The Importance of Professional Knowledge for Learning Support in German ECEC Settings

Results and aims: The study “BIKE” (Bedingungsfaktoren fur gelingende Interaktionen zwischen Erzieherinnen und Kindern – Conditional factors of successful teacher-child interactions) analyzes possible relations between the quality of interactional processes in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings and conditions, attitudes and knowledge of the educators. The aim is to make evidence-based recommendations to improve professional development and structural conditions in day care centers based on empirical data. Through an assessment of classroom quality with the CLASS Pre-K (Pianta R, La Paro K, Hamre B: Classroom assessment scoring system. Manual (pre-K). Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Baltimore, 2008), we found good quality in the Emotional Support and Classroom Organization, but only low quality for Instructional Support (Concept Development, Quality of Feedback, Language Modeling). These findings are consistent with results from international studies (e.g. Hamre B, Pianta R, Downer J, DeCoster J, Mashburn A, Jones S, Brown J, Cappella E, Atkins M, Rivers S, Brackett M, Hamagami A: Elem Sch J 113(4):461–487, 2013). With regard to the importance of effective support of cognitive and language development for children, a substantial improvement of professional practice is needed. The article highlights possible ways to optimize this interaction quality in training and professional pedagogic practice. In addition we found significant correlations between planning competencies and quality of interactions.