Scholarlink

<p>The quality of educator-child interactions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings is associated with a myriad of developmental outcomes for children. Most ECEC quality measures have traditionally been collected at the classroom level. However, research on whether this level captures the unique quality that each educator provides is limited. This study employed variance decomposition analyses to examine the extent to which variance in child-educator interaction (specifically, the proportion of differences in quality attributable to the educator versus the classroom) is found at the educator, classroom, and center levels. Specifically, we measured educator warmth, child-oriented communication, and authoritarian communication. We then examined the relationship between quality measures at the classroom level and observed quality at the educator level. The study data consists of observations of 388 educators from 103 classrooms in 64 ECEC centers. Most of the variation in educator-child interactions occurred at the educator level (72%-89%). Virtually no variance in interaction quality was found at the classroom or center level. The one exception to this was that 22% of the variance in educator warmth was found at the classroom level. Only the Instructional Support domain of Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) was related to educator warmth provided to children. The findings suggest capturing quality at the classroom level misses important variability in how educators interact with children. This has many policy implications including the need for targeted professional development opportunities and suggests that we need to reconsider the heavy reliance on classroom level measures for research and applied (e.g., quality assurance) purposes.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Examining and Quantifying Variance in Quality Across Three Levels of Assessment in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月5日

查看全文
  • Samantha Burns,
  • Olesya Falenchuk,
  • Michal Perlman

摘要

The quality of educator-child interactions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings is associated with a myriad of developmental outcomes for children. Most ECEC quality measures have traditionally been collected at the classroom level. However, research on whether this level captures the unique quality that each educator provides is limited. This study employed variance decomposition analyses to examine the extent to which variance in child-educator interaction (specifically, the proportion of differences in quality attributable to the educator versus the classroom) is found at the educator, classroom, and center levels. Specifically, we measured educator warmth, child-oriented communication, and authoritarian communication. We then examined the relationship between quality measures at the classroom level and observed quality at the educator level. The study data consists of observations of 388 educators from 103 classrooms in 64 ECEC centers. Most of the variation in educator-child interactions occurred at the educator level (72%-89%). Virtually no variance in interaction quality was found at the classroom or center level. The one exception to this was that 22% of the variance in educator warmth was found at the classroom level. Only the Instructional Support domain of Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) was related to educator warmth provided to children. The findings suggest capturing quality at the classroom level misses important variability in how educators interact with children. This has many policy implications including the need for targeted professional development opportunities and suggests that we need to reconsider the heavy reliance on classroom level measures for research and applied (e.g., quality assurance) purposes.