| Summary: |
It is widely recognized that young children develop key competences for later school and social success through interactions with adults, peers and learning activities in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. In particular, the quality of the interactions between children and teachers has been shown to be important for social and academic development[1,2,3]. Warm, responsive, and cognitivelystimulating interactions can predict gains in children's cognitive and social development[1,2,3,4].
Despite these positive links, the effects of teacherchild interactions have been somewhat small and inconsistent across studies. Increasingly, researchers recognize the complexity of the classroom context, and that the effects of teacherchild interactions are likely to vary as a function of children's groups and classroom features.One important factor that might help understand the variation on the effects of classroom quality is the type of activity setting (e.g., large group, free choice, routines).Teachers use different activity settings to structure children's time throughout the day and the structure of the settings is likely to play a role in
the type of opportunities created for interaction. Studies from the USA provide some support for the importance of activity setting[5,6], but it remains unclear the extent to which the quality of teacherchild interactions varies as a function of particular activity settings for toddlers, and in Europe. Understanding whether teachers provide similar levels of interactions quality throughout the day or whether they elect specific moments to provide highquality interactions remains an important research question.This can help teachers identify the most powerful learning opportunities across the day.A second overlooked potential source of ECEC quality variations is the quality of peer interactions. Prior research suggests that peer interactions play a positive role in supporting and extending children  |
Summary
It is widely recognized that young children develop key competences for later school and social success through interactions with adults, peers and learning activities in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. In particular, the quality of the interactions between children and teachers has been shown to be important for social and academic development[1,2,3]. Warm, responsive, and cognitivelystimulating interactions can predict gains in children's cognitive and social development[1,2,3,4].
Despite these positive links, the effects of teacherchild interactions have been somewhat small and inconsistent across studies. Increasingly, researchers recognize the complexity of the classroom context, and that the effects of teacherchild interactions are likely to vary as a function of children's groups and classroom features.One important factor that might help understand the variation on the effects of classroom quality is the type of activity setting (e.g., large group, free choice, routines).Teachers use different activity settings to structure children's time throughout the day and the structure of the settings is likely to play a role in
the type of opportunities created for interaction. Studies from the USA provide some support for the importance of activity setting[5,6], but it remains unclear the extent to which the quality of teacherchild interactions varies as a function of particular activity settings for toddlers, and in Europe. Understanding whether teachers provide similar levels of interactions quality throughout the day or whether they elect specific moments to provide highquality interactions remains an important research question.This can help teachers identify the most powerful learning opportunities across the day.A second overlooked potential source of ECEC quality variations is the quality of peer interactions. Prior research suggests that peer interactions play a positive role in supporting and extending children's learning[8,9], but the extent to which peer interactions is associated with teacherchild
interactions remains poorly understood. QualityMatters, an extension of an ongoing European Commission funded study, the CARE project, will aid in understanding variations in activity setting and peer interactions,and effects of process quality to answer the overarching question "How and under what conditions does quality in early education and care matter?" In specific,the project will examine these aspects of the classroom experience which, although not regulated, can nevertheless be intentionally used by
teachers to have an effect both on teacherchild interactions and child development[5,6,9,10]. Through a crosscultural processoriented approach, the researchers in QualityMatters will capitalize on the variation in ECEC systems present in 4 European countries (Fi,Nl,Po,& Pt) to examine the complex relations of activity setting, teacherchild,
peer interactions and children's development in selfregulatory skills.
Study 1 will examine the extent to which children's classroom interactions with peers and teachers vary across activity settings, while taking into consideration country specifications regarding structural regulations.The study will use a sample of 30 toddler classrooms per country, in a total of 120.Classrooms will be observed and videotaped. By including 4 European countries in the analyses, we will obtain a wider range of variation on classroom features that would otherwise show restricted variance due to countrylevel regulations.
Study 2, conducted only in Portugal, follows Study 1 by examinin |