The Agder Project

Can Norwegian daycare centers improve children's developmental trajectories by more systematically cultivate key school readiness skills known to promote future learning?

Published Updated on
Facts
Location

Agder, Norway

Sample

About 100 daycare centers

Timeline

The project is completed

Facts
Target group

Five-year-olds at Norwegian daycare centers

Outcome of interest

To understand whether Norwegian daycare centers can improve children's developmental trajectories by more systematically cultivate key school readiness skills known to promote future learning

Intervention

Cultivating four sets of school readiness skills – self-regulation, interpersonal, vocabulary and numeracy skills

Leveling the playing field

Norway's gaps in learning outcomes between children of advantaged and disadvantaged families are substantial, despite its generous welfare system.

To barn leker ved en huske.
The Agder project is an intervention to promote school readiness and human potential. Photo:

 

Research shows unequivocally that high-quality early-childhood preschool programs can have substantial impacts on children's learning trajectories.

Norway may be missing a key opportunity to close the gaps between children of advantaged and disadvantaged families. This is because the learning framework of Norwegian daycare centers (Early Childhood Education and Care, ECEC) does not reflect international empirical evidence from the early childhood education literature linking key curricular foci to successful child development.

Cultivate key school readiness skills 

Our project aims to understand whether Norwegian daycare centers can improve children's developmental trajectories by more systematically cultivate key school readiness skills known to promote future learning. To do so, we will design and implement a randomized field experiment in which we offer five-year-olds at Norwegian daycare centers a school readiness intervention program.

Intervention program 

The development of the intervention program will be done in collaboration with Norwegian daycare teachers. The intervention program will cultivate four sets of school readiness skills – self-regulation, interpersonal, vocabulary and numeracy skills – which numerous studies have identified as foundational for future learning and development.

About 100 daycare centers will participate in the field experiment, with 50 randomly selected centers in the treatment group.

School readiness for all children 

We will examine program effects by assessing children's skills with official mapping tests in first grade and more intensive measuring instruments utilized both at the end of day care and at the end of first grade. Important questions are: Can a more systematic cultivation of self-regulation, interpersonal, vocabulary and numeracy skills of five-year-olds in Norwegian daycare centers improve these children's success in the transition to formal schooling? Is the program particularly beneficial for children from disadvantaged families?

Read more about The Agder project

The project group:

Professor
51833721
UiS School of Business and Law
Department of Economics and Finance
Professor
51832934
Læringsmiljøsenteret, avd. Stavanger
Faculty of Arts and Education
Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education
Senior Adviser
51833747
UiS School of Business and Law
Fakultetsadministrasjonen HH-UIS
Associate Professor
51832954
Læringsmiljøsenteret, avd. Stavanger
Faculty of Arts and Education
Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education
Associate Professor
51833771
UiS School of Business and Law
Department of Economics and Finance
Associate Professor
51832947
Læringsmiljøsenteret, avd. Stavanger
Faculty of Arts and Education
Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education
Associate Professor
51832943
Læringsmiljøsenteret, avd. Stavanger
Faculty of Arts and Education
Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education
Per Sigurd Hundeland
Associate Professor
Institutt for matematiske fag
Ingvald Erfjord
Associate Professor
Institutt for matematiske fag
Martin Carlsen
Associate Professor
Institutt for matematiske fag
Svanhild Breive
PhD Candidate
Institutt for matematiske fag

Read more from the Centre:

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.

Research needed on the role of parents in cyber bullying

The PARTICIPATE Project has been awarded NOK 6 million for research on cyber bullying and the role of the parent. "More ...

Research articles from the Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment

A selection of research articles from the Centre. Use the DOI-link to read abstract.