22 Nov 07

New research suggests that early teaching should focus on intellectual development rather than formal academic skills. Credit: Topfoto.

On Thursday 22 November the Minister for Children, Beverley Hughes MP, will open the first international conference on the Early Years Foundation Stage – a new framework for providers who care for and teach children from birth up to school entry.

The two-day conference is being held at the Department of Education, Oxford University, and has attracted some of the world’s leading educational experts. They include Professor Lilian Katz, from the University of Illinois; Professor Kathy Sylva, from Oxford University, who is Convenor of the ‘Families, Early Learning and Literacy’ Group,’ and Professor Ingrid Pramling-Samuelsson, from the University of Göteborg, who is President elect of OMEP World Organization of Preschool Education. Also speaking are the heads of two children’s centres  (in Northamptonshire and the West Midlands), which have started to implement the new curriculum.  

All registered early years providers and schools will be required to use the new framework known as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in September 2008. The framework builds on, and replaces, the guidance given to providers of care for babies and toddlers (0-3) It also addresses the Foundation Stage curriculum for three to five year olds and the national standards for day-care.

Professor Lilian Katz will reflect on the new EYFS from an international perspective. She will say that the new statutory curriculum is ‘a major step in the right direction.’ However, she will look critically at the emphasis that the new curriculum places on the teaching academic skills, including phonics. ‘Available research suggests that the benefits of the formal academic instruction for four- and five-year-olds seem to be promising when tested early, but considerably less so in the long term. Indeed, there are some indications that the long-term negative effects of premature academic instruction are more noticeable for boys than for girls.’

Professor Katz believes the new framework needs to focus more on ‘children’s intellectual development’ and not on ‘academic skills.’ Instead of learning formal academic skills children learn to think for themselves in settings where they are given opportunities to observe, experience and investigate their environments.

Professor Ingrid Pramling-Samuellson will express her surprise at the emphasis on starting to read so young, including instruction in phonics. In Sweden, children are not formally taught to read until they are six or seven years old as the Swedish Early Years curriculum concentrates more on the development of speaking, listening and narrative language.

Hosting the conference, Professor Kathy Sylva will say that the commitment given by the government to pre-school education has been one of its main achievements in the last 10 years. However, she will refer to research she co-led with Sandra Mathers at Oxford’s Department of Education, which shows that the quality of childcare settings is heavily influenced by staff qualifications, especially qualified teacher status (QTS). ‘There is a direct relationship between observed quality in early childhood settings and the presence of qualified teachers on the staff.’