Bente Jensen

Bente Jensen has been a project leader of interdisciplinary research studies focusing on social inequality, daycare and children’s well-being and development (Jensen, 2022). She has been a principal investigator on two large scale RCT studies (HPA, 2005-2009; VIDA 2010-2013) investigating the impact of professional development in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) on child outcomes (Jensen, Holm & Bremberg, 2011; Jensen, Jensen & Rasmussen, 2017). From these studies, the interest developed for designing an intervention targeting the youngest children 0-2 years of age. Thus Professor Jensen and her team conceptualized and launched the pilot study “Abecedarian Approach within an Innovative Implementation Framework” (Jensen & Walker, 2020) together with TrygFondensChild ResearchCenter (2015). Bente has been a part of the WP-leader group in European FP7 Programme: CARE Early childhood education and care: promoting quality for individual, social and economic benefits. (2013-2017) and here Jensen and her Danish team was responsible together with the Italian and Polish team in studies of the impact of professional development and innovation within the ECEC field (Jensen & Iannone, 2018; Bove, Jensen, Wyslowska & Iannone, 2018). VALUE an Erasmus + project on valuing diversity brought insights in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) based on innovative approaches to collaborative practices (2017-2020) (Jensen, Walker & Marquard, 2020; Jensen & Marquard, 2020). Current project "'Educational quality in day care – is emphasizing close social relationships between children and adults’, and seeks to augment quality in family daycares by supporting an Vygotsky inspired interactionistic approach to early childhood education and practice-based learning for managers and staff. The ultimate goal of this study is to enhance life-chances for all children by starting early, 0-2 year old children in order to improve their potential (especially in terms of social-emotional and language development), regardless of their background (Jensen & Walker, 2021). TrygFonden (2018-2023) supports this.