| Human capital is an important source for improving labor productivity and promoting sustainable economic growth.At present,China’s economic development has entered a "new normal".In the new historical period,China need to improve its human capital to promote economic growth and ensure the re-upgrading of its industrial structure.The formation and development of human capital is a process of accumulation for a long time.And it is necessary to know the rules and characteristics of children’s brain development at different ages,which has great significance to improve the quality of human capital in poor areas of China.The preschool education stage is an important stage to promote children’s cognitive,language and social emotional development,and thus promote their lifelong development.Research evidence suggests that about 85 percent of synaptic pruning and myelin formation is formed in the first five years of life,and that various external stimuli affect brain development,cognitive development at this stage and subsequent stages,and ultimately development throughout life.In addition,preschool education has a broad and far-reaching impact on promoting education levels,increasing incomes,reducing crime rates,and breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty.Heckman found that if a country and a family invest one yuan for a child of 3-4 years old,the society receives a return of 7 yuan in the future.However,investing in elementary school can get a 3 yuan return,and universities only have 1 yuan.Therefore,the stage of preschool education is crucial not only for the development of an individual but the accumulation of human capital in a country.Teacher quality is an important factor affecting the quality of preschool education.In order to strengthen the construction of preschool teachers,the state has implemented a series of measures to improve the teacher quality of preschool.However,after implementing a series of measures to strengthen the teacher quality of preschool,what is the status of preschool teacher quality in poor areas of China?Is the quality of teachers relevant to children’s cognitive development?Which indicator of teacher quality can effectively predict children’s cognitive development?This study described the cognitive development of children and the status of preschool teacher quality in the western poor areas,and analyzed the influence of preschool teacher quality on children’s cognitive development.This article mainly uses the data of the nutritional intervention project,which conducted by Center for Experimental Economics in Education of the Shaanxi Normal University in a western province of China.The sample included 347 preschools,583 teachers,and 1031 children.The research is mainly carried out in the following four aspects:First,describing the cognitive development level of the sample children in June 2017,which is mainly measured by Chinese version of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Fourth Edition;Second,describing the current status of the quality of preschool teachers,mainly from the five dimensions of teacher education,teacher profession,teacher ranking,teaching experience,and teacher training;Third,exploring the impact of different indicators of preschool teacher quality on children’s cognitive development by constructing econometric models;Fourth,analyzing the influence of teacher quality indicators on children’s cognitive development in different sample groups.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:First,in the preschool stage,the cognitive development of children in poor areas in western China is low,and the proportion of children in poor areas in the western region that have cognitive development delay is 36%.Second,the quality of preschool teachers in poor western regions is uneven and the overall level is low.Third,the ranking of preschool teachers has significant positive impact on the three indicators of children’s verbal comprehension,vocabulary acquisition and general ability;Teacher training has no statistically significant effect on children’s cognitive development indicators.When using different models for analysis,there are differences in the influence of teacher education,teacher profession and teaching experience on indicators of children’s cognitive development.On the whole,these three indicators have no statistically significant influence on children’s cognitive development.Fourth,the preschool teacher quality has a different effect on children’s cognitive development of different genders,different administrative level of kindergarten location and different family assets.Based on the above research,this article proposes the following four policy recommendations:First,government departments at all levels should increase publicity efforts to increase the importance of society for early childhood development;Second,relevant departments need to standardize the construction of kindergarten teachers in poverty-stricken areas;Third,government departments can make certain policy preferences.For example,under the same conditions,teachers in poor rural areas should be given priority assessment.Teachers with higher professional ranking in urban areas can also be encouraged to teach in rural areas to improve the quality of teachers in rural areas;Fourth,schools and related education departments should promote the quality of pre-school education and post-service training for preschool teachers so that they can be effectively promote the development of children. |
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