Elena V. Vorobyeva

The authors report on a study of kindergartens, which was conducted by the Child Development Laboratory at the Institute of System Projects, Moscow City Pedagogical University, and which included testing of the ECERS Scales in contrasting groups that had been formed on the basis of expert assessments. One group consisted of kindergartens which used the The Golden Key program and a program called “Kindergarten as a system of conditions for developing individuality and capability for self-determination” with a high quality educational environment. The other group consisted of kindergartens with an average quality educational environment. The article analyzes the specific features in the educational programs these groups used. Both groups shared the teaching staff situation, which is conducive to reflection and initiative on the part of the teachers. During the testing of the ECERS Scales very few groups received high ratings for their quality of the educational environment. The authors conclude that shared reflection and initiative on the part of preschool teaching staff in the construction of education is a sine qua non condition for a high quality educational environment aimed at supporting children’s activities and initiatives.

The article describes the tools used to measure preschool educational environment – the ECERS Scales (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales). The authors address the following questions: What are the ideas of quality education underpinning the ECERS Scales, and Are they suitable to us? Is it generally acceptable to use tools developed in another country to assess education quality in your own? Does the scale measure conditions for the child’s future socialization and development at school? How does it work, what are its parameters for measuring quality? How reliable is it? Can this tool be used in different educational practices (e.g. the Montessori system, Waldorf kindergartens, etc.)? Or does it focus solely on specific program? It is noted that the fact that the ECERS scale is used in countries focused on child’s cognitive development is of great importance for Russian education, which has traditionally placed high value on “school readiness”. The authors come to the conclusion that the ECERS Scales fully meet the Federal State Educational Standard requirements and possess distinctiveness and therefore can be used to assess the quality of education in Russian preschool children. The ECERS Scales are highly promising in cross-cultural research that compares the quality of Russian and foreign pre-school education.