The national newspaper Jyllands-Posten published an article about some research from my dissertation on July 24th. You can read the article here

The article highlights results from a study that examined the quality of Danish preschools. While we found that Danish preschool teachers are exceptionally skilled at supporting children’s social development, we also found that there was a general lack of knowledge and skill when it came to stimulating children’s language and higher-order thinking. This is a major issue, as some children – especially those growing up socially disadvantaged – may not develop the language and preliteracy skills necessary for learning to read.

It is important to note that this lack of quality is not the fault of the preschool teachers themselves. There is very little focus on language acquisition and stimulation in the preschool teacher education program. This issue should be addressed both by researchers and policy-makers.