The social domain is 1 of 5 preschool curricular domains in mainland China. Chinese preschool teachers are expected to use teaching practices that foster young children's social competence. The purpose of this study was to explore a small sample of Chinese preschool teachers' use of teaching and behavior support practices associated with the Pyramid Model. Twenty preschool classrooms in mainland China were observed using the prepublication version of the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool for Preschool Classrooms (L. Fox, M. L. Hemmeter, & P. Snyder, 2008). In addition, each teacher completed a social–emotional teaching practices survey. Results indicated that Chinese teachers were observed to use, on average, about 31% of key teaching practices associated with the Pyramid Model. They were implementing more universal promotion practices than targeted social–emotional teaching practices. Chinese teachers generally were not observed to be teaching behavior expectations and social problem solving, nor were they developing individualized interventions for children with the most persistent challenging behavior. Correlational analyses suggested that observed implementation of Pyramid Model practices generally was not related to self-reported use of these practices. Limitations and implications of the present study along with considerations for future research are discussed.
School of Special Education, School of Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies, and Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville (Ms Luo and Drs Snyder and Clark); and Institute of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China (Dr Hong).
Correspondence: Li Luo, MEd, School of Special Education, School of Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies, and Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville FL 32611 (luol345@126.com).
The authors are very grateful to the preschool teachers who participated in the study. This work was partially supported by the State Scholarship Fund of the China Scholarship Council (No. 201206040026).
Dr Snyder receives royalties from the published research version of the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool. Other authors declare no conflict of interest.
