Factorial structure of the inCLASS: validation study in Quebec early childcare centers

Roy-Vallières M., Lachapelle J., Lemay L., Bouchard C., Bigras N.

Yang Q., Bartholomew C.P., Ansari A., Purtell K.M.

• Preschool classroom age composition predicted children's engagement. • Being with more younger peers was related to lower positive teacher engagement. • Being with more older peers was related to lower negative engagement. • Teacher engagement mediated the association between age composition on language gains. Having children of multiple ages in the same preschool classroom is a common practice, and age composition has been shown to shape children's learning. However, there is little understanding of the mechanisms that link age composition to children's development. In this study, we examined the extent to which classroom age composition shaped children's classroom engagement, as well as the mediating role of classroom engagement in the links between classroom age composition and children's language and literacy gains. The data were drawn from the Teacher Professional Development Study, a study of 895 4-year-olds across 223 classrooms. We found that positive engagement with teachers mediated associations between classroom age composition and children's vocabulary gains. Specifically, 4-year-olds in classrooms with a greater number of younger classmates experienced less positive engagement with their teachers, which in turn, contributed to smaller vocabulary gains across the year. In addition, being with a greater number of older classmates was associated with lower negative engagement in the classroom. Results are discussed in relation to exploring the critical role of children's individual-level classroom experiences in mixed-age preschool classrooms.

Justice L.M., Jiang H., Purtell K.M., Lin T., Ansari A.

Research Findings: The present study examined the extent to which instructional practices, including curriculum, in pre-K through third grade are vertically aligned. Attention was directed to teach...

Ramirez M., Linberg A.

Interaction processes in preschools have been mostly studied at group-level and not at child-level – which means that interactions of whole groups of children have been investigated, but not indivi...

Bouchard C., Duval S., Parent A., Robert-Mazaye C., Bigras N.

À l’aide d’un devis mixte, cet article vise à dégager des profils de la qualité des interactions en centre de la petite enfance (CPE) et à les mettre en relation avec l’engagement des enfants de 4-5 ans dans leurs apprentissages. La qualité des interactions a été observée auprès de 15 groupes, au moyen du Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Puis, les éducatrices de ces groupes (N = 15) ont participé à des entretiens semi-dirigés. L’observation de l’engagement des enfants dans leurs apprentissages a été effectuée auprès de 108 enfants (n = 54 filles), à partir de l’Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS). Les résultats dévoilent trois profils de la qualité des interactions, dont l’un d’eux se démarque sur le plan du soutien à l’apprentissage. Toutefois, aucun de ces profils n’est associé à l’engagement des enfants dans leurs apprentissages.   Mots-clés : engagement, apprentissages, Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System, inCLASS, enfants de 4-5 ans, centre de la petite enfance, qualité des interactions, Classroom Assessment Scoring System, CLASS

Breton N., Bouchard C., Henry J.

L’objectif de cet article est d’étudier les liens réciproques entre le soutien émotionnel et l’engagement (positif et négatif) de l’enfant envers son enseignant·e et celui envers ses pairs à l’éducation préscolaire cinq ans. Douze enseignantes et 113 enfants ont été observé·e·s en classe. Un niveau modéré de soutien émotionnel et des niveaux moyens-faibles d’engagement de l’enfant ont été relevés. Seul le soutien émotionnel offert a permis de prédire l’engagement positif de l’enfant envers ses pairs. Ces résultats soulignent l’importance de poursuivre l’étude des dynamiques interactionnelles en classe.

Bigras N., Dessus P., Lemay L., Bouchard C., Lequette C.

