GrazIAS is a tool to measure the quality of interaction in early childhood education and care institutions. Please describe how this tool works.

With the help of GrazIAS, the performance of each early childhood professional's interaction with the children can be measured. GrazIAS has been developed over the last three years based on current scientifically founded findings and has been validated with experts. The tool describes in detail aspects of age-appropriate, developmentally beneficial interaction quality. These provide the foundation for valuable teaching-learning processes and child well-being. The aspects are evaluated in the context of non-participatory observation by trained observers based on defined indicators on a scale from "insufficient quality" to "minimal" to "good" and "excellent quality".

The observation period is scheduled for four to five hours. In addition to a paper version, it also possible to conduct the survey as a digitalised version (app), which saves time and resources. GrazIAS can also be used in an international environment and is available in both German and English. So far, initial data from surveys in Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Hungary and other national projects are available. The data set is continuously being expanded and the publication of the data is updated at regular intervals.

Why is it important to evaluate interactions between early childhood professionals and children in early childhood educational and care settings?

Since high quality in early childhood education and care institutions in general, and high interaction quality in particular, is central to children's development and well-being, quality development and assurance are increasingly in the focus of early childhood research and practice.

In addition to ensuring the children’s well-being, it is the responsibility of elementary education professionals to actively accompany the child's learning processes. Good interaction quality in crèches and kindergartens contributes to equal opportunities and higher cognitive and social-emotional skills in children.

In addition to the scientific context, GrazIAS 0-6 can also be used for quality assurance and development on site.

Why did you decide to make the data accessible for research?

In a socially relevant area (more than 90% of the young generation in Europe attends an early childhood educational institution), it is important not only to expand the number of places but also to ensure and further develop the quality of the institutions. This also allows us to be in line with the Sustainable Development Goals 4 "Quality Education" and 10 "Reduced Inqualities".

The continuous publication of the GrazIAS data set ensures a central and standardised presentation of the data stock and contributes to research management in the field of early childhood education. The aim is to build up an international data set over several years, independent of commercial interest, which will enable studies on other research questions as well as long-term studies.

For the project team

• Eva Pölzl-Stefanec, is a trained kindergarten teacher with practical experience and Assistant Professor for Professionalisation of Early Childhood Education at the Department of Early Childhood Education, Institute of Education Research and Teacher Education and Deputy Head of the Centre for Professionalization of Early Childhood Educational and Practice at the University of Graz since 2020.

 Project team

• Manja Flöter is a state-certified educator with practical experience. She studied psychology and is a research assistant at the Berlin location of the Centre for Professionalisation of Early Childhood Educational and Practice at the University of Graz.
  
• Claudia Geißler is a trained kindergarten teacher with practical experience. She studied social pedagogy with a focus on elementary pedagogy and is a research assistant at the Centre for Professionalisation of Early Childhood Educational and Practice at the University of Graz, University of Graz.
• Mailina Petritsch is a trained kindergarten teacher and holds a PhD in early childhood pedagogy. She is a is a research assistant at the Centre for Professionalisation of Early Childhood Educational and Practice at the University of Graz, University of Graz.
• Catherine Walter-Laager, Professor at the University of Graz and graduate kindergarten teacher with practical experience, is co-head of the Department of Early Childhood Education and head of the Centre for Professionalisation of Early Childhood Educational and Practice at the University of Graz, University of Graz.