Influences of an academically oriented preschool curriculum on the development of children – are there negative consequences for the children's socio-emotional competencies?

Abstract

As a result of public discussions regarding Germany's standing on international rankings of student achievement, increased attention was focused on enhancing cognitive stimulation in preschools. There are some concerns that preschool curricula that focus more on cognitive stimulation rather than on socio-emotional skills might neglect the socio-emotional development of children. These concerns are rooted in the tradition of German preschools focussing more on the stimulation of social than of cognitive skills. This paper examines these claims by drawing on the German preschool programme ‘KiDZ’ in order to analyse the socio-emotional development (well-being, joy of learning, and worry) of children attending a preschool with a more academically oriented curriculum. This study also investigates effects of domain-specific preschool quality and if any effects of participation in KiDZ might be explained by the quality of the preschools. Positive effects of the children's participation in KiDZ are found and will be discussed.

Keywords:

• well-being
• worry
• joy of learning
• early childhood education programmes
• preschool quality

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Jacobs Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Katharina Kluczniok is senior researcher and lecturer at the Chair for Early Childhood Education, University of Bamberg. Her research interests are the impact of educational quality in preschool settings and families on children's cognitive and socio-emotional development as well as the transition from preschool to primary school.

Yvonne Anders is a full professor of education with a focus on early childhood education at Free University Berlin since 2012. Her research interests focus on different aspects of preschool quality and their influences on children's development, professional competencies of (preschool) teachers, and international comparative analyses of using early childhood education and care.

Jutta Sechtig is junior researcher and lecturer for Early Childhood Studies at the University of Education in Weingarten, Germany. Her research interests focus on quality in early childhood education, especially the role of early childhood teachers during the free-play period, and on the transition from preschool to primary school.

Hans-Guenther Rossbach holds the Chair of Early Childhood Education at the University of Bamberg and is director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories. His main research interests are longitudinal effects of quality of stimulation in family, preschool, and elementary school on early childhood competence development as well as the development of curricula for preschools.

Notes

1. This study was funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Education, the Bavarian State Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Family Affairs, Women and Health, the Foundation ‘Stiftung Bildungspakt Bayern’ and by the Bavarian industry association vbw (Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft vbw e.v., supported by Verband der Bayerischen Metall- und Elektro-Industrie).

2. A current follow-up study funded by the Jacobs Foundation (http://jacobsfoundation.org/de/) investigates the long-term effects of early participation in the KiDZ intervention on selected domains of development in grade 6 (data collections are terminated in spring 2013 and spring 2014).