124
Accelerated learning versus early
promotion of the child in preschool
education: impact on comprehensive
development
Maiduth Vergara Ortiz
1
Elizabeth Soto Cortés
2
Cómo citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar
este artigo: Vergara-Ortiz, M. y Soto-Cortés, E. (2023). Accelerated
learning versus early promotion of the child in preschool education:
impact on comprehensive development. Revista UNIMAR, 41(1), 124-
136. https://doi.org/10.31948/Rev.unimar/unimar41-1-art7
Reception date: January 27, 2022
Review date: May 2, 2022
Approval date: August 20, 2022
Abstract
The objective of this research article is to compare the foundations provided by
accelerated learning with the integral development pursued by the Colombian
educational system. For this, a eld investigation based on the mixed method
was carried out. As data collection instruments, a semi-structured interview was
applied to ten teachers from private educational institutions in the tourist and
cultural district of Riohacha, and an observation guide with a Likert scale was
applied to children who were the subject of early promotion. The results show
that, although some children who have been subject to early promotion present
cognitive development in line with the grade they are in, they show deciencies
in social integration into the group, which could be aecting their emotional
development.
Keywords: learning; preschool education; basic education; social integration.
1
Master in Curriculum and Educational Evaluation. Professor at the University of La Guajira, tutor of the National ‘Todos a Aprender’
program. Email: mvergarao@uniguajira.edu.co
2
Ph. D. in Educational Sciences. Professor University of La Guajira. Email: esotocortez@uniguajira.edu.co
Research result article.
125
Aprendizaje acelerado frente a la promoción anticipada del
niño en educación preescolar: Incidencia en el
desarrollo integral
Resumen
El presente artículo de investigación tiene como objetivo comparar los
fundamentos que aporta el aprendizaje acelerado con el desarrollo integral
que persigue el sistema educativo colombiano. Para ello, se llevó a cabo
una investigación de campo basada en el método mixto, se aplicaron como
instrumentos de recolección de datos una entrevista semiestructurada a 10
docentes de instituciones educativas privadas del distrito turístico y cultural de
Riohacha y una guía de observación con escala de Likert para ser aplicada con
los niños que fueron objeto de una promoción anticipada. Los resultados de
esta investigación demuestran que algunos niños que han sido objeto de una
promoción anticipada presentan un desarrollo cognitivo en consonancia con el
grado que cursan; sin embargo, maniestan deciencias en la integración social
al grupo, lo cual podría estar afectando su desarrollo emocional.
Palabras clave: aprendizaje; educación preescolar; educación básica;
integración social.
Aprendizagem acelerada versus promoção precoce da criança
na educação pré-escolar: impacto no desenvolvimento integral
Resumo
O objetivo deste artigo de pesquisa é comparar as bases fornecidas pela
aprendizagem acelerada com o desenvolvimento integral perseguido pelo
sistema educacional colombiano. Para isso, foi realizada uma investigação de
campo com base no método misto. Como instrumentos de coleta de dados, foram
aplicados: uma entrevista semiestruturada a dez professores de instituições
de ensino particulares do distrito turístico e cultural de Riohacha, e um guia
de observação com escala Likert a crianças que foram objeto de promoção
precoce. Os resultados mostram que, embora algumas crianças que passaram
pela promoção precoce apresentem desenvolvimento cognitivo compatível com
a série em que estão, elas possuem deciências na integração social no grupo,
o que pode estar afetando seu desenvolvimento emocional.
Palavras-chave: aprendizagem; educação pré-escolar; educação básica;
integração social.
1. Introduction
In recent years, accelerated learning theories
have been gaining some relevance within the
educational task, which has led some parents or
teachers to implement these principles, hoping
that their children or students can acquire a
greater amount of knowledge in a relatively
short period compared to conventional teaching
models (Vergara et al., 2019).
According to Rodríguez (2014), in most cases,
these procedures aect children’s ability to
receive and accumulate knowledge, indicating
certain cognitive development about their peers,
although this does not correspond to the other
stages of their comprehensive development.
When this happens, parents feel the need for
their child to be promoted to the next higher
grade, considering that cognitive maturity is the
main requirement for promotion, without taking
into account other factors such as development
and socio-emotional interests.
