Contributions of Teacher-Child Interaction Quality to Chinese Children's Development in the Early Childhood Years

Research Findings: Growing international evidence points to high-quality teacher-child interactions in early learning environments as key contributors to children's learning and development. Little is known, however, about the longitudinal effects of these experiences, particularly in the Chinese context. In this study, we addressed the question of such longitudinal effects by examining the predictive effect of classroom teacher-child interaction quality on children's subsequent academic development in a sample of 3-year-old children in Chinese kindergartens. Utilizing a hierarchical linear modeling approach, we found that teacher-child interaction quality, especially the classroom organization domain, consistently predicted the development of children's early academic and cognitive skills. Practice or Policy: Findings contribute to the growing international literature on the critical role teacher-child interaction quality plays in children's learning and development. Implications for policy and professional development are discussed.