Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Process Quality in Chinese Preschools

The expansion of early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs has generated increasing interest in establishing appropriate structural standards that can optimize child outcomes. To contribute to this discourse, this study aims to investigate the characteristics and influencing factors of classroom quality. Ninety-six classrooms (202 teachers) were observed to measure the classroom quality using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale--Extension (ECERS-E) and Sustained Shared Thinking and Social-Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) scales. The results indicate that teachers demonstrated inadequate to minimal process quality measured by ECERS-E and SSTEW. Multilevel modeling revealed that child-to-teacher ratio, school types, and school classifications were significant predictors of classroom quality.