Social relationships, interactions and learning in early childhood – theoretical approaches, empirical findings and challenges

Abstract

look at interaction quality in child day-care centres by observing preschool teachers ’ behaviour during their interactions with children across 40 preschools in Austria and Switzerland. The study identi fi ed ten types of interactions occurring during free-play and snack-time situations using qualitative analyses. Additionally, quantitative analyses revealed signi fi cant di ff erences in interaction quality based on the speci fi c situation, whether free play or snack time. The study highlights potential avenues for enhancing preschool teachers ’ interactional behaviours within the daily kindergarten routine. The fi fth contribution, titled Activity settings and attributed social disadvantage as in fl uencing factors on teacher – child interaction quality in central Germany by Wadepohl and Bethke, also centres on the quality of teacher-child interactions and the factors that in fl uence it. Drawing from a sample of 48 Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) teachers across 16 kindergartens in Germany, the results indicated variations in interaction quality across di ff erent activity settings (free play, dyads, meals) and among children with or without attributed social disadvantages. This study underscores the importance of examining factors such as activity settings and child characteristics to enhance interactions within preschool environments.