How do skilled early years practitioners teach? What knowledge do they need to draw on to do it well? While previous studies have successfully measured what teachers know, their content knowledge, and found this matters for child outcomes, researchers have long struggled with measuring knowledge of how best to teach that content (their pedagogical knowledge). This sort of knowledge is much less visible and very hard to measure. And the trouble is, if we can't measure something, we can't prove to policymakers and the public that it matters (or design professional development to help us improve it).
However, new research from the University of Oxford marks the first time that early years practitioners’ knowledge of how to teach has been measured and found to make a difference to children's outcomes. The study looked specifically at educators’ knowledge and selection of language-supporting strategies around oral language development.
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