children have ample time to explore and play or is everything very structured?
- Do children spend some ample time outdoors?
- Is the Curriculum easily adaptable to different learning styles and learning speed?
- Are the teachers reading to the students in small groups?
- Do the children seem to enjoy their time there? Do they appear settled? Are the parents happy?
If you keep these things in mind then you can get your child off to an excellent start. For additional reading, visit the sources listed below.
Source: http://www.naeyc.org/
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