How children and teachers spend their time in preschool: systematic child and teacher observations in 78 Swedish preschool units

How preschool teachers and children spend their time in preschool is important for children's engagement and learning. The study aims to give a broad description of how often children and staff spend time in different types of activities, interactions, and environments. Systematic momentary observations of individual children and teachers/staff were conducted continuously during a full day in 78 preschool units (mainly for children 3-5 years) during the autumn term. The observations resulted in frequency data for different types of activities for children and teachers. Frequency data were summarized at the unit level, and percentage distributions of activities were calculated. Results showed that free play indoors was the main activity setting, followed by free play outdoors. Children interacted as much with other children as with teachers. The focus was dominated by non-pretend play, construction, art and music, followed by pretend play and academic contents. Child engagement was significantly higher in free play indoors compared to outdoors. Teachers engaged in varied tasks, but their central task was managing. Teachers were typically in proximity to small groups of children, or by themselves, and mostly talked to or listened to a single child. Data was collected with systematic observations with the help of manual-based instruments Child Observation in Preschool (COP) and Teacher Observation in Preschool (TOP). The observations consists of snapshots of individual children/teachers across a preschool day. Several aspects of the individual's current activity are coded. Individual data was aggregated to preschool unit level, and proportions for different activity aspects were calculated. Aggregated frequency and proportionate data are available in the data set for child and teacher data, respectively. Some preschool unit background information is also available.