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This article presents the findings of research on the quality of early childhood education and care in Moscow. This research is based on insight into the quality of early childhood education and care built in to The Federal State Educational Standard for Preschool Education and the cultural-historical ideas of L. Vygotsky. The main aim of this field research is to investigate “the strong points” and drawbacks of early childhood education and care in the capital city. The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R) is used as an instrument of field research. The results are based on a random sample of 36 preschools and kindergartens in one of the districts of Moscow. The research gathers data about the most comfortable and least comfortable aspects of the learning environment in the preschools and kindergartens of Moscow. Taking into consideration the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standards, the findings of the research revealed that the most important line of learning environment development in preschool and kindergarten are individual early care and education program, support for the independence of children, the creation of a more available and mobile environment, and optimal conditions for the development of thinking, imagination and child creativity.

Background. Teachers play a crucial role in the development of preschoolers’ personalities. However, their professional work is associated with emotional intensity, multitasking, and increased responsibility, which creates the preconditions for the development of burnout. High levels of teacher burnout negatively impact the quality of interactions with children, their motivation, and initiative, while insufficient interaction competence, in turn, can exacerbate burnout. This indicates the need for a systematic study of factors predicting increased burnout.

Objective. To identify relationships between professional burnout, burnout factors, and the quality of interactions between teachers and children in kindergarten groups.

Sample. The sample consisted of 25 teachers (M = 43.3, SD = 10.1, 100% women) working in senior and preparatory groups of kindergartens.

Methods. The CLASS method (adapted by Bukhalenkova and Almazova) was used to assess the quality of interactions. Professional burnout was diagnosed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (adapted by Vodopyanova and Starchenkova). A sociodemographic questionnaire was also administered. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis (Spearman rho) were used to analyze the data.

Results. High depersonalization scores were found to be associated with shorter teacher tenure. No significant associations were found between burnout symptoms and interaction quality, age, education level, qualification category, or the number of children in the group. Additional analysis revealed a trend: when interaction quality was low, teachers more often chose midpoints on the burnout scales, which may indicate the influence of social desirability when questionnaires were completed anonymously.

Conclusions. A direct link between professional burnout and interaction quality was not confirmed in this study. The findings highlight the methodological challenges of studying burnout using self-report methods in settings where complete anonymity is not guaranteed. Further research with larger samples and procedures that minimize the influence of social desirability is needed.