Europe and Central Asia

Innovative approaches to continuous professional development (CPD) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Europe: Findings from a comparative review explores innovation as an aspect of in-service continuous professional development in ECEC.

A literature review and cross-country analysis conducted in ten European countries uncovered the fact that innovation in CPD was understood a way to improve quality. This finding shows how CPD encompasses processes such as critical thinking, reflexivity and co-creation within and across ECEC systems. This resource highlights insights identified as crucial aspects of CPD in terms of innovation including:

• Critical reflection;
• Communities of practice; and
• A growing focus on politics that address social inequality through ECEC

The analysis is a contribution to research on innovative CDP in ECEC at the micro, meso and macro levels. The authors suggest more research into in-depth and identified approaches to innovation related to CDP and their impact on the quality development in European ECEC. 

This report presents ‘good practice case studies’ of exemplary approaches to innovative in-service Professional Development (PD) of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practitioners in three countries: Denmark, Italy and Poland.

The report reviews the use of new technologies, peer learning, reflective practice and organizational learning, within the field of Early Childhood Education in Europe. This document presents the case study design, results and interpretations of findings from each of the three case studies The case studies in this report aim to explore new effective approaches to professional development focused on enhancing education and improving workforce training strategies for ECEC practitioners.

This study, the second in this series, focuses on the role of preschool teachers in Ukraine. The country, with a predominantly public network of preschool education, has achieved coverage for a significant proportion of the population.

This study, the second in this series, focuses on the role of preschool teachers in Ukraine. The country, with a predominantly public network of preschool education, has achieved coverage for a significant proportion of the population. Nevertheless, it struggles to meet demand and ensure quality of services. In addition, Ukraine is at a unique moment where increasing attention is being paid in the country to improving the quality of preschool education and supporting inclusion, which have been elevated in recent policy reforms. Taking into account the significance of preschool teachers to the system of preschool education, this study aims to gain a better understanding of their experiences, including their backgrounds, the support that they receive, as well as the challenges that they encounter.

By illustrating the experiences of preschool teachers in Ukraine and identifying the size and scope of the challenges they face, it is hoped that this study will support officials within the Ministry of Education and Science (Ministerstvo osvity i nauky) in Ukraine as well as local education departments to strengthen and support preschool personnel through targeted policies and programs and contribute to the knowledge base around the early childhood workforce.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative

2018

Early Childhood Policies and Systems in Eight Countries: Findings from IEA’s Early Childhood Education Study  is an exploration of early childhood education (ECE) provision and its role in children's preparation for school and participation in society. In this context, formal early education and provision of care for young children from birth to the age of primary school is described and analyzed in Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Poland, the Russian Federation and the United States. The data was collected by way of a policy questionnaire, which collected basic information about the wider policy context for ECE in the participating countries. This report provides an overview of strategies, as well as systemic and structural results of ECE policy at the national and, where necessary, subnational levels.

This research study, from International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, presents key findings are presented throughout the report, alongside their supporting evidence. 

A workforce development plan for the early childhood care and education sector in Ireland is the culmination of a significant process of research and consultation across the diverse range of stakeholders in the sector. The result is the identification of a number of agreed perspectives on the type of workforce needed to support the development of high quality Early Childhood Education and Care services in Ireland, as well as the main challenges associated with achieving these goals. 

This plan sets out the scope and vision for workforce development in Ireland, presents the main challenges and opportunities, and reveals the implementation strategy.

Report on the Working Conditions of the Early Years Education and Care Sector 2017 primarily focuses on the poor working conditions and below average pay scales of all those working in the early years sector in Ireland. Diving into several issues impacting services across all provinces, in both rural and urban areas, the report includes sections on:

• policy related issues for consideration;
• working conditions in the early childhood sector;
• areas of concern as views by early years professionals;
• progressive early years investment in other EU countries; and
• recommendations from the joint committee on children and youth affairs.

The report concludes that the lack of recognition for this profession, as well as a lack of investment and high staff turnover rate cause serious sustainability issues for early years services in Ireland.

Proper supervision enables home visitors to form supportive relationships with families. Supervision: supporting professionals and enhancing service quality focuses on supporting the supervision of home visitors in order to guide home visitors in their work.

Through these modules, readers may: 

• review the meaning of supervision and the contribution it makes to support quality in the delivery of services and professional development of the home visitor;
• reflect on the supervisory role and related activities in supporting professional development in the work environment;
• explore the meaning of lifelong learning and professional development; and
• reflect on current supervision practices as related to home visiting and identified concrete actions and approaches that can be used to strengthen them.

This module belongs to the Supporting Families for Nurturing Care resource modules for home visitors.

Inclusive early childhood education environment self-reflection tool was developed in order to identify, analyze and promote the main characteristics of quality Inclusive early Childhood Education for all children. This tool was designed to address the need for professionals and staff in early years settings to reflect on their inclusiveness. 

The tool consists of eight sets of questions, which address the following aspects of inclusion:

1. Overall welcoming atmosphere
2.  flexibly and according to the needs of the user, setting or organization.
3. Inclusive social environment
4. Child-centred approach
5. Child-friendly physical environment
6. Materials for all children
7. Opportunities for communication for all
8. Inclusive teaching and learning environment
9. Family-friendly environment

The questions presented in this tool are designed to be used flexibly and according to the needs of the user, setting or organization.

Quality through Professionalisation: Local Evaluation of the Tallaght National Early Years Access Initiative is a report on the evaluation of the Quality through Professionalisation programme, one of 11 projects under the National Early Years Access Initiative. This three-year initiative aimed to improve the quality and outcomes of services in the early years sector. At the national level, the initiative focused on the establishment of an evidence base contributing to improvements in practice and influencing policy changes. At the local level, the initiative focused on building the delivery capacity of local projects.

Five preschools were invited to participate in the local evaluation of the Tallaght NEYAI; all five preschools were based in Tallaght in South County Dublin. The evaluation approach focused on the following broad areas of investigation:

1. Conducting a profile analysis of the preschools involved in the programme
2. Conducting an investigation of the impact of the Tallaght NEYAI on the early years educators
3. Assessing the quality of provision within 4 of the participating services post-training delivery
4. Conducting a process evaluation investigating the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance of the training programme

Key findings include information about preschool characteristics, quality within preschools, the impact of training on educators, and trainers' and staff experiences of the initiative.

Professional development is essential for early years teachers. Recognizing this fact, the Romanian education system aims to promote high quality professional development programs for teachers in order to improve their work. This study investigated kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of their in-service training programs; including the impact these programs had on their professional development processes and classroom practices. Eighty-four kindergarten teachers responded to an online, structured questionnaire focused on:

• activities considered necessary for teacher training programs;
• factors that influence the level of professional development;
• types of activities based on programs that may influence classroom practice;
• the level at which programs focused on specific aspects of educational practice; and
• aspects that might influence the teacher's educational practice.

Findings show a significant difference between the perceptions of beginners and those with more than 10 years experience. While the new teachers tend to focus more on the visibility and status to the profession, more experienced teachers focus on approach on professionalization.