Caroline Cohrssen | University of New England - Australia (original) (raw)
Papers by Caroline Cohrssen
Routledge eBooks, May 15, 2023
Research in Science Education, Nov 17, 2022
Social Science Research Network, 2021
International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, May 2, 2023
10 on behalf of the UKRI GCRF Harnessing the power of global data to support young children's lea... more 10 on behalf of the UKRI GCRF Harnessing the power of global data to support young children's learning and development research group
Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 2021
Child developmental theories and a large body of literature underscore the importance of both hom... more Child developmental theories and a large body of literature underscore the importance of both home and preschool influences on early childhood outcomes. We leveraged data from UNICEF'S Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, a nationally representative international household survey that has collected cohort comparable information on children's early development in over 118 low- and middle-income countries since 1995. We focused on data from 216,052 3- to 4-year-olds (106,037 girls) from 28 countries that had undertaken at least two surveys from 2010 to 2018. We considered the impact of maternal education and household wealth (what mothers/caregivers have) on home learning activities and sending children to early childhood programs (what mothers/caregivers do), on early child development. Our results indicated that maternal education, household wealth, home learning activities, participation in early childhood education (ECE) and scores on the early childhood development index (ECDI) generally increased over time and were significantly related to each other. Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed the mechanism through which maternal education and household wealth were associated with child outcomes. More wealthy and more educated mothers were more likely to send their child to an ECE program, which was in turn, associated with a higher ECDI score. Caregiver-reported participation in ECE had a large effect on the ECDI score while maternal education had a small effect on it. In comparison the effects of the home learning environment were much smaller. Taken together, findings suggest that education and wealth (what parents have) influence what they do (providing opportunities for learning), which in turn influences early child development. Furthermore, exposure to ECE services was particularly important for children's development. We conclude by discussing the policy implications of our findings and providing suggestions for future research.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching
In many countries, play is the vehicle for teaching and learning, requiring early childhood teach... more In many countries, play is the vehicle for teaching and learning, requiring early childhood teachers to recognize and assess children's demonstrations of knowledge and capabilities as they are displayed during play. In the context of science learning, assessing what children know already, referred to as “assessment for learning,” equips teachers with the knowledge required to make purposeful decisions during these playful experiences and guide children's science process skill development while following their interests. Consistent evidence since the introduction of national quality standards in Australia has identified a need to strengthen teacher capabilities in assessment. This research investigated teachers' assessment practices, and the influences on these practices, during the implementation of a suite of playful science experiences in long day care and preschool settings in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia. Teachers were introduced to the NT Preschool Science...
International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy
Investments in early childhood care and education (ECCE) have contributed to a growing demand for... more Investments in early childhood care and education (ECCE) have contributed to a growing demand for internationally comparable data. Yet data on access to quality ECCE are not routinely collected in many countries, leading to limited information on equitable access to ECCE, quality of provision, and the impact on learning and wellbeing outcomes. This paper outlines the current status of global measurement of access to quality ECCE and identifies issues with definitions, availability, and accuracy of ECCE data across countries and outlines paths forward. We argue that estimates of access to ECCE should be based on children’s participation in quality ECCE across multiple program types, rather than enrollment or attendance alone, given the critical importance of dosage and participation for ensuring positive benefits from ECCE. Governments, international organizations, and researchers all have roles to play in setting standards to define and monitor ECCE, generating workable tools for me...
Frontiers in Education
While access to quality education in early childhood is an international priority, the characteri... more While access to quality education in early childhood is an international priority, the characteristics of quality continue to be debated. In the Australian context, differing views on the characteristics of quality may be a result of differing stakeholder priorities. Divergent notions of quality may lead to initiatives that emphasize educator practice and frame a dominant discourse that situates responsibility for enactment of quality at Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) service room level. Challenges arising from initiatives driving increased access to ECEC coinciding with workforce shortages are addressed. National longitudinal research is needed to determine the impact of participation in ECEC on child outcomes, as is ECEC quality assessment across regions and jurisdictions over time. Prior to this, stakeholder conversations are needed to achieve consensus on the characteristics of quality. This could lead to the development of an instrument for assessing quality that is ...
