Teacher-child interactions and children's cognitive and social skills in Chinese preschool classrooms

Abstract

Quality early childhood education (ECE) is central to children's development and, thus, has become a focus of the current Chinese education agenda. Using a sample of 589 Chinese children in 59 preschool classrooms, this study examined how a key aspect of ECE quality, teacher-child interactions, was related to children's skills. Findings indicated that teacher-child interactions were related to children's cognitive skills, but not to social skills. These results contribute to the growing international research literature on the critical role teacher-child interactions play with children's learning and development. Implications for policy and professional development are discussed.