A Study On The Quality Of Teacher-Child Interaction In Shanghai Early Education Settings

Teacher-child interactions are the daily back-and-forth exchanges that teachers and children have with one another throughout each day in kindergartens, which are a primary mechanism through which classroom experiences affect children’ development. Rigorous studies indicate that the high quality of teachers’interactions with children improve their developments. Recently, as countries continue to focus on the education quality of education reforms, teacher-child interactions, as a key factor in the educational process, has been put an increasing emphasis by researchers. The research on the quality of interactions between teachers and children has become a new trend in early child education studies of the world.Because second-class kindergartens in Shanghai can represent kindergartens in China in part, this study focuses on the quality of interactions between teachers and children in second-class kindergartens in Shanghai.By using Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), the current study used data from 73 teachers’classrooms utilizing the CLASS to examine the quality of teacher-child interactions in early education settings in Shanghai, China and used data from 51 teachers’classrooms to examine the effect of the "Teacher-Child Interactions Program" that aim to improve the quality of teacher-child interactions. The program aims to form a collaborative community of practice model between researchers and kindergarten teachers for improving the quality of teacher-child interactions. It works by offering the profession support, enhancing teacher exploring and peer dialogue.The following research questions were addressed:(a) What is the quality of teacher-child interactions in second-class kindergartens in Shanghai? (b) What teacher and program characteristics are systematically associated with the provision of higher quality of teacher-child interactions? (c) Dose the program have an significant intervention effect on improving the quality of teacher-child interaction? The current study uses SPSS 20.0, AMOS 17.0 and MPLUS 7.0 software for data processing.This study shows that:(1) The quality of teacher-child interactions in second-class kindergartens in Shanghai is on the medium level, showing three potential types and significant differences in different activities about the quality of teacher-child interactions. (2) Program characteristic (grade) is a stronger predictor of classroom quality than were teacher experience and educational background. (3) A collaborative community of practice model between researchers and kindergarten teachers for improving the quality of teacher-child interactions contributed to teacher understanding of the interaction and improving the quality of teacher-child interaction.Findings can be used to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the quality of teacher-child interactions in early education settings in Shanghai, China. In addition, it suggests the importance of offering a collaborative community of practice model for teachers in designing professional development systems for improving their effectiveness teaching in early education settings.