Infant and Child Development
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 2017
Embedding STEAM in Early Childhood Education and Care, 2021
This chapter focuses on the mechanics of interaction that enable children to participate in STEAM... more This chapter focuses on the mechanics of interaction that enable children to participate in STEAM learning. The chapter provides insights from conversation analysis about the sequences of knowledge-in-interaction, and the types of questions and responses that extend learning opportunities. The what outlines the practices of talk-in-interaction that reveal young children’s understanding. The why highlights these practices as a useful professional resource for teachers and a helpful guide to parents, providing evidence-based content for ongoing reflection. The how illustrates these practices in action, showing how children’s and adults’ actions in the moment-by-moment work of early learning facilitate different types of outcomes. Examples from mathematics and science learning with children aged between two and six years from studies conducted in early childhood education settings in three different countries illustrate how responsivity and the teacher’s ability to build on the immediately prior actions can lead to concept development. The chapter encourages teachers and parents to reflect on the interactional practices that make STEAM accessible, engaging and enabling for children.
GSTF Journal on Education (JEd), 2017
Every child, 2017
Spatial reasoning is a set of cognitive functions, processes and skills that enable us to underst... more Spatial reasoning is a set of cognitive functions, processes and skills that enable us to understand and describe representations and spatial relationships between objects, ourselves and our environment-it is a life skill. Spatial reasoning is at the core of mathematical thinking. There are three key areas of spatial reasoning associated with mathematics ability in early childhood: perspective taking, mental rotation and spatial visualisation.
Zeitschrift Fur Padagogische Psychologie, 2016
npj Science of Learning, 2021
A recent Nature article modelled within-country inequalities in primary, secondary, and tertiary ... more A recent Nature article modelled within-country inequalities in primary, secondary, and tertiary education and forecast progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to education (SDG 4). However, their paper entirely overlooks inequalities in achieving Target 4.2, which aims to achieve universal access to quality early childhood development, care and preschool education by 2030. This is an important omission because of the substantial brain, cognitive and socioemotional developments that occur in early life and because of increasing evidence of early-life learning’s large impacts on subsequent education and lifetime wellbeing. We provide an overview of this evidence and use new analyses to illustrate medium- and long-term implications of early learning, first by presenting associations between pre-primary programme participation and adolescent mathematics and science test scores in 73 countries and secondly, by estimating the costs of inaction (not making pre-...
Children and Youth Services Review, 2021
Abstract The Royal Government of Bhutan has increasingly emphasised Early Childhood Care and Deve... more Abstract The Royal Government of Bhutan has increasingly emphasised Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). The Ministries of Education and Health provide services to support child development, including health care, Care for Child Development (C4CD) and centre-based ECCD programmes. C4CD is an evidence-based parenting programme for children younger than 36 months, while centre-based programmes are provided for children aged 3–5 years. This study examined the association of participation in C4CD and ECCD programmes with child development. A list of 54 randomly selected ECCD centres from nine districts in Bhutan was generated. We surveyed 232 parents of 3–5-year-olds from the 54 centres and another 245 parents from nearby areas whose 3–5-year-old children were not attending ECCD programmes. Parents reported on home-based activities and early childhood development. Controlling for sociodemographic variables, we found that both ECCD attendance and C4CD participation were positively associated with child developmental outcomes, particularly in the Learning and Psychosocial Well-being domains. Children who were attending ECCD programmes had higher developmental outcomes than non-attenders, and the gap between the two groups was greatest among older children. Parents who participated in C4CD provided more stimulating home learning environments than other parents, with most variability within home learning environments observed within subsample of parents whose children did not attend ECCD programmes. In addition, the frequency of home-based activities fully mediated the relationship between C4CD participation and child developmental outcomes. The findings support the scaling up of both ECCD and C4CD programmes.
Academic Resilience, 2022
The Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 ("the Administration Re... more The Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 ("the Administration Regulations") require the Trustees to prepare an annual statement regarding governance, which should be included in the annual report. This statement issued by the Trustees covers the period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 and is signed on behalf of the Corporate Trustees by the Chair.
