Literature Review: Transition from Early Childhood Education to School

Chapter One: Background and methodology

Introduction

This review has been commissioned by the Ministry of Education and sets out to analyse recent literature regarding the transition from early childhood education to school. It addresses three broad questions:

1. What do ‘successful’ transitions from ECE to school look like?
   
2. How do the characteristics of the child, their family and whānau, the ECE service(s) they have attended, and the school they transition to play a role in how well children transition from ECE to school?
   
3. How can children be best supported to transition as successfully as possible?

In addressing these questions (and their sub-questions described in the method section) this review recognises the complexity involved. This complexity is evident in the multiple factors that influence each child’s learning and transition experiences, and the diversity that exists within groups as well as between groups.

The primary focus is on New Zealand literature, but the review also draws on work from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA), and occasionally from European countries beyond the UK. Published and unpublished literature from the last five years (2004 to the beginning of 2009) has been sourced, although some material from outside this period has been included if it appeared to be significant. In some cases, where there is little or no literature, the gaps have been noted.

Background

Various plans and strategies over the last seven years have drawn attention to the transition to school as being of key interest. Firstly, the Ministry of Education’s (2002b) 10-year strategic plan for early childhood included a goal of promoting collaborative relationships between ECE services, families, other services and programmes and schools. The vision for 2012 included teachers from both sectors regularly meeting “to discuss curriculum linkages, children's learning needs (including special education needs) and how best to manage transition from ECE to school” (Ministry of Education, 2002b, p.17). The following actions were suggested towards achieving the proposed strategy of Promoting coherence of education between birth and eight years:

• promoting better understanding between ECE teachers and primary teachers about the links between Te Whāriki and the New Zealand Curriculum Framework
• promoting better understanding between ECE teachers and primary teachers about the pedagogical approaches in ECE and schools
  
• distributing information about effective transition from ECE to school practices
  
• better align policy between early intervention in ECE and special education in schools (Ministry of Education, 2002b, p. 17)

For Māori and Pasifika children, the relationship goals included “smoothing” children’s transitions between home, ECE and school for all children, including those children with special education needs. The plan also noted that special effort may be required for children moving from immersion ECE to English-medium schooling (pp.16-17).

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s 10-year, long-term vision for the wellbeing of children in New Zealand (Te Ara Tukutuku Ngā Whanaungatanga o Ngā Tamariki, 2006) also highlighted transitions as being points of key interest. Assessment at key transition points, such as school entry, was recommended with a view to ensuring resources were available to manage the transition well (The Office of the Children’s Commissioner, 2006). Health initiatives such as B4 School Checks, started in 2008 (Ministry of Health, 2008; “Healthy beginnings”, 2009), fitted within the framework’s proposal to have a plan for each child and to identify where additional support was required. “For most children, their needs will be met within universal education and health services. But we also must be able to identify children who have additional needs” (The Office of the Children’s Commissioner, 2008, p.1). Within Te Ara Tukutuku Ngā Whanaungatanga o Ngā Tamariki, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner also noted school engagement for five to nine year olds as a core goal.

Most recently, improving transitions to school has been identified as a key goal in Ka Hikitia Managing for Success: The Māori Education Strategy 2008-2012 (Ministry of Education, 2008a) and as a key factor in Pasifika success in the Pasifika Education Plan 2008-2012 (Ministry of Education, 2008b). Ka Hikitia sets out the following actions to support the goal of improving Māori children’s transitions to school:

• Support whānau and their children to make an effective transition to school through the provision of resources and information programmes to whānau.
  
• Develop a ‘transition toolkit’ and, through professional development, support teachers in early childhood education and schools to work with whānau and improve the transition from early childhood education to school for and with Māori students.
  
• Establish evaluative reviews to report on the effectiveness of the transition to school for Māori children as a priority in 2008/09 and 2009/10.
  
• Support schools to use the best evidence about effective teaching and learning in early childhood education settings to influence quality teaching in the first years of school. (Ministry of Education, 2008a, p. 30)

Other goals within Ka Hikitia also related to the points covered in this review such as strengthening the participation of Māori whānau in their children’s learning in the early years at school, and strengthening teaching and learning for Māori students.

