The researchers in this project aim to create a scientifically based playful learning curriculum for 5-year-olds in daycare.
Many children arrive at the start of their formal schooling falling behind on cognitive and socio-emotional skills that are critical for school adjustment. Despite its generous welfare system, Norway’s gaps in learning outcomes between children of advantaged and disadvantaged families are substantial.
Norway may be missing a key opportunity to narrow these gaps because the Framework plan of Norwegian daycare centers (Early Childhood Education and Care, ECEC) does not fully reflect international empirical evidence from the ECEC literature, linking an intentional practice with key curricular foci to successful child development.
Adjusting to school
The last year of daycare is a critical period for creating a smooth transition to school, and currently the framework plan describes no specific curricular foci for this group. Moreover, there are limited scientifically based tools and resources, on which teachers in the Norwegian daycare context can rely when creating an intentional practice with a curricular foci.
Building upon a previous project (the Agder project) this research project aims to help Norwegian daycare teachers develop a more intentional and systematic practice stimulating skills that are critical for adjusting to school and for later-life success, and investigate how this change in practice affects child development.
Warm and playful interaction
We will implement a large-scale randomized field experiment where daycare teachers engage with the 5-year-olds in playful learning activities. The teacher-child interaction will be warm and playful, and with an intention to stimulate socio-emotional, self-regulatory, language and math skills, which numerous studies have identified as foundational for future learning and development.
About 150 daycare centers will participate, with 75 randomly selected centers in the treatment group.
The research project Playful learning will collaborate with daycare centers in producing knowledge, products and services for daycare teachers, directors and owners, in addition to universities and colleges responsible for daycare teacher education.
Playful learning curriculum
Important objectives are to disseminate international and national cutting-edge research on a more intentional practice with curricular foci to all these target groups, and to create a scientifically based playful learning curriculum for 5-year-olds in daycare.
For more information on the project:
Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education
Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education
Read more from the Centre:
Impact Case: WiKIT: Transforming Children’s Learning with evidence-based EdTech
WiKIT is a social enterprise that was spun off from the University of Stavanger, and was created with the goal to bridge...
Now you can register for the world's largest conference on bullying
Registration is now open for the World Anti-Bullying Forum (WABF), which will take place in Stavanger from June 11-13, 2...
Could scented books encourage more kids to read?
Do you remember the scented erasers you had as a child? ‘Scratch and sniff objects’ have now made a comeback.
Are Sámi schoolchildren more involved in online bullying than other students?
A new research project is going to look into whether Sámi students in Norwegian schools are more involved in online bull...
LIFE - life skills education in Norwegian schools
LIFE wants to achieve a new and improved understanding of life skills education (LSE) in Norwegian schools.
– Parents can play a major role in the work to prevent cyberbullying
A new international research project will determine whether parents can have a more important role to play than previous...
Bringing the world's largest conference on bullying to Norway
The world's largest anti-bullying conference, the World Anti-Bullying Forum, will be held in Stavanger, Norway, in 2025....
Publications from the INTERACT project
Articles from the project. Use the DOI-link to read abstract.
Accompanying the teacher ‘into’ the classroom
In the INTERACT research project, teachers receive guidance from their own specially trained coaches. “I am lucky to be ...
Initiating multisensory reading research collaborations between Turku and Stavanger
In the months of August and September, professor Natalia Kucirkova had the pleasure to visit the University of Turku as ...
A research project to make teaching more engaging
Teacher Olaug Ueland receives feedback on her teaching from a personal coach. The goal is to make interaction with the p...
Video abstracts
In this selection of video abstracts, we provide a glimpse into exciting and important research topics about early child...
PARTICIPATE - Parents and technology in digital bullying
Digital bullying is a big challenge all over the world. The PARTICIPATE project is looking at this research theme in rel...
The importance of parents in the work to prevent cyberbullying
What role do parents have in the prevention of cyberbullying? The international research project PARTICIPATE will seek a...
Teachers bullying children – a global problem
All over the world, children are being bullied by adults in school. New research now shows that these students could als...
Children’s experiences of smells and scents
Odors change as the weather changes. Rain or sunshine, there are interesting smells, both outside and inside, to discove...
Sensory Books team gathering
On the 16th of August, the Sensory Books team held their first group gathering after the summer holidays. It was a momen...
Countries that do well in the PISA assessment have one thing in common
The most common thing about countries that are 'successful' in PISA, is a higher level of gender equality in the populat...
New exhibition sparks children’s story wonder with smells and scents
Smell is an important sense that activates memories and enhances experiences. Yet, smell is often neglected in learning ...
New team for Reading Research Quarterly
Four editors representing four countries to helm flagship journal.