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Elizabeth Soto Cortés
Obeying this reality, many institutions agree to
this request and, after taking certain standardized
tests, choose to promote the children if they
have the knowledge and skills required at the
next level. However, this promotion does not
guarantee that, in the next grade, they will
experience comprehensive performance, where
the knowledge acquired is complemented by
the social skills and emotional stability that they
can experience within the group with which they
share the school day.
Based on this problem, this article compares the
foundations provided by accelerated learning
with the integral development pursued by the
Colombian educational system, to determine if it
is pertinent to approve a child at the next level,
regardless of age or the emotional maturity
to interact with students of other ages and
who may have other interests or expectations.
However, it should be noted that the purpose is
not to question the foundations of accelerated
learning, but to determine the incidence of
promotion from one level to another, without
having completed the respective grade and the
socio-emotional experiences that this entails
(Ross, 2013).
Following the objective of this article, a series
of denitions about accelerated learning,
cognitive development, social development, and
the foundations of comprehensive learning are
exposed, among others, to then focus on the
current situation of the Colombian educational
system regarding the early promotion as part
of an accelerated learning process. After that,
the methodology with which the research was
carried out (based on a qualitative and eld
study) is exposed, to then address the analysis
of the results obtained from the interviews
carried out with parents and teachers. Finally,
the conclusions of the study are detailed, where
the reality observed in the private institutions
studied in the special, tourist, and cultural
district of Riohacha is reported.
Some theoretical references
Next, a series of concepts and theories related
to the subject matter of this article is exposed.
The purpose is to understand the various aspects
that revolve around the investigated problem,
at the same time that they are extrapolated to
illustrate the reality evidenced in the institutions
that are the object of this investigation.
Accelerated learning
It is the result of a series of theories, approaches,
methods, and resources, whose main purpose
is to increase the capacity to receive and
appropriate new knowledge in a shorter time than
is usually provided for these purposes; for this,
“the real power of the brain is harnessed through
strengthening the ability to concentrate using the
5 senses appropriately” (Powell, 2019, p. 73). To
obtain this result, it is appealed for the use of all
the resources that the person has, as well as the
possibilities that the surrounding environment
guarantees. In this way, the brain develops its
potential more dynamically and naturally.
There is a diversity of concepts around
accelerated learning, which, far from
contradicting each other, must be analyzed in
detail to have an approximation of what these
proposals imply and their incidence in current
educational models. In this sense, some authors
consider that more than a theory, accelerated
learning is a process where motivation acts as a
catalyst for the contents received by the subject
so that their learning rate is accelerated, along
with long-term memory. This demands active
participation on the part of the learners, who
must “activate their curiosity and creativity so
that a natural state of receptivity towards new
knowledge develops” (Ochoa and Oropeza,
2004, p. 39).
For his part, Ferrín-Schettini (2019) points out
that accelerated learning is based on a set of
techniques and strategies that increase learning
capacity in the classroom, but that, when
incorporated into the subjet’s usual routines,
they allow the acquisition of knowledge in a
faster and more relevant way throughout life.
Although the most signicant results are obtained
by implementing these strategies from the rst
years of life, there are no limitations to their
application at any stage of life, so it is possible to
assume the presence of dierent strategies that
are appropriate to age, cognitive development,
and even, the sociocultural context in which the
subject develops.
Based on the preceding considerations,
accelerated learning can be used with people of
dierent ages, but for dierent purposes. Thus,
when implemented with high school students, it
can be an excellent alternative to teach a greater
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Elizabeth Soto Cortés
number of program contents that, for reasons of
time and workload, cannot be completed during
their daily workday. In the case of university
students, it can be a viable alternative to nish
school in shorter times while, in children in initial
and basic primary education, it has become
an alternative to alleviate the eects of school
absenteeism caused by the pandemic COVID-19
(Cincinnati Public Schools, 2021). For all the
above, it is evident that it is not an alternative
for early grade promotion, since during the stage
3 - 7 years, children have a series of interests
and motivation triggers, which are not linked to
the academic aspect, but to the aective, playful
and social aspects.
