China Center for Agricultural Policy, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710119, China.
PLoS One. 2023 Nov 29;18(11):e0289614. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289614. eCollection 2023.
Developing countries have witnessed great progress in early childhood education (ECE) enrollment rate over the past three decades. Preschool and kindergarten are the two most common types of ECE in developing countries. Questions remain as to which of the two types of ECE is more effective in promoting child development in developing countries, including both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The objective of this paper is to examine the long-term benefits of attending preschool or/and kindergarten on pupils' cognitive and non-cognitive skills in rural China.
We pooled data from two large-scale surveys conducted by the authors themselves at 136 rural primary schools in 20 counties from three provinces in northwestern China in 2009. The final study sample consisted of 9,839 pupils who both reported their ECE experience and completed cognitive and non-cognitive tests. We measured pupils' cognitive skills by standardized math test scores and grade retention, and their non-cognitive skills by both self-reported self-efficacy, mental health, and teacher-reported behaviors. Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) was used to balance the pre-treatment variables between the treatment (Any ECE, Preschool Only, Kindergarten Only, or Preschool+Kindergarten) and comparison (No ECE) groups.
Results from IPW show that compared with their peers without any ECE experience, pupils with any ECE experience perform better in cognitive skills (0.118 standard deviations (s.d.) increase in the TIMSS, 7.1 percentage point (pp) decrease in the probability of grade retention) but not in non-cognitive skills. By ECE types, attending kindergarten only is associated with a 0.150 s.d. increase in the TIMSS, a 7.0 pp decrease in the probability of grade retention, and a 0.059 s.d. decrease in the index of behavioral problems of pupils. Moreover, attending both preschool and kindergarten predicts a lower probability of grade retention, but attending preschool only has few benefits. Heterogenous analyses suggest that the long-term benefits of ECE are more prominent among the Han pupils from households with higher socio-economic status.
Our findings imply that increasing access to ECE can be an effective instrument to improve pupils' skills in less-developed rural areas of China, especially their cognitive skills. Among different types of ECE, attending kindergarten contributes more to pupils' skill development in rural China than other types. We call for strengthened efforts to ensure equal access to quality ECE for preschool-aged children in rural China.
在过去的三十年中，发展中国家在幼儿教育（ECE）入学率方面取得了巨大进展。学前教育和幼儿园是发展中国家最常见的两种 ECE 类型。目前仍存在疑问，即这两种类型的 ECE 中，哪一种在促进发展中国家儿童发展方面更有效，包括认知和非认知技能。本文的目的是检验在中国农村地区，上幼儿园或/和学前班对学生认知和非认知技能的长期影响。
我们汇总了作者自己在 2009 年于中国西北部三个省份的 20 个县的 136 所农村小学进行的两项大型调查的数据。最终的研究样本包括 9839 名学生，他们都报告了自己的 ECE 经历并完成了认知和非认知测试。我们通过标准化数学测试成绩和年级留级来衡量学生的认知技能，通过自我报告的自我效能感、心理健康和教师报告的行为来衡量他们的非认知技能。逆概率加权（Inverse Probability Weighting，简称 IPW）用于平衡处理组（任何 ECE、仅学前教育、仅幼儿园或学前教育+幼儿园）和对照组（无 ECE）之间的预处理变量。
IPW 的结果表明，与没有任何 ECE 经历的同龄人相比，有 ECE 经历的学生在认知技能方面表现更好（TIMSS 提高 0.118 个标准差，留级率降低 7.1 个百分点），但在非认知技能方面表现没有差异。按 ECE 类型划分，仅上幼儿园与 TIMSS 提高 0.150 个标准差、留级率降低 7.0 个百分点、学生行为问题指数降低 0.059 个标准差有关。此外，同时上幼儿园和学前班可降低留级的概率，但仅上学前班的益处则较少。异质性分析表明，ECE 的长期效益在经济社会地位较高的汉族学生中更为显著。
我们的研究结果表明，增加接受 ECE 的机会可以成为改善中国欠发达农村地区学生技能的有效手段，尤其是他们的认知技能。在不同类型的 ECE 中，上幼儿园对中国农村学生的技能发展的贡献大于其他类型。我们呼吁加强努力，确保中国农村地区所有学前儿童都能平等地获得高质量的 ECE。
