Work

How do years of teaching experience and kindergarten group size determine the teacher-child interaction quality?

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The teacher-child interaction in a preschool educational institution largely determines the child’s success in further school adaptation and education. This research focused on examining the contribution of such factors as a teacher's years of experience and the children's number in a group to the children's interaction quality with teachers. The sample included teachers from 97 groups, in which 3,108 children are taught. The CLASS method was used to assess the interaction quality between children and teachers. Years of experience was a significant predictor of the Positive Climate, Concept Development, Quality of Feedback, and Language Modeling dimensions scores, while the children's number in the group was a negative predictor of the Behavior Management dimension. In addition, for the scores on the Positive сlimate and Quality of Feedback dimension, years of experience is a predictor only in groups with a not very large number of children (less than 38).

Source: Frontiers in Education

DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2026.1829899

Authors: Olga Almazova, Daria Bukhalenkova, Yury Zinchenko

Institution: Lomonosov Moscow State University

Language: English

Topic: Early Childhood Education and Development

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,353