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Professional Development and Quality in Early Childhood Education pp 29–58Cite as

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Quality of Early Childhood Education Environments: Discussion on the Concept of Quality and Future Perspectives

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the quality of early childhood education and care services. The concept of quality, its basic features, and its operationalization are discussed in detail. The chapter also deals with the various critiques regarding the concept of quality. It offers arguments, on one hand, for the use of normative development as the unique criterion to define and evaluate the impact of quality characteristics and, on the other hand, for the use of a limited ecological perspective on human development as a framework for study quality. The chapter concludes with a brief mention of future perspectives about quality research and highlights the need for more effective methods to translate research findings into practice.

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Acknowledgements

This chapter was funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation (CPUP UID/PSI/00050/2013; FEDER/COMPETE2020 POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007294).

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  1. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Teresa Leal & Sílvia Barros

  2. University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Ana Madalena Gamelas

  3. Polytechnic of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Manuela Pessanha

Authors
  1. Teresa Leal
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  2. Ana Madalena Gamelas
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  3. Sílvia Barros
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  4. Manuela Pessanha
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Correspondence to Teresa Leal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Athanasios Gregoriadis

  2. University of Crete, Rethymnon, Greece

    Vasilis Grammatikopoulos

  3. Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Evridiki Zachopoulou

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Leal, T., Gamelas, A.M., Barros, S., Pessanha, M. (2018). Quality of Early Childhood Education Environments: Discussion on the Concept of Quality and Future Perspectives. In: Gregoriadis, A., Grammatikopoulos, V., Zachopoulou, E. (eds) Professional Development and Quality in Early Childhood Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64212-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64212-3_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64211-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64212-3

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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