EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS FOR LITERACY AND LANGUAGE Chambers, B., Cheung, A., Slavin, R.E. (2015). Literacy and Language Outcomes of Balanced and Developmental-Constructivist Approaches to Early Childhood Education: A Systematic Review. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, Center for Research and Reform in Education. Geraadpleegd op 14 november 2015 via http://www.bestevidence.org This systematic review of research on early childhood programs seeks to identify effective approaches capable of improving literacy and language outcomes for preschoolers. It applies consistent standards to determine the strength of evidence supporting a variety of approaches, which fell into two main categories: balanced approaches, which include phonemic awareness, phonics, and other skills along with child-initiated activities, and developmental-constructivist approaches that focus on child-initiated activities with little direct teaching of early literacy skills. Thirty-two studies evaluating 22 programs found that early childhood programs that have a balance of skill-focused and child-initiated activities programs had significant evidence of positive literacy and language outcomes at the end of preschool and on kindergarten follow-up measures. Effects were smaller and not statistically significant for developmental-constructivist programs. Geraadpleegd via BEST EVIDENCE ENYCLOPEDIA |