Current research shows the early years are crucial to future success in school and career. As educators, we know that high-quality pre-school programs can give disadvantaged children the necessary propulsion to succeed in elementary school and beyond. Children’s educational outcome is one of the key areas influenced by family income. Children from low-income families often start school already behind in terms of performance in relation to their peers from more affluent families, as shown in measures of school readiness.
This paper suggests in order to combat those factors that threaten disadvantaged children’s development, curriculum must be strengthened through the implementation of early high-quality instructional intervention. Results of international interventions have shown that the effects of poverty can be counter balanced using sustainable interventions that provide academic, social and community support to raise the performance of disadvantaged-children.The absence of identifiable systematic research in Greece in this areas purred us to investigate the causal link between specific instructional practices and student school-readiness-related outcomes. In an effort to address the need for additional research in this area, the purpose of this qualitative study is to assess the effects of a project-based learning (PjBL)environment on disavantaged children with regard to school readiness.
Data was collected by kindergarten-teachers using curriculum-based assessment rubrics from two kindergartens in order to compare the children outcomes stemming from a kindergarten utilizing traditional teaching methodologies, with those of a kindergarten using PjBL as the main mode of instructional delivery. Findings suggest that the use of PjBL had a resounding positive impact on disadvantaged-children outcomes by the end of the school-year.
In conclusion, we argue that more resources should be directed into promoting kindergarten-programs which better support the development and learning processes of children with widely-varying strengths and weaknesses.
Keywords
school-readiness,disadvantaged-children,project-based-learning,instructional-intervention