Within this juncture, Armus et al. (2012) have
expressed their disagreement with accelerated
learning in preschool education and propose
early learning that is based on the initiation of
schooling from the rst 3 or 4 years, to acquire
knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to
start basic primary education. It should be noted
that, for these authors, the years that comprise
preschool education are fundamental for the
integral formation of the student, for which it is
advisable to study them in their entirety, without
an early promotion that interrupts this process.
Cognitive development
Cognitive development constitutes a part of
the integral development of the person, which
is reected in the ability to establish a position
about the elements of the external world that are
known. This is evidenced in the children’s ability
to accumulate information through learning or
experience and keep it in long-term memory, as
long as it represents a practical utility in their
life. To achieve this task, a series of mental
processes (simple and complex) intervene, which
are described through cognitive psychology.
This notion arises from Piaget’s postulates (as
cited in Castilla, 2014), who associated this
development with the person’s ability to learn
through observation, experience, or, rather,
intentional teaching. Thanks to this faculty, the
child strengthens the memorization of concepts,
but also the ability to plan and solve problems
based on previous knowledge or experiences.
In this regard, Universidad de Valencia (2016)
considers that it is an innate process in the
person, divided into a series of stages that Piaget
dened as follows: the sensorimotor stage, pre-
operational stage, stage of concrete operations,
and stage of formal operations.
For this article, the pre-operational stage,
developed between 2 and 7 years of age,
deserves special attention in which egocentric
thinking is carried out, the strengthening of the
imagination, at the same time that language
passes to become a means of self-expression. In
some cases, the early stimulation received by the
child can give way to a clear, precise language,
capable of surpassing in words and grammatical
constructions that of other children of the same
age, which in itself does not constitute an
indicator to be prematurely promoted to basic
primary education (Castilla, 2014).
Child’s social development
Along with the cognitive development of the
children, their social development must go
determined by the ability to relate to those
around them in an eective way, acquiring
socially accepted behaviors, values, and
regulations, for harmonious coexistence. In this
sense, social development can be dened as a
behavior initially learned at home, but which is
strengthened in other contexts such as school or
the family environment.
Most authors agree that social development
takes place alongside aective and intellectual
development and has a direct impact on the
formation of personality. On this point, Riesco
(2007) considers that this development begins
when children start to understand human nature
and to dierentiate between the people around
them, who act as active or passive agents in their
learning process. Initially, there is a physical and
emotional dependence on the parents, which is
gradually overcome when children integrate into
dierent social and cultural settings.
As children grow, they become aware of their
abilities at a cognitive and motor level; this
allows them to explore their surrounding
environment and the world more freely and
expand their referents (Gil et al., 2008). In some
cases, reaching certain capacities leads children
or adolescents to overestimate their potential
and try to prematurely break their dependence
on their parents, although in others there may
be an underestimation of their capacities.
Accelerated learning versus early promotion of the child in preschool education: impact on comprehensive development
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Elizabeth Soto Cortés
From a more recent perspective, Campos (2021)
arms that social development is the result of
a conuence of factors among which is brain
maturation, which provides the guidelines for
behavior adjusted to the precepts of society,
as well as, the cognitive factors that facilitate
the development of language that will allow
children to interact with those around them and,
the socio-emotional aspects through which they
strengthen the family bond.
Focusing on this point, Ocaña and Martin
(2011) believe that social development is
closely linked to aective development and
to cognitive processes such as language
strengthening, which determines the ability to
communicate eectively with others. Based on
these considerations, socialization is understood
as the ability to relate to others and it is the
indicator par excellence of social development.
Without ignoring the existing interaction between
cognitive and social development, it may be the
case that children have knowledge, abilities, or
skills that exceed the competencies required at
the level of schooling attended; however, their
ability to socialize, make friends or share interests
may be conditioned by their chronological age.
According to Gomez et al. (2011), interpersonal
relationships can be uid or limited (without
there being a pathology involved) depending
on the age, sex, or interests of those around
them. Therefore, the interaction of a child with
a group that is older than him/her can generate
discrepancies that aect his/her adaptation and
comprehensive development.
Emotional development
Emotions are another fundamental aspect in the
life of children between 2 and 6 years of age.