The Pasifika Education Plan included the following as part of the goal to increase effective teaching for Pasifika bilingual students:

• Improve transitions by ensuring there are clear pathways available from:
  
  • home to Pasifika bilingual, immersion and mainstream early childhood education services,
    
  • early childhood to schooling,
    
  • within schooling,
    
  • schooling to further study and/or sustainable employment.
    
• Support the transitions of Pasifika bilingual students (into, within and between Pasifika bilingual ECE services, Pasifika bilingual classrooms, and English medium classrooms). (Goal 17, Ministry of Education, 2008b)

Like Ka Hikitia, the Pasifika Education Plan also aimed to increase the engagement in education of Pasifika parents, families and communities as well as their involvement in education partnerships with schools that focused on achievement. There were also consistencies with the Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s (2006) vision, in that student engagement was viewed as essential for success.

Although there has been clear policy direction and commitment in relation to the transition from early childhood education to school, May (2009) commented that, “the reality left a chasm caused by a range of industrial, delivery, funding and philosophical divides” (p. 254). To realise the goals of the three strategic plans (Ministry of Education, 2002b, 2008a, 2008b) it is important to consider what is known about the transition to school.

Starting school in New Zealand and the implications for this review

In Aotearoa/New Zealand, although not compulsory until age six, school entry for almost all children happens when they turn five. This contrasts with the more common annual, biannual or termly intakes that occur elsewhere (see for example: Corrie, 1999; Dunlop & Fabian, 2007; Graue, 1993; Sharp, Hutchinson & Whetton, 1994). Overseas, cohort entry means a focus on transition often forms one aspect of the school year cycle, with “timely” support and advice, eg, themed journals (Mantei, Latham & Kervin, 2009, p. 3). In addition, transition to school programmes described in overseas literature usually relate to groups of children starting together rather than the continuous enrolment of individuals. However, in New Zealand, teachers are continually overseeing school entry.

Although it has been proposed that starting on the child’s birthday provides a more individualized and personal event for the child (Neuman, 2002), the reality is that children often find themselves involved in bewildering large group activities during their first days, with no particular arrangements made to support their transition (Ledger, 2000; Peters, 2004). However, it is impossible to generalise about the New Zealand experience. In a rural area, or other locations where new children start less frequently, or where new entrant classes are smaller, there may be more time to provide support for new children when they start.

The practice of starting on or just after their fifth birthday means that children in New Zealand, although not the youngest internationally, are relatively young on entry to school compared to children in other Western countries. For example, Suggate (2009) noted that in a recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, only 4 out of 56 countries had a school entry age under six (see Table 1 for details). Suggate’s (2009) analysis of reading achievement indicated no benefit from early entry to formal schooling and some potentially negative consequences for some children’s long-term success. It seems reasonable to conclude that because of their young age on entry, New Zealand children may require particular kinds of support compared with older counterparts overseas. In addition, age is a relevant consideration when interpreting some international data on school entry because the participants could be up to two years older than New Zealand children.

Table 1: Age of entry to school (in years) in 56 countries (Suggate, 2009)

School  entry age (in years)	Number  of countries
4	1
5	3
6	33
7	19

Enrolment practices mean that a child’s relative age ranking in the class changes, at least in the first year, as new children arrive, and the timing of the child’s birthday often determines the size of class that he or she joins. Another feature of continuous enrolment is that in some schools, as the new entrant classes get larger, the older children are taken out to form a new class, resulting in a second transition within the first year, both for those who move, and for those who remain in an altered peer group. In contrast, class size, peer groupings and age-ranking within the class tend to be more static overseas. Overall, these unique features of enrolment practices need to be taken into account when considering the implications of research from overseas for New Zealand.

Diversity

There is a diverse range of early childhood services in New Zealand. The Ministry of Education provides information range of options (eg, “Choosing an Early Childhood Education service”, Ministry of Education, n.d.). This diversity of ECE provision, coupled with complex arrangements that mean children may attend more than one early childhood service, and the mobility of families (who may travel to attend the ECE service of school of their choice) is creating an increasingly complicated web of connections between early childhood services and schools.

