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

Structural quality in kindergartens is considered a prerequisite for process quality, which is related to child development, but the evidence for this connection is unclear. Despite strong theoretical claims, empirical evidence supporting the indirect relationship between structural features and process quality and the impact of these two factors on children’s results is scarce. This study contributes to knowledge about the topic by (a) investigating the direct relationships between structural classroom functions and teachers, where the focus was on development in children’s language and early reading-related skills, based on a study of over 3000 children, (b) studying the associations that process quality creates regarding children’s development using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System Pre-K (CLASS pre-K) observation method among more than 400 teachers, and (c) testing the indirect effects of structural quality through process quality on growth in children’s skills. The research questions were: (a) What are the direct effects of structural quality on children’s language and early reading-related skills in pre-school? (b) What is the effect of process quality on children’s skills in school? (c) Is the effect of structural quality in children’s development mediated by process quality?

In general, process quality was directly and positively associated with gains in children’s language and early reading-related skills, while structural quality did not have an equally direct relationship. In addition, the children’s average language skills and early reading-related skills were positively related to a learning gain. The results illustrate the complexities in the relationships between structural quality and process quality on the one hand, and children’s school performance on the other.

This quantitative investigation has observed a wide selection of kindergartens. A total of 134 pre-schools and 3132 children between the ages of 3 and 6 participated in the study. The participating teachers were asked to submit three videos of three daily activities and routines, both before and after intervention. The activities should include up to five children. Experienced observers encoded all the videos using CLASS Pre-K, so that all the teachers could be given a point value based on the three videos they submitted.

Slot, P. L., Bleses, D., Justice, L. M., Markussen-Brown, J. & Højen, A. (2018). «Structural and Process Quality of Danish Preschools: Direct and Indirect Associations With Children's Growth in Language and Preliteracy Skills». Early Education and Development, 29(4):581-602.