Teaching quality and social-emotional competence in kindergarten STEM classrooms: differential associations across children's initial competence

Introduction Social-emotional competence (SEC) is a key part of early development. It is shaped by classroom interactions. Kindergarten STEM activities may provide rich environments for problem solving, collaboration, communication and regulation. Children enter classrooms with different levels of SEC. It is unclear whether developmental starting points are associated with different rates of change or condition the association between teaching quality and subsequent SEC. Studies have focused on average associations between classroom quality and social emotional development, with less attention to differences between instructional contexts. We examined whether initial SEC was associated with different developmental rates and whether it conditionality of the association between teaching quality and subsequent SEC across STEM and regular instruction. Methods We conducted longitudinal quasi-experiment with 224 children 5–6 years in 12 classrooms in 3 public kindergartens in Hanzhong, China. Six classrooms participated in an 8 week STEM activity consisting of 16 engineering design activities, and six classrooms continued regular instruction. SEC was assessed at 4 time points by DESSA-mini, and teaching quality was measured at 3 time points by cognitive activation, supportive climate, and classroom management. Longitudinal mixed effects models examined developmental progression and whether baseline SEC moderated the gap between teaching quality and subsequent SEC. Results Baseline SEC predicts subsequent SEC levels strongly, but not timewise. There is no statistical evidence that changes are different. However, there is a significant three-way association between instructional condition, baseline SEC and overall teaching quality indicating that the association differs between developmental starting points and instructional settings, but not for individual teaching quality dimensions. Discussion Our results indicate developmental continuity of SEC levels with broadly similar rates of change. We note that developmental starting points may influence the relationship between overall teaching quality and subsequent SEC. We consider this pattern as qualified evidence of developmentally differed association rather than as a compensatory effect. These results highlight the importance of distinguishing developmental level, developmental rate and responsiveness to classroom processes and call for more research on teaching-quality configurations, child engagement, and instructional adaptation.