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The article is devoted to the study of the specific features of a kindergarten teacher’s professional position and is based on the materials of the questionnaire survey involving 320 caregivers from Moscow daycare centers. One of the most important factors affecting the child development is the nature of the educational strategies preschool care-givers use when interacting with the child. Special attention is given to the analysis of educators’ target orientations, the specifics of the style of their relationship with the child, teachers’ emotional well-being when dealing with children and the forms of control (reward and punishment) they use in response to the child’s behavior. The analysis of the materials pays special attention to the influence of various factors (the caregivers’ educational level and work experience, children’s age) on a caregiver’s idiosyncratic professional position.

The article describes a longitudinal study called “Conditions of Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education” what was conducted in the United Kingdom in 1997 and 2014. It is noted that the study is Europe’s biggest longitudinal project as of today. The author underlines the complexity of longitudinal studies stemming from the need to plan one for several years ahead and possible changes in the political or economic situation. The study was conducted in four stages, each of which took a great number of targeted cross-sections, a huge amount of data was collected and processed, which was subsequently classified by areas and detailed case reports published. The longitudinal nature of the study revealed the long-term effect early childhood education has and the important role high-quality early childhood education plays in child’s subsequent development and his future academic success or failure - it creates a solid foundation for all future learning and development. The researchers’ conclusions helped to shape the development of the UK educational policy by placing an emphasis on the development of targeted programs and improving the quality of pre-school education, by involving parents in the educational process in the early stages of child development and a deliberate search of ways to reduce the impact of negative factors on child development.

The key actors in the normative interaction situations are a child and an adult. It is an adult, who is broadcasting rules to the child, and who can evaluate the degree of congruence of the child as a subject of culture (of the normative situation). The paper presents an analysis of the psychology of the child’s correspondence with the rules of culture – cultural congruence. Education of the individual in a culture is the formation of the creative potential of the child, based on the capacity of critical analysis and reflection. The authors emphasize that the education of the individual requires means that differ from those that are needed for raising the subject. The article describes a technique for identifying the cultural congruence among 5-6 years old children. The method is based on the identified range of human interaction in the social situations between the child and the adult. It allows to determine compliance of the child with the standards on the basis of indicators of five scales which together form integral indicator of cultural congruence.