It’s been three years since the KIT project started. The KIT research team highly appreciates the support from all participants that makes the project possible.
This issue covers several items of interest, including an introduction to the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), some KIT research findings, a brief profile of Prof. Liang-Gee Chen, and a book review of Blackout, a picture book about a family that does things different from usual when the power goes out one hot summer night.
The German National Educational Panel Study
The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) started in 2009. Conducted by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at the University of Bamberg, NEPS follows participants from infancy to adulthood to collect longitudinal data in order to explore a wide range of topics, including competence development, educational processes, and educational decisions. The returns to education in formal, non-formal, and informal contexts throughout the life span of the participants can also be found in the NEPS databank. Data of six cohorts has been gathered by NEPS: newborns, four-year-olds in kindergarten, fifth graders, ninth graders, college freshmen, and adults. Interested readers can find more information at https://www.neps-data.de/Mainpage about the NEPS.
Highlight of KIT Findings
Cognitive development: The child identifies his/her father/mother among a crowd of people.
Children at 3 months of age (N=6563)
[Proficient: 14%, Intermediate: 21%, Beginning: 24%, Not yet: 40%
Children at 6 months of age (N=6721)
[Proficient: 54%, Intermediate: 29%, Beginning: 13%, Not yet: 5%
Language development: The child can imitate a sound uttered by an adult or the mouth shape of the adult when uttering that sound.
Children at 3 months of age (N=6727)
[Proficient: 9%, Intermediate: 11%, Beginning: 28%, Not yet: 53%
Children at 6 months of age (N=6727)
[Proficient: 16%, Intermediate: 15%, Beginning: 31%, Not yet: 38%
Physical-motor development: The child can grasp a small piece of food (e.g., a raisin or a tiny cookie) using whole palm.
Children at 3 months of age (N=6574)
[ Not yet: 100%
Children at 6 months of age (N=6726)
[Proficient: 4%, Intermediate: 3%, Beginning: 10%, Not yet: 84%
Children at 12 months of age (N=3676)
[Proficient: 74%, Intermediate: 12%, Beginning: 8%, Not yet: 6%
Social-emotional development:
Does the 3-year-old child sleep alone in a room?
[Yes: 2%, No: 98%
Who does the child sleep with if he/she doesn’t sleep alone in a room?
[ With the child’s father or mother: 87%, With the child's brother or sister: 2%, With an adult other than the child’s father/mother (e.g. grandparent): 11%
Does the child sleep alone in his/her own bed?
[Yes: 18%, No: 82%
Who does the child share a bed with if he/she doesn’t sleep alone in his/her own bed?
[ With the child’s father or mother: 83%, With the child's brother or sister: 5%, With an adult other than the child’s father/mother (e.g. grandparent): 13%
Responses from parents:
The child’s father teaches the 3-month-old child routine rules.
[ Very Often: 22.1%, Often: 20%, Seldom: 20.3%, Rarely: 34%
The child’s mother teaches the 3-month-old child routine rules.
[ Very Often: 61.5%, Often: 12.7%, Seldom: 5.5%, Rarely: 17.3%
The child’s father teaches the 3-year-old child routine rules.
[ Very Often: 33.6%, Often: 31.1%, Seldom: 21.3%, Rarely: 8%
The child’s mother teaches the 3-year-old child routine rules.
[ Very Often: 74.5%, Often: 17.1%, Seldom: 3.4%, Rarely: 0.7%
Who is primarily responsible for the tasks below?
A. Opinions of parents:
Task 1. Making sure that the child reviews what he/she learned at the childcare setting and making sure he/she understands what was taught.
[The child’s parent: 60.4%, The educarer: 32.5%, The child’s him/herself: 7.1%
Task 2. Helping the child learn to control his/her emotions.
[The child’s parent: 69.8%, The educarer: 22.7%, The child’s him/herself: 7.5%
Task 3. Identifying what the child is most interested in learning.
[The child’s parent: 60.7%, The educarer: 26%, The child’s himself/herself: 13.4%
Task 4. Ensuring good communication between home and the childcare setting.
[The child’s parent: 43%, The educarer: 53.6%, The child’s himself/herself: 3.5%
B. Opinions of educarer/nanny:
Task 1. Making sure that the child reviews what he/she learned at the childcare setting and making sure he/she understands what was taught.
[The child’s parent: 21.7%, The educarer: 59.7%, The child’s himself/herself: 18.6%
Task 2. Helping the child learn to control his/her emotions.
[The child’s parent: 24.1%, The educarer: 68.8%, The child’s himself/herself: 7.1%
Task 3. Identifying what the child is most interested in learning.
[The child’s parent: 20.3%, The educarer: 62.7%, The child’s himself/herself: 16.9%
Task 4. Ensuring good communication between home and the childcare setting.
[The child’s parent: 26.9%, The educarer: 62.2%, The child’s himself/herself: 10.9%
C. Result: There is a low consistency among opinions of parents and educarers on childcare responsibilities (Cronbach’s alpha < 0.5). Also, both parents and educarers have low expectations of children’s responsible attitude towards learning.
About Prof. Liang-Gee Chen
Prof. Liang-Gee Chen is Distinguished Professor of Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University. His academic interests primarily lie in DSP IC design, video signal processing, and bio-signal processing. He was the Executive Vice President for Academics & Research at NTU from 2013 to 2016 and has held public office since 2017 as the Minister of Science and Technology.
Prof. Chen was born in a peasant family in Yunlin County, and his childhood experiences greatly influence his concepts of education. In his mind, children’s potential can be developed if teachers appropriately guide them and inspire them, just like seeds which can grow well if farmers take care of them properly. In the classroom, teachers can help children by sharing new thoughts, boosting confidence, and giving encouragement. It’s the same for parenting. If parents allow children to have more freedom and encourage them more often, they will eventually realize that their children are wonderfully unique and will be able to admire their individuality.
Prof. Chen is one of the strongest supporters of the KIT project. He attaches a lot of importance to the establishment of KIT, a local database that collects long-term data of child development in Taiwan. He hopes the KIT project with financial sponsor from the Ministry of Science and Technology can provide parents and researchers with valuable insights into children at different stages of development, and the data it collects can be used to inform government policies.
Book Review
Blackout, a picture book written and illustrated by John Rocco, is a story about how a family enjoys being together during a power outage. Its English version is available at Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423121902), and readers can find its Chinese version at Books.com.tw (https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010854438). Click https://youtu.be/JwnHSi1-7yU to listen.