Yana Ya. Kozmina

This paper considers the issue of cooperation between the family and pre-school teachers during a child’s transition from kindergarten to primary school as a factor contributing to the child’s greater psychological readiness for school. For this purpose, the materials of a nationwide survey called Monitoring the Economics of Education: Early Childhood Education were used to analyze the degree of harmonization of parents’ and preschool teachers’ ideas of kindergarten and issues related to preparations for the transition to school. It is showed that teachers and parents, as well as parents themselves have different perceptions of a good kindergarten, the objectives of education and ways of preparing their child for school, many of the differences stemming from their level of education among other things.

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.