1-179 - Complex relations between structural teacher and classroom characteristics and associations with preschool classroom quality

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Process quality, defined as children’s daily interactions and experiences, is seen as a proximal determinant of children’s developmental and educational outcomes (Howes et al., 2008; Pianta et al., 2005). Structural characteristics, such as group size, children-to-staff ratio, pre-service and in-service training, are considered the distal, regulatable quality aspects, which appeared to be important preconditions for process quality (Pianta et al., 2005; Vandell, 2004). Structural aspects are major factors in the costs of ECEC (Mashburn et al., 2008), however it is still unclear how strongly structural aspects are related to process quality. Scholars have suggested that a restricted range of variance in structural quality, for instance due to strong regulations, might explain these inconsistent findings (Love et al., 2003; Slot et al., 2015). However, it might also point to the interplay of different structural characteristics that jointly affect process quality. The present symposium aims to increase our understanding of the relations between structural and process quality in different European countries by investigating the combinations of different teacher and classroom characteristics and how these aspects together relate to process quality. The first study applied a latent class analysis to investigate how teacher demographic and psychological characteristics affect process quality. The second and third study investigated how teacher, such as teacher training or work experience, and classroom characteristics, such as ratio or cultural classroom composition, interact and predict process quality. The discussion on the implications of these findings for policy and practice will be led by a leading expert in the ECEC field.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Pauline Slot, Utrecht University

Discussant

• Steven W Barnett, Rutgers University

Individual Presentations

• Teacher profiles that promote instructional quality in kindergarten classrooms in Kosovo - Presenting Author: Fitim Uka, Private Bearer of Higher Education, Kosovo; Antje von Suchodoletz, New York University Abu Dhabi

• Relations between structural quality aspects and process quality in Danish preschools: evidence for compensating factors - Presenting Author: Dorthe Bleses, Aarhus University; Pauline Slot, Utrecht University; Anders Hojen, Aarhus University; Laura Justice, Ohio State University

• Associations between structural and process quality in European ECEC: emerging evidence of combined and interaction effects - Presenting Author: Pauline Slot, Utrecht University; Paul P M Leseman, Utrecht University