Project Details
Projekt Print View

Quality of children’s interactions in preschools over the preschool years

Subject Area General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
Term from 2016 to 2023
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 321014529
 
Final Report Year 2022

Final Report Abstract

The aim of the project was to extend the research on the quality of interaction in preschools at group level. Therefore, the quality of interaction at child level was investigated by examining children's interaction quality over the preschool years. In addition, the project aimed to investigate relations between children's interaction quality and parallel changing proximal and distal conditions of children's growing up – especially of the preschool and family setting. For this purpose, a longitudinal study design with three measurement points was realized, which covers almost the entire preschool period (1st to 3rd preschool year). The quality of interaction of the individual children and relevant setting characteristics of the preschool was collected synchronously by standardized observations. The level of children’s quality of interaction throughout the preschool years remained on average at a low level. A significant increase can be seen in children's interactions with peers, which reach a medium quality level at the third measurement point. Regarding the activity setting in the preschools, the activities offered to the children by the preschool teachers increase significantly over time. Meal situations and transition phases, on the other hand, decrease in time. Furthermore, children's interaction quality and the activity setting are largely independent of migration- and education-related disparities. With regard to migration background, children without a migration background initially achieve higher interaction scores than children with a migration background. However, the latter significantly catch up in the third year of preschool. In addition, significant differences between children from families with a low/middle level of education and those from families with a high level of education can only be found in free play and in transition phases. Contrary to expectations and findings at the group level, the data do not show any pronounced multivariate relations between the quality of children's interactions in preschool and the home stimulation (for example, concerning the extent of activities undertaken together). Also, there are no significant relations with the home learning environment in terms of the children's social skills (assessed by their preschool teachers). Overall, the project contributes to broadening the discussion in the early childhood education including the perspective of children’s interaction quality. Furthermore, important implications for educational practice can be derived from the results, e.g., regarding the supportive behavior of preschool teachers in arranging cognitively stimulating interactions.

Publications

 
 

Additional Information

Textvergrößerung und Kontrastanpassung