Cadre de la recherche : Cette étude comparative s’appuie sur le cadre théorique du modèle écosystémique de Bronfenbrenner et Morris (1998). Objectifs : Elle poursuit les objectifs de comparer les niveaux de qualité structurelle et des interactions de services éducatifs accueillant des enfants de 3 ans au Québec et en France, ainsi que d’identifier les composantes de la qualité structurelle pouvant expliquer les scores de qualité des interactions des deux contextes éducatifs. Méthodologie : L’étude compare 41 classes de maternelle (France) et 40 groupes de centre de la petite enfance (CPE, Québec) d’enfants de 3 ans. Le Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS PreK; Pianta et al., 2008) évalue la qualité des interactions (CLASS PreK; Pianta et al., 2008). Un questionnaire rempli par les éducatrices/enseignantes mesure la qualité structurelle. Résultats : Les résultats d’analyses comparatives (Test-t) indiquent que les éducatrices (CPE) présentent des scores de qualité des interactions significativement plus élevés que ceux des enseignantes (maternelle) aux trois domaines et neuf dimensions du CLASS. Les analyses de régression linéaire révèlent que lorsque l’âge des éducatrices/enseignantes, leur niveau de scolarité et la taille des groupes/classes sont plus élevés, les scores de qualité des interactions sont plus faibles. Conclusion : Diminuer la taille des groupes/classes et s’assurer que les enseignantes françaises soient mieux formées en petite enfance pourrait accroitre la qualité des interactions. L’embauche de personnel éducatif possédant des savoirs récents au sujet d’approches pédagogiques favorisant la qualité des interactions pourrait aussi améliorer les niveaux dans les deux contextes. Contributions : Cette étude jette un éclairage sur les systèmes éducatifs de la petite enfance du Québec et de la France. Au Québec, elle incite à réfléchir aux conditions de mise en place des services destinés à la petite enfance tant dans les CPE que dans les classes maternelles. Du côté de la France, on y interroge ces conditions associées à la qualité des interactions, alors que la fréquentation des classes maternelles dès 3 ans est devenue obligatoire depuis 2019.

Smidt W., Embacher E.

Ulferts H., Wolf K.M., Anders Y.

This meta-analysis studies the association of pedagogical processes in early childhood care and education with outcomes in two academic domains: language and literacy as well as mathematics. It synthesizes evidence from 17 longitudinal studies in nine European countries with 16,461 children in regular center-based care spanning the period between ages 3 and 16. Results of a three-level meta-analysis provided small overall effect sizes for both global and domain-specific process quality, and indicated lasting associations with academic development over children's school career (ES = .11, Cohen's d = .22, and ES = .10, Cohen's d = .20). Effects varied by outcome domain, type of process measure, and differences in adopted analyses, with important implications for pedagogical practice and future research.

Bohlmann N.L., Downer J.T., Williford A.P., Maier M.F., Booren L.M., Howes C.

A child's unique approach to engaging with other people and learning materials in the classroom shapes their classroom experiences and contributes to their acquisition of skills across academic and social domains. This study examined the comparability of the Individualized Classroom Assessment System (inCLASS), an observation tool that targets individual children's engagement in preschool classrooms with teachers, peers and tasks, within a large diverse sample and across demographic groups (gender, poverty status, ethnicity). The CFA of the hypothesized four-factor model with correlated latent factors suggested good model fit. Criteria for strong measurement invariance were met when making demographic group comparisons (poverty status and ethnicity) with configural invariance found for gender. These findings indicate that the inCLASS maintains similar measurement properties across demographics and lend support for the observation system's utility in assessing individual children's engagement within the early childhood classroom context.

Slot P.L., Bleses D., Justice L.M., Markussen-Brown J., Højen A.

Structural quality in childcare centers is considered a precondition for process quality, which in turn is related to children’s outcomes. However, the evidence on relations between structural and ...

Slot P.L., Bleses D.

