Measuring Process Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care through Situational Judgement Questions: Findings from TALIS Starting Strong 2018 Field Trial. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 217

Situational Judgement Questions (SJQs) measuring process quality were included in the OECD Starting Strong Teaching and Learning International Survey 2018 (TALIS Starting Strong 2018) to address concerns of self-report bias in large-scale international surveys. These SJQs provide the staff in early childhood education and care with situations taken from a real-life professional context and offer several options on how to address these given situations. Using TALIS Starting Strong 2018 field trial data, this paper evaluates the reliability and validity of the SJQs as measures of process quality in a large-scale international survey. The results showed that the SJQs were reliable, valid and worked well in evaluating process quality. High process quality was characterised by: 1) supporting child-directed play; 2) managing conflicts through behavioural management; and 3) supporting pro-social behaviour by encouraging sharing and collaboration among children. Staff self efficacy and formal education were positively related to these practices. The paper further makes recommendations regarding the formats, type of analysis and interpretation of the SJQs in the Main Survey.