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The article describes the results of the development and testing of a scale for evaluating conditions for the development of creative abilities in kindergarten. The review part discusses the process of “democratizing the concept of creativity” and changing ideas about the importance of developing creative abilities in preschool childhood as a significant trend in modern psychology and education. The methodological basis of the work is: structural-dialectical approach (N. Veraksa), where the construct of “dialectical thinking” is used to describe intellectual creativity, which is understood as a system of mental actions that allows solving paradoxical situations, transforming contradictory situations in such a way that a new solution to the problem appears; the concept of imagination, which is understood as the ability to “grasp” the whole before the parts and transfer the features of one object of reality to another (Ilyenkov, 1984; Dyachenko, 1996); an approach to the development of ECERS quality assessment scales.

The scale for assessing the conditions for the development of creative abilities in kindergarten presented in the article includes four indicators: understanding of development processes, questioning, invention and transformation of contradictions, imagination.

32 preschool groups took part in the approbation. The validity of the instrument was assessed by the method of contrasting groups identified on the basis of expert assessments. Reliability was determined by the method of consistency of expert assessments: in each group, experts carried out the assessment in pairs and independently of each other. The focus of the observations was: working with imagination, quality questions addressed to children, to allow easy experimentation, supportive emotional atmosphere, sensitivity to children new and original solutions and inventions emphasis is on working with thinking as a process, reflecting the processes of change and transformation, capable to resolve conflicts.

The analysis showed that the assessment tool makes it possible to distinguish between contrasting groups for all four indicators at a significance level not lower than 0.05, which indicates its validity. Also, a high consistency of expert assessments was found both at the level of indicators and at the level of individual indicators, which indicates its reliability. The Alpha-Cronbach coefficient is 0.87, which indicates a good level of internal consistency of the instrument. The tool allows to identify and analyze the parameters of the quality of preschool education, attention to which is not emphasized in other scales, for example, in the ECERS-3 scales for a comprehensive assessment of the quality of preschool education.

The obtained data on the reliability and validity of the developed tool allow us to conclude that it can be used to assess the conditions for supporting and developing the creative abilities of children in preschool groups.

Relevance (context) of the article. Play is important not only for the full life of preschool childhood, but also for the formation of psychological readiness for school. Play support is one of the key aspects of high-quality practice. At the same time, the analysis of existing studies shows that the level of development of preschool children’s play remains low, and the conditions for it are at a minimum level. To change this situation, an objective analysis of the practice is necessary, highlighting the strengths and points of growth.

The aim of the study. Development and testing of the scale “Support for Children’s Play” (SCP) as a tool for assessing and developing the quality of the educational environment of the kindergarten.

Description of the research progress. A scale was developed and tested, consisting of 97 indicators, grouped into 7 indicators. The scale design corresponds to the instruments of the ECERS family. The course of instrument validation in 32 preschool groups is described: checking the internal consistency of the instrument (Alpha-Cronbach), reliability by the method of inter-expert consistency, checking the validity and determining the discriminative function by the method of contrast groups (the significance of differences in the Welch-modification t-tests and the Mann-Whitney shift criteria).

Research results. Statistical analysis showed that the scale has good internal consistency (Alpha-Cronbach coefficient = 0.89), validity (differences between contrast groups are significant at the level of 0.01, p-value = 7.294e-06 according to Welch-t-test, p-value = 0.0002733 according to Wilcoxon test) and sufficient reliability (the average model of deviations of paired inter-expert assessments was 0.47 points, which is significantly lower than the standard deviation for the total score of the entire sample (sd = 1.1695).

Conclusion. The SCP scale can be applied not only for external expert assessment and self-assessment, but also as a tool for the professional development of a teacher in order to reflect on his own strategy for supporting the play and finding growth points. The article proposes measures to improve the tool in order to increase reliability, including the development of a training program for experts.