Academic Resilience, 2022
Routledge eBooks, May 15, 2023
Research in Science Education, Nov 17, 2022
Social Science Research Network, 2021
International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, May 2, 2023
10 on behalf of the UKRI GCRF Harnessing the power of global data to support young children's lea... more 10 on behalf of the UKRI GCRF Harnessing the power of global data to support young children's learning and development research group
Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 2021
Child developmental theories and a large body of literature underscore the importance of both hom... more Child developmental theories and a large body of literature underscore the importance of both home and preschool influences on early childhood outcomes. We leveraged data from UNICEF'S Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, a nationally representative international household survey that has collected cohort comparable information on children's early development in over 118 low- and middle-income countries since 1995. We focused on data from 216,052 3- to 4-year-olds (106,037 girls) from 28 countries that had undertaken at least two surveys from 2010 to 2018. We considered the impact of maternal education and household wealth (what mothers/caregivers have) on home learning activities and sending children to early childhood programs (what mothers/caregivers do), on early child development. Our results indicated that maternal education, household wealth, home learning activities, participation in early childhood education (ECE) and scores on the early childhood development index (ECDI) generally increased over time and were significantly related to each other. Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed the mechanism through which maternal education and household wealth were associated with child outcomes. More wealthy and more educated mothers were more likely to send their child to an ECE program, which was in turn, associated with a higher ECDI score. Caregiver-reported participation in ECE had a large effect on the ECDI score while maternal education had a small effect on it. In comparison the effects of the home learning environment were much smaller. Taken together, findings suggest that education and wealth (what parents have) influence what they do (providing opportunities for learning), which in turn influences early child development. Furthermore, exposure to ECE services was particularly important for children's development. We conclude by discussing the policy implications of our findings and providing suggestions for future research.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching
In many countries, play is the vehicle for teaching and learning, requiring early childhood teach... more In many countries, play is the vehicle for teaching and learning, requiring early childhood teachers to recognize and assess children's demonstrations of knowledge and capabilities as they are displayed during play. In the context of science learning, assessing what children know already, referred to as “assessment for learning,” equips teachers with the knowledge required to make purposeful decisions during these playful experiences and guide children's science process skill development while following their interests. Consistent evidence since the introduction of national quality standards in Australia has identified a need to strengthen teacher capabilities in assessment. This research investigated teachers' assessment practices, and the influences on these practices, during the implementation of a suite of playful science experiences in long day care and preschool settings in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia. Teachers were introduced to the NT Preschool Science...
International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy
Investments in early childhood care and education (ECCE) have contributed to a growing demand for... more Investments in early childhood care and education (ECCE) have contributed to a growing demand for internationally comparable data. Yet data on access to quality ECCE are not routinely collected in many countries, leading to limited information on equitable access to ECCE, quality of provision, and the impact on learning and wellbeing outcomes. This paper outlines the current status of global measurement of access to quality ECCE and identifies issues with definitions, availability, and accuracy of ECCE data across countries and outlines paths forward. We argue that estimates of access to ECCE should be based on children’s participation in quality ECCE across multiple program types, rather than enrollment or attendance alone, given the critical importance of dosage and participation for ensuring positive benefits from ECCE. Governments, international organizations, and researchers all have roles to play in setting standards to define and monitor ECCE, generating workable tools for me...
Frontiers in Education
While access to quality education in early childhood is an international priority, the characteri... more While access to quality education in early childhood is an international priority, the characteristics of quality continue to be debated. In the Australian context, differing views on the characteristics of quality may be a result of differing stakeholder priorities. Divergent notions of quality may lead to initiatives that emphasize educator practice and frame a dominant discourse that situates responsibility for enactment of quality at Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) service room level. Challenges arising from initiatives driving increased access to ECEC coinciding with workforce shortages are addressed. National longitudinal research is needed to determine the impact of participation in ECEC on child outcomes, as is ECEC quality assessment across regions and jurisdictions over time. Prior to this, stakeholder conversations are needed to achieve consensus on the characteristics of quality. This could lead to the development of an instrument for assessing quality that is ...