During this period, they recognize that people
around them may experience similar or dierent
emotions than their own, which allows feelings
of empathy or antipathy. As infants mature, they
recognize that their moods must be regulated
to guarantee harmonious interaction with their
environment. This allows them to develop values
and attitudes such as cooperation, assertiveness,
empathy, and, above all, self-control, through
which they will be able to regulate their moods
based on the demands of the environment and
social conventions (Muslera, 2016). Therefore,
when they enter initial education, they should
already have certain socio-emotional skills that
allow them to regulate their behavior based on
what is socially acceptable.
In this matter, Araque (2016) argues that
emotional development has the possibility
of inuencing cognitive development, either
positively or negatively, given that emotions
experienced by the child from his early years
have the ability to “shape his mind, and,
therefore, his behavior” (p. 1). In addition to
cognitive development, social development
is also inuenced by emotional development,
generating states of empathy, apathy, or
antipathy towards the teacher, as well as towards
classmates.
For López (2007), the family is constituted as
the main emotional referent that children have
from the moment they are born and during
the rst years of their life. This environment
is presented to the author as “a reference that
provides means for imitation, so if the mother
smiles, the child tends to reect this behavior”
(p. 25). However, there must be continuous
reinforcement of positive emotional behaviors
for children to incorporate them into their
habitual behavior.
Armus et al. (2012) recognize that, during the
rst years of life, children develop emotional
bonds with their parents or those in charge of
their care. In this way, they are weaving socio-
aective ties that, if they are not the most
appropriate, put their integral development at
risk, a fact that coincides with López (2007).
On the other hand, Armus et al. point out that
the interaction of children with the closest
adults gives way to the imitation of behaviors
that, when repeated with some regularity, are
reproduced in the habitual behavior of children.
Integral development theory
Integral development can be conceived as the
conuence between biological, cognitive, social,
and emotional development that guarantee the
stability of children. On the subject, Armus et
al. (2012) point out that this process will also
depend on a series of factors external to them,
namely: education, health, and public policies
that assure comprehensive protection from
early childhood.
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Calvera (2015) refers that integral development
is simultaneously a process and a child’s right.
As a process, it can be considered that it is
the normal course that every infant should
go through when the physical, emotional,
cognitive, social, and even spiritual dimensions
are appropriately addressed, while, as a right,
it poses an ideal condition for childhood, which
must be guaranteed by the family, under the
auspices of State institutions. In children between
3 and 6 years of age, this is strengthened by
a series of activities that include “sensory and
perceptual experiences; intellectual activities;
the orientation; games and reading-writing
activities, among others” (Duque and Sierra,
1990, p. 6). This constitutes a task that must be
carried out by the parents, in coordination with
the teachers, once children start in the school
system.
These reections refer that preschool education
constitutes a new world for children, where
they recognize the existence of dierent habits
and procedures from those that they have
been evidencing at home. For this transition to
represent an experience of personal growth,
educational models taught at this stage must
be coupled with the dynamics that children
experience at home, which is achieved through
communication and coordinated work between
parents and teachers.
In this regard, Claro (2011) argues that a
determining aspect for the integral development
of the child is mental health and an indicator that
this could be being aected is evidenced in the
changes experienced in their relationships with
the environment, rather than in their individual
changes, which, in most cases, respond to
normal developmental processes. The methods
used to attend to mental health and therefore
the integral development of the child include
therapeutic and even pharmacological treatment.
In the particular case of Colombia, the integral
development of the child is a topic of interest not
only in school curricula but also in State policies.
For this reason, since 2013 the comprehensive
care strategy ‘De Cero a Siempre’ has been
implemented, through which intersectoral
coordination is established aimed at providing
children from 0 to 5 years of age with health
care, nutrition, education, social assistance, and
recreation, which allows them to achieve the
full development of their capacities (Comisión
Intersectorial de Primera Infancia, 2012).
For this purpose, the protection policies go from
the moment of gestation until 5 years of age,
although, for some State agencies, this period
extends up to six years. The fundamental goal
is to attend rst to the children in the most
vulnerable conditions to gradually expand the
coverage until reaching the entire population
belonging to this conglomerate.
