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Research on the predictivity of activity settings, preschool teachers’ activities, and children’s activities for interaction quality is inconsistent and cannot be transferred easily to specific national preschool contexts. The present study addresses this issue by assessing the interaction quality of 185 children aged 3–5 years attending 61 preschools in Austria using the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS). Activity settings and activities were captured using a time-sampling method. Having included control variables, regression analyses revealed that scaffolding was positively related to children’s interactions with teachers, free choice was positively related to interactions with peers, and ‘high-yield’ activities were positively related to interactions with peers and task orientation. Teacher-led activities and scaffolding were negatively related to interactions with peers, and ‘low-yield’ activities were negatively related to interactions with peers and task orientation. Effect sizes ranged from small to medium. The findings indicate that opportunities to support children remain untapped.

The relevance of the topic of the article. Modern parents of preschoolers are active participants in the educational process. Their satisfaction is an important criterion for assessing the quality of education. Studying their opinion is an effective tool for systematic improving the quality of preschool educational institutions.

The aim of the study. Identification and description of the reasons for the dissatisfaction of parents of Moscow preschool institutions. Methodology: thematic semi-structured interviews.

Description of the research progress. The sample consisted of 20 mothers of children aged 3 to 7 attending kindergartens of various types and forms of institutions in Moscow. Parents were asked to tell about the choice of kindergarten, subject-spatial environment, daily routine, supervision and care of children, interaction between teachers, children and parents, types of activity, development of speech, thinking and educational program. The spontaneously mentioned causes of dissatisfaction were thoroughly investigated. The thematic framework for the questions was the ECERS international scale and works devoted to identifying the correlation of parental involvement and their level of satisfaction.

Research results. Among the main groups of reasons for dissatisfaction with preschool educational institutions, “interaction” is leading by a wide margin, implying the quality of interaction between children, educators, administration, and parents. It is the reasons for the “interaction” group that become the critical point for transferring children to another preschool. Among the main complaints are: the individuality of the child is not taken into account; tough discipline; strict, rude, unprofessional educators; the authoritarian position of the head towards parents; poor quality of feedback; relationships with peers. The group “types of children’s activity” has the potential to become as significant as “interaction”: when choosing a kindergarten, parents pay attention to the presence and variety of circles, in the private sector they are ready to take their child further for the sake of quality classes. Parents are rather satisfied with supervision, care, compliance with the temperature regime, the subject-spatial environment. The group “development of speech and literacy” stands apart: parents do not mention this topic. They are either poorly informed about the kindergarten program, or consider this aspect unimportant.

Conclusion. Satisfaction of parents as active participants in educational process is one of the important criteria for assessing the quality of preschool education, and dissatisfaction is a marker for the necessary improvements. If the administration and teachers, when assessing the quality, evaluate the group and the kindergarten as a whole, that the comfort and emotional well-being of their own child is important to parents. This means that the individual approach and personal development are at the forefront. The main attention should be paid to the quality of interaction between children, parents and the kindergarten staff and to the quality and variety of types of children’s activity. These studies of the causes of parental dissatisfaction can be useful for heads of preschool educational institutions of various forms of ownership to improve the quality of services provided and develop a marketing strategy.

The relevance of the topic of the article. Support for the role-playing game of preschool children is going through a crisis, largely associated with a change in the content of children’s experience. Research that consider the possibility of reflecting literature experience in a role-playing game are few. At the same time, their analysis shows that such experience can have a significant impact on the content and structure of the role-playing games of preschoolers.

The aim of the research was to study the possibilities of reflecting the literature experience of children, received in the family, on the nature of the construction of role-playing games.

Description of the research progress. The sample consisted of 15 children from 4 to 7 years old and 15 mothers who are regular participants in role-playing games organized in the context of non-formal preschool education (community for supporting role-playing games). In the beginning, a sequence of reading fairy tales to children was organized with the family. The first of the tales is based on the external confrontation of warring heroes, and the second is based on the internal conflict of the heroes and their search for the place in the world. Further, 6 role-playing games were organized supported by the plots of fairy tales based on the model of building a two-stroke game (L.I. Elkoninova). The experimenter motivated the children to play with his involvement in the plot of the game and the support of the two-stroke structure of the fairy tale plot. At the final stage, the features of the reflection of reading experience in a plot-based role-playing game were analyzed according to specially developed criteria.

Research results. It was found that a fairy tale plot, in which there is a confrontation between two warring parties, often causes negative emotions in children in the process of reading and, as a result, a reluctance to get involved in a game according to a given plot. A fairy tale plot, where instead of an external confrontation there is an internal conflict of heroes, it evokes positive emotions and research interest in children, which leads to the desire to actively participate in a role-playing game based on this plot, to bring their own vision and meaning into the storyline.

Conclusions. Role-playing game based on a fairy-tale plot allows children 4-6 years old to reach a new level of development of play activity. Changes were recorded in in-game interaction, the level of the game design, its stability and implementation. The greatest growth in game indicators was noted in role-playing based on a fairy tale plot, in which there was no confrontation between good and evil heroes, the smallest growth was observed in games based on a fairy tale plot based on an external conflict of heroes.

The article presents the results of a study on the integration of children’s reading and playing practices implemented within the framework of the Federal innovation platform – kindergarten No. 8 of the Central District of St. Petersburg on the topic “Designing Practices for the Education of Preschool Children in a Changing Sociocultural Situation”.

The aim of the study was to study the possibilities of enriching the practice of subject-role play of children in various age groups (3-7,5 years) as a result of testing the technology of productive reading when children get acquainted with the modern world bestseller of children’s literature, J. Donaldson “Snail and Whale”. It was found that the technology of productive reading has a high developing potential both for organizing children’s perception of the book and understanding its meaning, and for the natural display read in the conditions of play activity. The monitoring and quality analysis of playing activity of children 3-7,5 years revealed that the implementation of the technology of productive reading with preschool children allows, on the one hand, to consider the game as a way of interpreting literary works and on the other hand, to support the game based on the read.

The obtained results show that the implementation of the research plan contributed to the fact that the development indicators of the children’s game begin to approach the normative in the situation of the “zone of proximal development” and the further accumulation of play practice will contribute to the achievement of the normative indicators of the role-playing game in the “zone of the actual development of children”. It is also important that the reliance on the content and structure of the literary text allows the teacher to feel more confident in situations of play interaction with children, as an adult and a child interact in a single story context.