The Preschool Centre

The preschool years provide unique opportunities and challenges for children. They start to interact with peers and preschool teachers and make the transition from home to a new environment without parents. It is at this age that the foundation for children’s future social, emotional and cognitive development is set, and preparation for school starts. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of research on how preschool environments and programs should be designed to support children’s development. We have plenty of societal and political opinions about why children should attend preschool programs, but we lack empirical evidence for how they should be designed. Practitioners and researchers need to join forces and create the best possible learning environment for young children in preschools.

The Preschool Centre has been selected as one of 18 prioritized research areas by the vice Chancellor of Uppsala University in 2019. Motivated by this encouragement, we are in the process of establishing a multidisciplinary research environment, including researchers from psychology, education, and neuroscience as well as practitioners and policymakers in Uppsala and the surrounding area.