Integration of the child into the group
It constitutes the ability that the child experiences
to join a group with similar ages and interests,
which should be a simple act, considering that
human beings are sociable by nature. According
to Flores (2017), through group dynamics,
“closer relationships are fostered and emotional
ties are established between the members of
the group” (p. 6). In this way, the socialization
processes are inserted within a comprehensive
educational process that not only favors cognitive
development, but also personality.
Most of the authors that address this topic focus
on children with special needs, for which reason
there is abundant documentation regarding the
integration into the group of deaf, blind, autistic,
or Down syndrome children (Viloria, 2016).
However, it is also recurrent that a child with
normal cognitive development and in a position
of all his physical and motor capacities requires
dynamics for group integration, which can be
implemented by the teacher or school counselor,
although there may be cases in which requiring
more specialized care.
Under this scenario, the Ministry of Education
of Spain (n.d.) points out that there are two
procedures by which the child “generates, stores,
and transforms knowledge to achieve their social
integration into the group” (para. 4), namely:
the knowledge schemas and perspective-taking
ability. Through the rst, the references that
the child brings about reality and their way of
interpreting it are activated, to determine the
individual characteristics, as well as those of
those around them. Through the second, the
ability to “put oneself in the other’s place and
see the world through the particular perspective
that he handles” is constituted (para. 6).
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Cava and Musitu (2001) consider that group
integration depends on the way the child gets
along with the teacher and their peers. In each
classroom there is a school climate generated
from the interaction between all those who
interact in it, therefore, when a new child joins
the group, there may be changes in this climate,
which trigger his/her shyness when interacting
with the rest of the group.
In this sense, the fear of rejection can be a
stressful situation for children, aecting their
emotional development and, at the same
time, the motivation necessary to maintain
academic performance. To this, it must be
added that factors such as personality, the
home environment, and genetic predisposition
may cause some children to experience higher
levels of anxiety in the classroom than others
subjected to similar situations (Jiménez, 2018).
State-of-the-art in Colombia
In the particular case of Colombia, basic and
secondary education institutions have the
power to carry out an early promotion of a
degree, determined by the Board of Directors
of the institution, coming after the guidelines
established in article 7 of Decree 1290 of 2009
(that replaces Decree 230 of 2002), which
provides for the following:
Article 7. Advance grade promotion.
During the rst period of the school year, the
academic council, with the prior consent of
the parents, will recommend to the board
of directors the early promotion to the next
grade of the student who demonstrates
superior performance in cognitive, personal,
and social development within the framework
of the basic competencies of the grade they
are studying. The decision will be recorded in
the minutes of the board of directors and, if
positive, in the school record (Decree 1290,
2009).
As this provision is proposed for basic and
secondary education in Colombia, it does not
apply to the preschool education level; however,
some institutions, at the insistence of the parents,
make a wrong interpretation of it, to apply
criteria that determine that the child (without
having completed the transition grade) is apt to
enter the rst grade of basic primary education.
This process begins with the parental request
to the Evaluation Department of the institution
where the child attends, stating the reasons
that justify said promotion. Subsequently, a
‘suciency test’ is carried out in all the subjects,
to verify the learning and acquired skills, based,
fundamentally, on academic criteria, leaving
aside the aspects of social and emotional
development that guarantee full integration
into the new group where the child will share
(Ministerio de Educación Nacional [MEN], 2022).
In addition to this, there is another problem:
the study topics that are evaluated in these
prociency tests correspond to the areas
and programmatic contents of primary and
secondary education, for which there are
no standardized tests for early promotion in
preschool education. In this sense, the MEN
(2022) presents a certain ambiguity that can be
interpreted at the convenience of the parents or
the institution itself, since it denes who can be
subject to early promotion and which instance
is in charge of suggesting or implementing it,
but not establishes from what age is possible to
start doing it.
The literature review for this topic allowed us
to verify that there is little documentation on
this problem, for which its causes and possible
consequences are presented from the perspective
of the researcher, supported by some studies such
as that of Cambindo and Mina (2011), who note:
Taking into account the provisions of Decree
1290, where the evaluation of learning is
dened as an integral process in which values,
attitudes, and knowledge are incorporated, it
is expected that teachers have the necessary
strategies for students to develop skills that
allow them to successfully solve academic
situations and everyday life. (p.119)
This means that any early promotion process
must go beyond the cognitive criteria that prevail
at the time of establishing the evaluations that
are applied to preschool students from the
institutions under study, which once again leads
to the problem addressed in this study, based
on the fact that students could be promoted
from the transition grade to grade 1 of primary
school, without having the necessary social or
emotional maturity to face the changes in school
routines and the classroom climate.
