Structural, Process and Curriculum Quality of Day Care and Preschool Provisions in the Netherlands

• Main Authors: Elyse van de Riet, Pauline Slot
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lodz University Press 2017-12-01
• Series: Nauki o Wychowaniu
• Subjects: Early Childhood Education and Care; structural quality; process quality; CLASS Toddler; curriculum; caregivers
• Online Access: https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/wychow/article/view/3015

The presented study investigated the structural, process and curriculum quality in Dutch Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system. Teachers (N = 46) completed a structured questionnaire about the teacher, classroom and center characteristics. Furthermore, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Toddler was used to measure the process quality in 28 Dutch day care and preschool provisions considered to be good practices. Results regarding structural quality revealed small significant differences between day care and preschool provisions for teacher’s educational level, children-to-teacher ratio, and classroom composition. As regards process quality, the results showed moderate to high Emotional Support and moderate levels of Support for Learning in both types. No significant differences were identified in process quality between day care and preschool classrooms. Finally, the teachers reported placing the greatest emphasis on activities involving pretend play, self-regulation and language and fewer opportun­ities concerning literacy, maths and science activities, with no significant differences between the two provisions.