In addition, the increasingly multicultural population and the widening gap between rich and poor (Blaiklock, Kiro, Belgrave, Low, Davenport & Hassall, 2002), are making the composition of school classes more diverse than they have ever been. Statistics for 2008 indicate that of over 57, 000 Year 1 students, around 54% were Pākeha, 24% Māori, 10% Pasifika, 9% Asian, 2% other, with a small number of scholarship or foreign fee paying students (Ministry of Education, 2008c). Understanding this complexity, and the challenges created by it, is an important aspect in the development of any policies and practices that seek to enhance the experiences of children and their families during the transition to school. This review has attempted to provide insights into this complexity, whilst acknowledging the gaps in the available information.

Curriculum

The nature of curriculum documents, and approaches to learning, can create two quite different cultures of early childhood education and school. May (2009) notes that globally there has been increased political interest in the connections between ECE and school in recent years. In considering these links it is important to remember that an early childhood curriculum “should not be predetermined by a school curriculum because the school curriculum is not intended to be appropriate for the learning needs of infants, toddlers and young children” (Brewerton, 1996, pp. 14-15). This helps to explain the tension in several countries, including New Zealand, the UK and Australia, between early childhood curriculum and pressure to prepare children for a different approach to learning at school (Anning, Cullen & Fleer, 2004). In contrast, in Scandinavian countries there appears to be more recognition of early childhood as a phase with its own value and purpose (Petriwskyj, Thorpe & Taylor, 2005). However, the New Zealand context, taking account of the OECD work (Rychen & Salganik, 2003) and other research on learning for the 21st century, is changing.

From 1993-2007 the New Zealand Curriculum Framework (NZCF) (Ministry of Education, 1993), and its associated learning area documents, covered learning during the school years. A major stocktake of the New Zealand school curriculum in 2000 (Ministry of Education, 2002a) was followed by extensive consultation as part of the New Zealand Curriculum/Te Marautanga o Aotearoa Project (see Cubitt, 2006 for details). The result was a much shorter core school curriculum, with a lot more freedom for schools to design and implement their own curriculum “so that teaching and learning is meaningful and beneficial to their particular communities of students” (Ministry of Education, 2007a, p. 37). With its focus on key competencies, explicit acknowledgement of the importance of the transition to school, and clear alignment between the strands of the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996) and the key competencies at school, this recent curriculum provides a very different focus on learning to the 1993 NZCF, and a promising approach to curriculum alignment between sectors. Now early childhood services and schools in New Zealand have curriculum documents that focus on engaging children as lifelong learners, and consider the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’ of learning (for example, Carr & Peters, 2005; Carr et al., 2008; Chamberlain, 2008; Hill & Robertson, 2004; Hipkins, 2008). As this review goes to print, National Standards have just been published. However, these connections and the curriculum alignment remain important. The introduction sections of the National Standards highlight the importance of critical thinking, making meaning, and so on, as reflected in the key competencies. They also acknowledge the importance for children’s learning of teachers’ cultural responsiveness and cultural understanding, connecting with children’s lived experiences, and teacher relationships with students (Ministry of Education, 2009a, 2009b); issues which are also relevant to transitions.

Methodology

Questions to be addressed

This review addresses three research questions, which were proposed by the Ministry of Education, paying careful attention to the sub-questions within each section:

1. What do ‘successful’ transitions from ECE to school look like?
   

• What do successful transitions look like in relation to how children learn and achieve during the transition from ECE to school?
  
• What do successful transitions look like from immersion ECE to non-immersion schooling?
  
• What are indicators of ‘successful’ transitions?  What are indicators of ‘unsuccessful’ transitions?
  

2. How do the characteristics of the child, their family and whānau, the ECE service(s) they have attended, and the school they transition to play a role in how well children transition from ECE to school?
   

• Are there observed differences in how well different groups of children transition from ECE to school? Do some groups of children tend to transition better than others? Which groups of children are at risk of making poorer or less successful transitions?
  Of particular interest are:
  Māori and Pasifika children;
  children living in lower socio-economic households;
  children with special educational needs;
  children who are linguistically diverse and/or come from linguistically diverse homes; and
  children who have attended immersion/bilingual ECE services.
  