Accelerated learning versus early promotion of the child in preschool education: impact on comprehensive development
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Elizabeth Soto Cortés
In the preschool education institutions of the tourist
and cultural district of Riohacha, the problem with
early promotion occurs more regularly in private
institutions. This could be because parents have a
higher educational level, which leads them to train
their children at home, to the point of considering
that the learning achieved by them constitutes
the only requirement to advance to the next level
or grade.
Faced with the pressure exerted by parents,
both teachers and administrators would be
opting to carry out early promotion tests, to
establish if the child’s knowledge allows him
to enter the immediately higher grade, leaving
aside the dierent stages that, as a whole,
make up their integral development. Once
the child is incorporated into the immediately
higher grade, there is no follow-up to determine
if their performance and adaptation are the
most acceptable, for which the socio-aective
development could end up aected, without
parents or teachers noticing it.
2. Methodology
A mixed investigation was carried out under a
eld design focused on the institutions: ‘Jardín
Escolar Mi Pequeña Universidad’; ‘Jardín Escolar
Las Dunas’ and ‘Instituto para el Desarrollo de
las Inteligencias Múltiples de Riohacha’, located
in the department of La Guajira in Colombia,
which have the level established for preschool
education (transition grade) and grade 1 of
basic primary. A semi-structured interview of
ve questions was carried out with ten teachers,
through which some aspects of the criteria for
early promotion tests were consulted, as well
as the methods applied to follow up with those
children who have been promoted to the higher
grade. Likewise, convenience sampling was
applied in which the willingness to participate on
the part of the teachers was taken as inclusion
criteria, along with the fact of having worked
with the transition grade or the rst grade during
the last ve school years.
In the same way, an observation guide consisting
of eight items was implemented, to be applied
to the twelve children who were the object of
an early promotion (the entire population was
taken), to verify the dierent aspects of their
integral development, which may or may not be
fullled in their interaction with the group. Said
instrument included the age of the children,
the grade or level they are in, as well as the
aspects observed in an estimation scale in
which the following criteria are presented for
each question: always (A); almost always (AA);
sometimes (ST); almost never (AN) and never (N).
Results of the application of the interviews were
subjected to a narrative analysis; they are exposed
in the discussion of the same. The information
obtained through the observation guide made it
possible to verify the dierent factors of integral
development that are observed in those children
who have been the subject of early promotion,
which were compared with the author’s
considerations, besides the theoretical foundation
that served as support for this research.
3. Discussion
Interview with the teachers
Teachers interviewed handle the approach that
early promotion is advisable for children who
demonstrate cognitive abilities that exceed those
established for the level of schooling in which
they are (in this case, the degree of transition).
Through promotion, children can continue their
training process more quickly and respond
to their academic interests. Although this is a
general opinion, some educators consider that
this promotion could disadvantage the integral
development of the child, since it only focuses
on knowledge or abilities, without taking into
account socio-aective development, very
important at this age for the child to have the
disposition and receptivity necessary in his/her
formative process.
Those that dier from early promotion allude
to the fact that social interests and emotional
development could present notorious dierences
between children in the transition grade and
those in the rst grade, which would lead to those
who have been ‘beneted’ through this process,
to progressively feel excluded or displaced by
their peers; this could slow down the advances
obtained through a process of early stimulation
or accelerated learning that could be carried out
at school or home.
Accelerated learning versus early promotion of the child in preschool education: impact on comprehensive development
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Elizabeth Soto Cortés
Therefore, to carry out an early promotion, it
is not only necessary to take into account the
infant’s cognitive skills or if he/she has undergone
an accelerated learning process at home, but
also his/her socio-emotional development. This
will make it possible to determine if he/she can
establish social and academic relationships with
the children of the course to which he/she will be
referred and will not have problems that aect
his/her integral development.
