Preschool Teachers' Use Of Pyramid Model Practices In Mainland China

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.