Case Studies

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may be better targeted to training and other teacher support. Finally, talk with others in the education system, including students, parents, administrators, and other support personnel, to understand how their suggestions for improvement can be taken into account (see chapter 5).

Key Takeaways

• Curriculum documents are continually evolving. It is important to have a system in place that allows for continual improvement of materials. • This system of improvement should include gathering data through routine observations and interviews with teachers and others in the education system.

Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Uganda

In Bangladesh, a small study investigated how play was understood, incorporated, and practiced in semi-rural public preprimary classes (Chowdhury and Rivalland 2016). Among the teachers and parents interviewed, a range of activities, including physical exercises, singing, acting, rhyming, games, outdoor play, and drawing, was described as play and seen as a means of developing academic skills by encouraging the children to follow the teacher’s instructions in correct ways.

Subsequently, a three-country study in Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Uganda built upon the initial study by introducing 40 play-based preschool Play Labs into rural villages in each country. This larger study investigated the impact of these Play Labs over two years on 720 of the three-to-five-year-old children’s physical, cognitive, and social development, and their playfulness, oral language, and self-regulation. These children’s progress was compared with that of children living in similar villages, but with either a government- or community-run preschool or no preschool. In addition, the study investigated the features of the children’s family situation and the quality of the Play Lab leaders’ practices that influenced the children’s development. Results indicated a significant change over the course of the study. At the start, for both Play Lab and control children, home factors were related to all aspects of children’s development, but by the end these relations remained for the control children only. This result suggests that the Play Labs exerted a greater influence in young children’s outcomes compared with the home environment. By the end of just the first year, the Play Lab children had made significantly greater progress in a range of the developmental measures, and the strongest relations were between the quality of Play

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Lab leaders’ interactions with the children and the children’s progress, most noticeably in playfulness and self-regulation (Whitebread and Yesmin 2021).

Two aspects of this intervention that significantly influenced these successful outcomes related to the strong relationships built with the parents and community, and the initial and continuing training of the Play Lab leaders. Parents and community members were crucially involved in the Play Lab from the very start, through a representative committee, and parents (mainly but not exclusively mothers) organized a rota whereby they worked as classroom assistants, made toys and other materials for the children, and carried out routine cleaning and maintenance tasks. This involvement gave them ownership of the Play Lab project and facilitated their education about the pedagogy of the Play Labs, which clearly influenced their own relationships and ways of interacting with their children in the home.

The Play Lab leaders were generally young women who had been successful in their own schooling. Their training consisted of an initial period of a few weeks, during which they were taught the basic skills they would need to lead the Play Lab, which was initially clearly organized with a standard room design, including special corners relating to curriculum areas and a timetable of set activities. Once they were under way, monthly in-service training days were provided at the training center, during which particular aspects of pedagogy or curriculum were addressed in more depth and the teachers had the opportunity to raise and discuss issues of concern.

The governments of the three countries were also involved in the project from the outset and committed, to varying degrees, to work with the project team to roll out Play Labs more widely across their education provision in different areas of the country. The project has demonstrated that this model, involving a paid Play Lab leader and considerable participation by the local parents and community, provides an affordable and high-quality preschool experience for young children that prepares them to make a very successful start to their schooling.

The Philippines

The Philippines government has put special emphasis on early years education as a driver for individual and social development. Through implementation of the Basic Education Act in 2013, the country introduced kindergarten (for five-year-olds) as the first compulsory level of education. This policy shift has required efforts to articulate and align early years and primary education in curriculum development and teacher workforce preparation.

Reviews of the curriculum and other pedagogical documents show that curriculum is sequenced in a way that ensures a continuation in learning trajectories. There is a commitment to promoting active learning and