Procedures
The project received approval from the authors’ university’s Survey and
Behavioral Research Ethics Committee (SBREC). The initial step involved
the second author meeting with preschool principals to discuss
participation and providing a detailed explanation of the study to
obtain consent from willing teachers. Once teacher consent was secured,
the lead teachers from the selected 18 classes proceeded to rate their
relationships with the individual children participating in the study.
To ensure scorer consistency, six research assistants(RA) with master’s
degrees in ECE were recruited and divided into three groups of two
individuals each, with each group responsible for assessing K1, K2, and
K3 children’s SR, SE, mathematics, and vocabulary. These RA attended a
comprehensive 2-day face-to-face workshop, including grading practice,
where the researchers partnered with the RA to conduct child
assessments. Once the RA achieved the same score as the researchers,
they began working in pairs to conduct formal assessments.
All assessments were conducted in a quiet preschool room, with four
assessments lasting approximately 30 minutes per child. Before the
assessment, the researchers established a positive relationship with the
child through play to ensure their comfort. At the end, children
received stickers as tokens of appreciation for their participation.