Starting from the previous considerations,
a correspondence is established with the
indications of Oropeza and Ochoa (2004), who
recognize that, to generate accelerated learning,
there must be motivation on the part of the
children, which to a large extent will allow them
to appropriate this knowledge. However, when
this process aects their social or emotional
development, there may be diculties that aect
their cognitive progress. This is evidenced when
some children, once promoted from transition
to rst grade, experience a decrease in their
performance or lack of interest in the activities
proposed in class.
Several of the interviewed teachers responded
that they had cared for children who have been
subject to early promotion, as part of the policies
that institutions manage when they (upon
parental request) demonstrate knowledge and
skills to attend the rst grade. When questioned
about the academic performance of these
children, they agree that it is satisfactory and
possibly the result of an accelerated learning
process at home. They maintain that, at a
cognitive level, children do not show diculties
to carry out activities in the classroom and that
numerical and verbal reasoning is coupled with
that of their classmates. However, when asked
about their social integration, various positions
were observed, namely:
Some interviewed teachers state that children
promoted early do not face major problems in
their social integration into the group, although,
at rst, socialization costs them a little more
work than the rest of their classmates. Other
interviewees acknowledged having observed
adaptation problems on the part of these
children, who are occasionally rejected by their
older peers or exclude themselves from the
group because they do not share the interests
of the majority.
In this regard, the remarks of Araque (2016)
stand out, when he recognizes a marked
incidence of emotional development in cognitive
development, which can positively or negatively
aect infants. This would be determining why,
by adapting satisfactorily to the group, children
who have gone through an early promotion do
not see their school performance aected, but
those who nd it dicult to integrate show a
slowdown in their academic performance.
Teachers surveyed have also shown how some
children who have been promoted to rst-grade
face incidents in their process of adaptation and
integration into the group, incidents that can
aect them emotionally or socially in dierent
ways if they are not detected and attended
to promptly. However, they claimed to have
the capabilities and strategies to deal with the
situation and make children adapt to the group
dynamics without losing their autonomy or their
particular interests. In this sense, it was possible
to establish correspondence with what Flores
(2017) referred to: the child is an eminently
social being. To the extent that children develop
communication and the ability to deal with
adjustment problems, they will integrate into a
group with which they will establish aliation
ties.
Finally, the interviewees armed that they had
not observed attitudes that denote an aectation
in the emotional development of the children,
but they stated that those could be experiencing
diculties without showing, at least at school,
warning signs. For this reason, indirectly, they
acknowledge not having enough strategies to
analyze this aspect of integral development.
These ndings are similar to the study by Santi-
León (2019), who was able to conrm that
teaching professionals do not recognize the
signs that indicate socio-emotional problems
in children; therefore, they may be presenting
them, without being detected or channeled
promptly.
Observation Guide
With the observation guide applied to children
who have been subject to early promotion, it
was found that they have some diculties in
carrying out the activities proposed by the
teacher; some found trouble understanding what
she was explaining during class. However, this
Accelerated learning versus early promotion of the child in preschool education: impact on comprehensive development
133
Maiduth Vergara Ortiz
Elizabeth Soto Cortés
situation was timely corrected by the classroom
teachers, who recognized that it was not about
cognitive problems, but rather about adjusting
the strategies used in class, to the requirements
and expectations of these students, who come
accustomed to working at a dierent pace.
Also, it was possible to verify that several
children present diculties to integrate into the
groups formed by the teacher when carrying
out the academic or recreational activities
proposed during the school day. This was solved
progressively, as the teacher herself was in
charge of forming the groups. In the beginning,
there were some cases of resistance from the
older children, but these barriers could be
overcome by proposing funny and interesting
activities that all the students could do.
The foregoing corresponds to the statements
made by Claro (2011), who states that the
classroom climate is an element that can be
congured from the mediating action of the
teacher and the establishment of conditions,
considering that the mental health of the infant
(and the educator himself) are a priority within
a comprehensive educational process. When
the suggested activities in class are motivating,
the desire to participate prevails over particular
interests, thus signicantly improving
coexistence and participation in the classroom.
Observed children did not show restlessness
in the classroom (except when some of them
were rejected by their peers). In general, the
students adapted without problems to the
methodology proposed by the teacher and
regularly participated in the scheduled activities.
