During the COVID-19 pandemic, German early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions had to limit their provision of ECEC, implement protective measures, and handle new organizational tasks. Data from two longitudinal surveys (October 2020 to July 2021) among ECEC managers and pedagogical staff were analysed. Limited staff resources,…

Social dimensions of the caregiving environment, like secure relationships to caregivers and high interactional classroom quality, are seen to directly or indirectly stimulate children's learning and development. However, little is known about the underlying processes, specifically with regard to the role of peers. To fill this gap we videotaped…

Initiating conversations and responding to initiations of others via gestural and verbal means are prerequisites for participating in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) interactions. However, research to date has not addressed the multimodal initiations and responses of young second language learners (SLLs) in natural ECEC settings. This…

The present study examines the quality and domains of teacher-toddler interactions and associations with structural characteristics using data from 95 German early childcare settings. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure of interaction quality assessed by the CLASS Toddler: emotional and behavioural…

In Germany, there is still a great need for research on the quality of teacher-child interactions in ECEC institutions. Especially, because social interactions and relationships are crucial for (early) learning and development (Ulferts et al., 2019). However, there are hardly any results on factors influencing the interaction quality. This paper…

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 individual children's experiences. Therefore, this paper analyses child-specific interaction processes, the individual child experiences at first and last…

During preschool age, three precursors to self-regulated learning (SRL) can be identified: general self-regulation ability, speech competence, and executive functioning. There is evidence for a large interindividual heterogeneity in these precursors which may have an impact on the development of SRL. This study (a) examined heterogeneity in SRL…

Partnerships between parents and preschools (PPP), including parental trust as a key element, are crucial for child development. This exploratory study examined the type and intensity of partnership activities to which parents were invited and their contributions to parental trust, as well as preschool and teacher characteristics that predicted…

Tests of musical ability in children have relied on diverse conceptions of what musical abilities are. Recent investigations suggest that such conceptions can be seen as socially constructed and differ between cultures, sub-groups, and individuals. Based on a previous study on conceptions of adult musical ability, we designed a questionnaire…

This article examines the life of Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten in the 1840s. It describes how the kindergarten and its impact in Germany and the United States. It spread at the international level of education because German kindergarten teachers relocated it to other countries when it was banned in Germany. In the years from…

During typical childhood interactions with screen-media, two features are prominent. First, input is dominated by audio-visual signals and second, these predominately provide children with ready-made images, potentially negating effortful mental imagery construction. We present a two-year longitudinal study on a sample of 109 preschool children.…

Notwithstanding their relevance to children's cognitive development, home literacy activities of preschool children with migration backgrounds have only been partly explored. Therefore, the current understanding of this topic, particularly in a German setting remains incomplete. This study aimed to evaluate the differences between preschool…

The transition from preschool to elementary school requires high adaptive behaviours. Our study's aim is to analyze the reciprocal effects between self-regulation and behaviour problems during this transitional phase. Study results are based on longitudinal data collected at preschool and elementary school. Children's level of behaviour problems…

Regular science practices in preschool are crucial for children's learning in science. Yet, preschool teachers may only offer science learning opportunities if they "are" and "feel" sufficiently qualified to teach early science. The present study investigates the relation between teachers' qualifications, their self-efficacy…

The aim of this study was to determine the socialization goals related to the moral education taught by preschool teachers of children aged 2-6 years in two different cultures, Indonesia and Germany. Thirteen preschools with 138 teachers from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and 20 preschools with 73 teachers from Bielefeld and Muenster, Germany answered a…