Infant and Child Development
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 2017
Embedding STEAM in Early Childhood Education and Care, 2021
This chapter focuses on the mechanics of interaction that enable children to participate in STEAM... more This chapter focuses on the mechanics of interaction that enable children to participate in STEAM learning. The chapter provides insights from conversation analysis about the sequences of knowledge-in-interaction, and the types of questions and responses that extend learning opportunities. The what outlines the practices of talk-in-interaction that reveal young children’s understanding. The why highlights these practices as a useful professional resource for teachers and a helpful guide to parents, providing evidence-based content for ongoing reflection. The how illustrates these practices in action, showing how children’s and adults’ actions in the moment-by-moment work of early learning facilitate different types of outcomes. Examples from mathematics and science learning with children aged between two and six years from studies conducted in early childhood education settings in three different countries illustrate how responsivity and the teacher’s ability to build on the immediately prior actions can lead to concept development. The chapter encourages teachers and parents to reflect on the interactional practices that make STEAM accessible, engaging and enabling for children.
GSTF Journal on Education (JEd), 2017
Every child, 2017
Spatial reasoning is a set of cognitive functions, processes and skills that enable us to underst... more Spatial reasoning is a set of cognitive functions, processes and skills that enable us to understand and describe representations and spatial relationships between objects, ourselves and our environment-it is a life skill. Spatial reasoning is at the core of mathematical thinking. There are three key areas of spatial reasoning associated with mathematics ability in early childhood: perspective taking, mental rotation and spatial visualisation.
Zeitschrift Fur Padagogische Psychologie, 2016
npj Science of Learning, 2021
A recent Nature article modelled within-country inequalities in primary, secondary, and tertiary ... more A recent Nature article modelled within-country inequalities in primary, secondary, and tertiary education and forecast progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to education (SDG 4). However, their paper entirely overlooks inequalities in achieving Target 4.2, which aims to achieve universal access to quality early childhood development, care and preschool education by 2030. This is an important omission because of the substantial brain, cognitive and socioemotional developments that occur in early life and because of increasing evidence of early-life learning’s large impacts on subsequent education and lifetime wellbeing. We provide an overview of this evidence and use new analyses to illustrate medium- and long-term implications of early learning, first by presenting associations between pre-primary programme participation and adolescent mathematics and science test scores in 73 countries and secondly, by estimating the costs of inaction (not making pre-...
Children and Youth Services Review, 2021
Abstract The Royal Government of Bhutan has increasingly emphasised Early Childhood Care and Deve... more Abstract The Royal Government of Bhutan has increasingly emphasised Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). The Ministries of Education and Health provide services to support child development, including health care, Care for Child Development (C4CD) and centre-based ECCD programmes. C4CD is an evidence-based parenting programme for children younger than 36 months, while centre-based programmes are provided for children aged 3–5 years. This study examined the association of participation in C4CD and ECCD programmes with child development. A list of 54 randomly selected ECCD centres from nine districts in Bhutan was generated. We surveyed 232 parents of 3–5-year-olds from the 54 centres and another 245 parents from nearby areas whose 3–5-year-old children were not attending ECCD programmes. Parents reported on home-based activities and early childhood development. Controlling for sociodemographic variables, we found that both ECCD attendance and C4CD participation were positively associated with child developmental outcomes, particularly in the Learning and Psychosocial Well-being domains. Children who were attending ECCD programmes had higher developmental outcomes than non-attenders, and the gap between the two groups was greatest among older children. Parents who participated in C4CD provided more stimulating home learning environments than other parents, with most variability within home learning environments observed within subsample of parents whose children did not attend ECCD programmes. In addition, the frequency of home-based activities fully mediated the relationship between C4CD participation and child developmental outcomes. The findings support the scaling up of both ECCD and C4CD programmes.
Academic Resilience, 2022
The Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 ("the Administration Re... more The Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 ("the Administration Regulations") require the Trustees to prepare an annual statement regarding governance, which should be included in the annual report. This statement issued by the Trustees covers the period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 and is signed on behalf of the Corporate Trustees by the Chair.
Academic Resilience, 2022