Structural and Process Quality of Danish Preschools: Direct and Indirect Associations With Children’s Growth in Language and Preliteracy Skills

Abstract

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 process quality is mixed. Moreover, despite strong theoretical claims, empirical evidence supporting the indirect relation of structural features through process quality on child outcomes is scarce. The current study contributes to the knowledge by (a) investigating the direct relations of structural teacher and classroom features with growth in children's language and preliteracy skills in a sample of more than 3,000 children, (b) studying the associations of process quality with children's outcomes using the widely used Classroom Assessment Scoring System Pre-K observational measure among more than 400 teachers, and (c) testing indirect effects of structural quality through process quality on growth in children's skills. Process quality was generally directly positively associated with gains in children's language and preliteracy skills, whereas structural quality showed few direct relations. In addition, the average level of children's initial language and preliteracy skills were positively related to gains, as was classrooms' proportion of non-Danish children (indirectly through process quality). The results illustrate the complexities of relations between structural and process quality and children's outcomes and warrant further research.

Teacher–child interaction quality and children's self‐regulation in toddler classrooms in Finland and Portugal

“…The value of high‐quality teacher–child interaction for child development has been broadly emphasized (e.g., OECD, 2018; Slot, Bleses, Justice, Markussen‐Brown, & Højen, 2018; see also Seidel & Shavelson, 2007, for a review of effective teaching). ECEC teachers have an important role in fostering toddlers' development through supporting their engagement, cognition, and language (e.g., La Paro, Williamson, & Hatfield, 2014).…”

Structural characteristics and process quality in early childhood education and care

“…About 50% of OECD countries have a unitary system for the age range 0 to 5 or sometimes until 8 years of age (Guerriero, 2017 [16] ), and in these countries the Ministry of Education is the responsible governing body. In countries with a split system, starting at age three, the Ministry of Education is usually responsible for the preschool provisions, whereas the Ministry of Social Affairs or the like is responsible for provisions for children aged 0 to 2 (Guerriero, 2017 [16] ; Slot, 2016 [17] ). In addition to that the level of centralisation differs between countries with some countries having a strong decentralised policy at the state level rather than the national level, such as the United States and Germany (Guerriero, 2017 [16] ).…”

Back to Basics: Developmental Catalysts of Quality Improvement in Early Education and Care

“…Historically, quality in early education and care has been represented with two broad sets of related features: structural and process (Slot, 2018). Structural features include hundreds of readily-quantifiable and regulable aspects, such as group size, classroom materials (e.g., blocks, books, curricula), health and safety protocols, and staff educational background, whereas process features comprise everything else that makes up children's daily learning experiences and interactions (Layzer & Goodson, 2006;Pianta et al, 2005;Slot et al, 2015Slot et al, , 2018. The range of features composing quality makes it challenging to determine how to prioritize features to drive quality improvement and ultimately improve children's learning.…”