Translating neuroscience to early childhood education: A roadmap for Queensland

Kate E Williams; Tanya Burr; Lyra L'Estrange; Kerryann M Walsh; Ottmar V Lipp; Susan Irvine

Executive summary This project aimed to identify current and future opportunities to effectively translate neuroscience to early childhood education in Queensland. Five research questions were each addressed in turn with key findings identified or each, informing a final roadmap for future work in this area. Question 1: What are the evidence-based key messages from neuroscience that can be distilled and usefully applied to practice for Queensland early childhood education (ECE; birth to school entry)? A narrative review of recent research worldwide identified several evidence-based key messages from neuroscience which could be distilled and usefully applied to practice in Queensland early childhood education and care services. These are detailed in Chapter 2 and include nutrition, sleep, exercise, relationships, play, oral language, understanding adversity, stress, and neurodiversity, and being cautious and aware in relation to neuromyths. Question 2: To what extent is neuroscience represented within education and developmental policies relevant to the Queensland ECE sector? A review and analysis of Australian early childhood curriculum frameworks and policy documents identified any neuroscience-based messages guiding practice. There were almost no explicit references to neuroscience-based terminology and practices up until the very recent 2022 releases of the updated Early Years Learning Framework, and the draft Statement of Play released by Early Childhood Australia. In these two documents, neuroscience is positioned as central to early childhood practices. This demonstrates increasing awareness of the importance of early years brain development, and an appetite for enhancing knowledge and practice in this area. Question 3: What approaches have already been used internationally to translate neuroscience to ECE, what is the evidence for their effectiveness, and what can we learn from them? A systematic literature review identified 15 works that met the inclusion criteria for this review which aimed to understand the approach and effectiveness of existing interventions that endeavoured to translate neuroscience to the early childhood sector. Key findings indicated that interventions at helping educators translate neuroscience knowledge to practice are very recent and have mixed outcomes. Interventions showed better outcomes when educators had “stuck to the program” rather than innovated, adapted, or tailored material, showing fidelity to a manualised program is important. Some interventions and evaluation designs were complex and resource intensive. Question 4: How well represented are evidenced-based neuroscience key messages in existing preservice courses for the ECE sector? A desktop review of all early childhood education training courses in Australia revealed limited representation of evidence-based neuroscience messages. No VET courses currently contain any content on neuroscience/brain development, and only 20% of approved initial teacher training education courses (Bachelor level) contain at least one unit with some focus on neuroscience/brain development. In-service training (i.e., continuing professional education or professional development) was not included as it was not within the scope of this project. However, it is acknowledged as an influential but largely unregulated source of workforce training and quality. Recommendations include to increase the level neuroscience-based content across all pre-service courses, to align with updates to the national curriculum framework, and to introduce an accreditation process for monitoring and oversight of early childhood education in-service training to ensure content is evidence-based and aligned with workforce needs. Question 5: What are current knowledge and attitudes to neuroscience in ECE, and what enablers and barriers can be identified in terms of future implementation? A survey of the early childhood education workforce was undertaken in 2022, with 563 educators and teachers participating. Overall findings showed mixed understandings of neuroscience facts and myths. On average, the workforce held strong positive attitudes toward the use of neuroscience in their work, and moderate self-efficacy in understanding and applying neuroscience knowledge. A significant majority (92%) reported they would benefit from additional neuroscience-based professional learning, with less than a quarter (23%) believing they received adequate neuroscience content in their pre-service training. The Roadmap Distilled from these findings, a roadmap has been developed to address the overall aim that neuroscience is effectively used to support positive outcomes for all children in ECE, and to support the ECE workforce. Objectives and action recommendations are provided across three pillars of research and evaluation; partnerships and policy; and workforce development and support. Overall, this project has found that appetite and aspiration for embedding neuroscience in ECE high, as demonstrated through significant changes in the updated version of the Early Years Learning Framework that bring brain science to the fore, and through the responses of our workforce survey. However, there is much work to be done to ensure that adequate training is embedded in preservice courses, and quality-controlled evidence-based approaches to professional development are delivered.

Translating neuroscience to early childhood education: A roadmap for Queensland

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