However, some of them showed intermittent
behavior in which they partially matched the
work rhythm, participating only in some of the
activities scheduled during the school day and in
the entire teaching-learning process.
Regarding communicative competence, it was
possible to observe that children present a
repertoire of words according to their age and
the level of schooling completed, demonstrating
the ability to link conversations on dierent
topics of interest, adjusted to their age. On
the other hand, some others had diculties
in their communication with the teacher and/
or their classmates, without it being possible
to determine if this was due to deciencies in
this competence or to factors related to social
integration or emotional development.
Finally, the observation guide allowed us to
verify that only one of the children promoted
early had repeated absences that put his
academic performance at risk. The guide also
made it possible to demonstrate the need to
consider other factors that go beyond school
performance and that, in this case, concern the
emotional stability of the infant, his motivation
towards the training process received, and his
degree of integration into the group, the which
require a more detailed analysis, carried out by
specialized personnel (psycho-pedagogue).
In this sense, the remarks of Angulo et al.
(2020) are pertinent: the consolidation of
integral development in children is the result
of a meticulous process, where the caution and
disposition on the part of the teachers establish
the dierence between a motivated student and
another who feels excluded or displaced by the
group. It is a process in which factors of a social,
cognitive, and cultural order intervene, which
must be monitored and attended to for giving
a satisfactory response to the changes that are
generated during the 5 and 6 years of age.
4. Conclusions
The results provided by the data collection
instruments show correspondence between
what was reported by the teachers who care
for children with an early promotion and what
was observed by the researcher. Most of these
students show academic performance in line with
the grade they are studying; however, there are
deciencies in the social and emotional aspects,
which allows us to assume that their training
process is not in line with the comprehensive
training provided for the level of the Colombian
educational system.
Although comprehensive development
encompasses the cognitive, social, and emotional
processes of children, in the institutions under
study, only the cognitive aspect is being
considered for early promotion. The strategies
for accelerated learning, implemented by some
parents or teachers, also focus exclusively on this
component, leaving aside a series of qualitative
aspects of integral development, which, by their
Accelerated learning versus early promotion of the child in preschool education: impact on comprehensive development
134
Maiduth Vergara Ortiz
Elizabeth Soto Cortés
nature, are more dicult to ponder or detect
when they are being aected.
These results allow us to conclude that
the accelerated learning proposals can be
implemented with preschool students, as long
as they do not aect the process of socialization
and emotional development of the child, as an
essential right. In other words, early stimulation
during the transition grade can be benecial for
the child and increase their cognitive potential,
but this should not lead to early promotion to
the rst grade, since this does not correspond to
what is established by the Colombian Educational
System or with the principle of the best interests
of the child.
Therefore, it is recommended to make a
more adjusted interpretation of the reality of
Decree 1290, to avoid continue carrying out
early promotions in preschool education. The
aforementioned document is precise when
establishing its radius of action and includes this
benet only for basic and secondary education
in Colombia, and at no time does it provide
guidelines or content for the evaluation of
children in preschool education.
5. Conict of interest
The authors of this article declare that they have no
conict of interest regarding the presented work.
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Contribution:
The authors participated in the preparation of
the manuscript, its reading, and approval.
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Maiduth Vergara Ortiz
Elizabeth Soto Cortés
Annexes
Semi-structured interviews to be applied with teachers
1. Do you consider that early promotion is advisable in preschool education? Why?
2. Have you cared for children who have received an early promotion?
3. How is the academic performance of those children who enter a new grade due to early
promotion?
4. How is the integration of those children who join the group by early promotion?
5. How is the emotional development of those children who join the group through early
promotion?
Observation guide
(For children who received an early promotion)
Child’s name: Grade/Level:
Observed aspects: A AA ST AN N
1) Demonstrates an academic performance commensurate
with the grade/level being studied.
2) He/she joins the group.
3) He/she is accepted by the classmates.
4) He/she appears emotionally calm in the classroom.
5) He/she adapts to the teacher’s work methodology.
6) He/she participates in the activities programmed by
the teacher.
7) His/her communicative competence is appropriate to
the grade/level he/she is studying.
8) He/she regularly attends classes.
