Ecology of the classroom support program in early childhood education for children with lower income family backgrounds : case Singapore

Abstract

Children from lower socio-economic status families, at times, experience particular difficulties when entering school. These children may be equipped with different skill sets not recognized at school. Many countries, including Singapore, are increasingly concerned about the quality of early education. Paramount to quality is also the inclusion and accommodation of diverse learners into the mainstream education setting. The Classroom Support Program (CSP), under scrutiny of this study, is a small-group (and one-on-one) intervention programme developed and implemented by the NTUC First Campus in Singapore. The Classroom Support Program (CSP) involves Classroom Co-Facilitators (CCFs) aiming to include and support children from lower-income family background into early learning classrooms. The objective of the study was to understand the effects of the Classroom Support Program. The results indicate that while this programme provided individualized and tailored learning experiences for these children, CCFs roles and responsibilities varied due to the lack of pedagogical leadership. The proportion of their work is on the academic preparation of the children and while they promote the holistic well-being of the children in their talk, the children spent long periods of the day in teacher directed learning.