Social competence in a preschool setting, defined as children's success in interacting with peers and teachers, and showing adaptive classroom and task-related behavior, has shown to be predictive of subsequent positive social-emotional, academic, and school outcomes. Social competence is partly viewed as an individual skill, but is also shaped by the environmental and cultural context, resulting from the classroom experiences, activities, and interactions that are provided to children. Evaluating children's social competence as expressed in day-to-day contexts requires an appropriate tool that takes into account the interactional nature of this behavior. The inCLASS Pre-K is such an observational tool, developed in the United States (U.S.) that assesses individual children's classroom interactions with peers, teachers and tasks. The aims of the current study are threefold: i) to investigate the applicability of the inCLASS Pre-K in Danish preschools constituting a different cultural context, ii) to assess children's broad social competence by looking at their interactions with peers, teachers and tasks, iii) to study the extent to which the inCLASS Pre-K is capturing individual differences in children, depending on their age, gender and language background. A total of 184 children of 81 classrooms were observed on two occasions. The results supported the applicability of the inCLASS Pre-K in Denmark by confirming the four-factor structure reported in previous studies, and in line with previous work revealing small to moderate stability both within one day and across two observation days, and good inter-rater reliability. Danish children showed a higher quality of interactions with peers and lower quality interactions with the teacher as compared to results from the U.S. and Germany. The findings revealed only few individual differences between children in which boys had more conflict interactions than girls. In addition, older children scored lower on peer interactions and task orientation and higher on conflict interactions compared to younger children, although these associations decreased or disappeared when controlling for the mean age of children in the classroom. Interestingly, individual children's interactions with the teacher, peers, and materials showed moderate classroom level variance, which might in part explain the lack of stronger individual differences. Altogether, this supports the notion that children's social competence in the classroom is at least in part a situated skill that is shaped by the environment and cultural context. Contrary to the U.S., which seems to more strongly reflect a dyadic model of teacher-child interactions in teacher-directed (learning) activities, the findings from Denmark illustrate a model of preschool education with a stronger emphasis on free play and social peer interactions. Overall, the findings from this study support the applicability of the inCLASS Pre-K in Denmark and enhance our understanding on what classroom quality looks like from an individual child's perspective and, as such, is informative in improving educational practices.

Burchinal M.

High-quality early care and education (ECE) programs are thought to increase opportunities for all children to succeed in school, but recent findings call into question whether these programs affect children as anticipated. In this article, I examine research relating the quality of ECE to children's outcomes, finding somewhat inconsistent and modest associations with widely used measures of process and structural quality, and more consistent and stronger associations with other dimensions of ECE such as curricula and type of ECE program. I discuss why the associations between ECE quality and outcomes are so modest, including limited children's outcomes, psychometric issues with quality measures, and a need to revise and expand measures of ECE quality. The evidence indicates that we need to focus on the content of instruction and teaching practices, as well as the extent to which teachers actively scaffold learning opportunities. We also need to continue to focus on the quality of interactions between teachers and children, and on children's access to age-appropriate activities.

Sabol T.J., Bohlmann N.L., Downer J.T.

This study examined whether children's observed individual engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks related to their school readiness after controlling for observed preschool classroom quality and children's baseline skills. The sample included 211 predominately low-income, racially/ethnically diverse 4-year-old children in 49 preschool classrooms in one medium-sized U.S. city. Results indicated that children's positive engagement with (a) teachers related to improved literacy skills; (b) peers related to improved language and self-regulatory skills; and (c) tasks related to closer relationships with teachers. Children's negative engagement was associated with lower language, literacy, and self-regulatory skills, and more conflict and closeness with teachers. Effect sizes were small to medium in magnitude, and some expected relations between positive engagement and school readiness were not found.

Vitiello V., Williford A.P.

Preschool children with disruptive behavior problems are at risk for social and academic difficulties. Many studies have shown a positive link between social skills and child outcomes, but the mechanism driving the link is not well understood. One possibility is that children with better social skills are better able to engage in tasks within the classroom, since preschool classrooms place significant social demands on children. The purpose of this study was to examine task engagement as a mediator between social skills at the start of the year and gains in language and literacy among children with disruptive behavior problems. Participants were 470 children aged 30 to 66 months ( M  = 48.7, SD = 6.7). Preschool teachers rated children's social skills and language and literacy, and independent observers rated their task engagement across multiple classroom settings. Path models showed that task engagement significantly mediated the association between social skills and language and literacy gains. When task engagement was divided into engagement during free play and engagement during whole group, only task engagement during whole group time, and not free play, was a significant mediator, although the size of the indirect effect was very small. Results suggest that stronger social skills help disruptive children engage in classroom activities, which in turn leads to stronger language and literacy gains. Results provide very limited support for the idea that task engagement during whole group, rather than free play, is important to language and literacy gains, although this finding needs replication before conclusions can be drawn.