Quality Early Education for All

Figure 3: Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) assessment of ECEC classrooms on 3 summary domains
Source: E4Kids, 2012.
More than 20 per cent of services were also not meeting elements
related to: the impact of curriculum decision-making on children’s
identity; connection with community; wellbeing and confidence as
learners; documentation of each child’s learning and providing
this to families; promoting the agency of each child; and
educators responding to children’s ideas and play, using
intentional teaching to scaffold and extend learning (ACECQA,
2016b).
ACECQA report that many services found it difficult to provide
appropriately creative and responsive learning environments that
built on children’s knowledge, interests, cultures and capabilities
in accordance with the ELYF (2016). Services also experienced
difficulties planning, documenting and evaluating their
educational programs, and sharing relevant information about
their educational program and each child’s participation in the
program with the child’s parents.
The quality of the learning and relational environment is the key
driver of the positve impacts of early education. There is a
significant opportunity to add value to the existing investment in
ECEC by boosting the quality of the instructural support provided
to children. The assessment process is not yet responsive enough
to work effectively as a continuous quality improvement
framework.
Quality in instructional
support involves
“intentional teaching
approaches in a play-based
learning environment. It is
about how teachers use
discussions and activities to
promote thinking skills,
encourage children’s
language and extend
learning through responses
to children’s ideas”.
E4KIDS
The slow progress on assessing services under the NQS (let alone reassessing) is a lost opportunity to accelerate
the quality of early education in Australia.
Quality Early Education for All 19