Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5-6-Year-Old Children

Similarities and differences between CLASS and ECERS-R estimates of educational environment quality

The conducted research was devoted to comparison of kindergartens' educational environment quality evaluation via ECERS-R and CLASS methods. Both methods were applied in the same kindergarten groups. Therefore, in this study we attempted to find out if the educational environment quality assessments acquired via the two methods mentioned above would coincide. We analyzed the results from the cultural-historical psychology perspective. The educational environment quality assessment has been conducted in 83 Moscow kindergarten groups where study 5 to7 years old preschoolers. The correlation analysis results show that the ECERS-R method subscales are not related to the "Emotional support" CLASS domain, however, a significant correlation with the total ECERS-R score has been revealed. The "Classroom Organization" CLASS domain has the highest number of correlations to the ECERS-R subscales (4) as well as to the total ECERS-R score. The "Instructional Support" domain is connected only to the Parents and Staff subscale within the ECERS-R method. As a result of comparing groups with relatively low and high quality of the educational environment, that were identified based on the evaluation via the ECERS-R and CLASS methods, a good agreement between the results has been revealed. However, a fairly large number of groups with high CLASS scores have made it to the pool of average-low ECERS-R scores, which demonstrates a non-linear connection between the educational environment quality evaluations according to these two methods. Research allows to conclude that the ECERS-R and CLASS approaches complement each other well.

The relationship between preschool teacher trait mindfulness and teacher-child relationship quality: the chain mediating role of emotional intelligence and empathy

The teacher-child relationship plays an important role in children's future development. However, the existing research mainly focuses on the influence of preschool teachers' external conditions on the teacher-student relationship, while the research on the influence of teachers' internal psychological characteristics on the teacher-student relationship is relatively lacking. In this study, three hundred and seventeen preschool teachers were tested were tested with Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, Emotional Intelligence Scale, Chinese Interpersonal Response Index, and Teacher-student Relationship Scale. The results showed that trait mindfulness positively predicted the quality of parent-teacher relationship (β = 0.173, p = 0.026). Emotional intelligence played a mediating role in trait mindfulness and teacher-child relationship quality (β = 0.118, p = 0.004), and empathy played a mediating role in trait mindfulness and teacher-child relationship quality (β = 0.112, p = 0.001). Meanwhile, emotional intelligence and empathy played a chain mediating role in trait mindfulness and parent-teacher relationship quality (β = 0.044, p = 0.038). On the one hand, this study enriches attachment theory. The conclusions of this study verify the diversity of proximal factors in attachment theory, and confirm the influence of teachers' own characteristics and abilities on the teacher-child relationship quality. On the other hand, by exploring the factors affecting the teacher-child relationship quality, we can find ways to improve teacher-child relationship from a new perspective, and then provide some new methods and approaches for improving the quality of preschool teacher-child relationship.