Structure of early childhood educators' domain-specific professional competencies and their effects on the quality of mathematical instructional situations in kindergarten and on children's increase in mathematical competencies.

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Aiso Heinze; Professorin Dr. Miriam Leuchter; Professorin Dr. Anke Lindmeier
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264816579

Preschool education has recently gained importance for fostering early domain-specific learning. This leads to higher demands on the quality of learning environments and hence also on the domain-specific professional competences of early childhood educators. First research results indicate that domain-specific competences of early childhood educators and children's learning gains are linked. However, little is known about the ways and conditions for bringing early childhood educators' domain-specific competences into effect. We envisage an analysis of the differentiated causal effects of early childhood educators' professional competences. First, we will investigate the structure of early childhood educators' domain-specific professional competences and beliefs in the domain of mathematics in a cross-sectional study. We expect that domain-specific components of competences (domain-specific knowledge, reflexive and action-related competences) can be separated. Second, employing a longitudinal and experimental design, we will foster different components of educators' professional competences through interventions in order to confirm the anticipated causal effects from the competences of educators on the facets of the quality of instruction (planning and learning support respectively). Furthermore we assume effects on the growth of children's mathematical competences and we expect the educators' domain-specific professional beliefs to play a moderating role on this effect. In order to avoid a confounded set of variables of competences and beliefs depending on the structural context of the preschool setting, we intend a bi-national study including research in Germany and Switzerland, as these two countries differ regarding the training of early childhood educators and the overall aims of early childhood education.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Elisabeth Moser Opitz; Professorin Dr. Franziska Vogt