Almazova Olga V.

Background. Testing effectiveness of tools for measuring the quality of educational environment in kindergarten groups in predicting the executive functions development of preschoolers is an important task in modern psychology, since the success of preparing a child for schooling largely depends on their validity. 

Objective. The study had its purposes: 1) to compare the assessments of the educational environment quality obtained by means of ECERS-R and CLASS methods in groups of Moscow kindergartens; 2) to identify interconnections between these assessments and the executive functions development in the preschoolers during one academic year (from the senior to the preparatory group of the kindergarten). 

Sample. The study involved 360 preschoolers of 26 groups of Moscow kindergartens. Assessment of the levels of executive functions development was carried out twice — in the senior groups and a year later — in the preparatory groups. 

Method. To assess the quality of educational environment, two methods were implemented in the study: CLASS (Classroom Assessment Scoring System) (Pianta, La Paro, Hamre, 2008) and ECERS-R (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale– Revised) (Harms, Cliff ord, Cryer, 2005; Harms, Cliff ord, Cryer, 2016). To assess the main components of executive functions (visual and verbal working memory, inhibition and cognitive fl exibility), we used a set of methods tested earlier on preschoolers (Almazova, Bukhalenkova, Veraksa, 2019). 

Results. Assessments carried out in Moscow kindergartens revealed a high and average level of the quality of educational environment according to the CLASS method, and an average and low level — according to the ECERS-R method. It was found that assessments of educational environment obtained by means of ECERS-R and CLASS methods do not contradict yet complement each other and are not always linearly related. Children with a high level of executive functions development are more likely to attend groups with a high level of educational environment quality according to CLASS method and a low and medium — according to ECERS-R method. Preschoolers with a low level of executive functions development are more likely to attend groups with a low level of educational environment according to CLASS method and a medium-low level — according to ECERS-R method. Most of the differences in the assessments of executive functions in children attending groups with diff erent quality of educational environment were obtained for visual working memory and inhibition. 

Conclusion. The CLASS and ECERS-R methods complement each other and therefore it is recommended to combine them both in practical work with preschool institutions and in scientific research.

Background. The relevance of the study is due to understanding of important role of imagination in the cognitive and emotional development of children as well as the contradictory results of modern research on imagination development in older pre- school age.

Objective. The study had its purpose to assess the level of productive imagination of the present-day preschoolers educated in the senior groups of kindergarten and to identify types of imagination being based on statistical data processing.

Methods. The study implemented the technique “Complete the drawing” (a modified Torrens’ Test) and the typology of productive imagination by O.M. Dyachenko (2007). Drawings of preschoolers were analyzed in terms of elaboration, flexibility, and originality of images. Processing the obtained data included calculation of the mean and median values, standard deviations; the cluster analysis method; the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis’s criterion and Kolmogorov-Smirnov’s, Mann-Whitney’s criteria were used.

Sample. The study involved 768 preschoolers of older groups of kindergartens in four regions of Russia (Moscow, the Republics of Sakha and Tatarstan, Perm Territory) aged 58 to 72 months (of which 47.9% were boys).

Results. Modern methods of statistical data processing have made it possible to identify and compare significantly different types of productive imagination in preschoolers. According to the results of the assessment of imagination development of the of older preschool children in different regions of Russia, a similar distribution was obtained for 6 types of productive imagination. The study revealed the low level of imagination development in about half of older preschoolers: children either do not accept the task at all (type 0), or draw individual objects that are not detailed (type 1). Productive imagination at the age of 5–6 years develops heterochronously: children with different types of imagination have relatively high scores for various parameters (types 2, 3, 4). Less than 5% of older preschoolers are characterized by a high level of imagination development when children use “inclusions” (type 5).

Conclusion. The results of the study expand the understanding of productive imagination in today’s preschool children and contribute to studying its development in the changed conditions of educational environment. The typology of productive imagination built on the basis of quantitative methods can be useful for both researchers and practicing psychologists, preschool educators.