• What underlies these observed differences? How do the characteristics of the child, the characteristics of their family and whānau, the characteristics of the ECE service(s) they have attended, and the characteristics of the school they transition to play a part in or interact with each other in creating these observed differences?  What factors are more important than others and why?
  
• Under what circumstances do the best or better transitions occur? Under what circumstance do the poor or poorer transitions occur? What facilitates or hinders a smooth transition and why?
  

3. How can children be best supported to transition as successfully as possible?
   
   ECE Services and Schools
   

• How can teachers (at an individual level) best support children to transition as successfully as possible from ECE to school?
  
• How can teachers be supported and resourced to support children to transition as successfully as possible from ECE to school?
  
• How can ECE services and schools (at a service level) best work together to support children to transition as successfully as possible from ECE to school? What is required to support this happening?
   
  Parents, family and whānau
  
  
• How can parents, family and whānau members best support children to transition as successfully as possible from ECE to school?
  
• How can parents, family and whānau members be supported and resourced to provide the support required by their children to transition as successfully as possible from ECE to school?
  
• Do some parents, family and whānau members have special or particular needs in relation to support as a result of their own characteristics (for example, past schooling experience, language skills and capabilities)?

Accessing literature

The methodology firstly involved searching for and accessing academic literature. This included systematic searches of relevant electronic databases (eg, Proquest, ERIC, A+ Education, CBCA Education, etc.), Masters and PhD theses databases, education websites, and library catalogues. These searches were systematically recorded, showing what databases had been searched and the search terms used. In addition, personal contact was made with Ministry of Education staff and a range of national and international experts in the field to assist in obtaining new work and also unpublished data such as theses. Reference lists in relevant articles and reports were also followed up.

As requested by the Ministry of Education, the selection of literature focused on the last five years (2004 to early 2009), with particular attention to New Zealand literature, as well as research in “broadly similar” countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Petriwskyj et al.’s (2005) analysis of academic literature on transitions from 1999-2004 provides insights into some of the questions of interest from the period immediately prior to this review. Fabian and Dunlop (2006) have also provided a comprehensive review of earlier literature on this topic.

The number of published New Zealand items for the time period of interest was quite limited. It therefore seemed appropriate to include some material from outside the five-year time span, especially where this related specifically to the groups of particular interest outlined in the research questions.

The overseas literature on transitions from early childhood education to school for the same time period was extensive and some selections, in addition to the date of publication, were necessary. Notes were made on the readings to show which of the research questions they helped to address. From this initial reading, the literature that appeared most relevant to the research questions was selected for deeper reading and analysis.

Analysis, synthesis and writing

To aid the analysis, a summary table was developed noting the study, aims and country, the sample and analysis, findings in relation to each of the three main research questions, and comments.

The material relating to each research question was then grouped, re-read and notes taken. Emergent themes were identified in relation to the questions being considered. A critical approach was taken throughout, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the research approaches and findings in relation to the central questions.

An initial draft was sent out for review and a number of national and international experts provided helpful feedback, which was taken into account when writing the final draft. This process was also used to ensure that the search process had located all the relevant material. Reviewers contributed two unpublished sources (in press and 2009), but no additional published articles for the time period of interest were suggested by the reviewers. This indicated that the search strategies had been reasonably comprehensive.

While the aim has been to provide a comprehensive picture of the available material in the field, this review does not claim to provide a complete understanding of transition to school in New Zealand. It draws together a wealth of literature, but in doing so also highlights the “cracks, tensions and fractures in our understanding” (Suri & Clarke, 2009, p. 404). It became clear that there were many gaps in relation to the questions of interest.

Structure of the report

Each main research question has been addressed in turn, although the material intersects and overlaps. Chapter Two explores question one: what do ‘successful’ transitions from ECE to school look like? Chapter Three focuses on the second research question: how do the characteristics of the child, their family and whānau, the ECE service(s) they have attended, and the school they transition to play a role in how well children transition from ECE to school? The third research question, how can children be best supported to transition as successfully as possible, is addressed over two chapters (Four and Five). Chapter Four examines the role of teachers and Chapter Five looks at families. The report concludes with a short summary, consideration of the limitations, and recommendations for further research in Chapter Six.