The survey content areas are organized into four dimensions:

Staff practices with children

• Process quality
  • Practices aimed at supporting children’s global development, well-being, and learning
    • Adapting practices to individual children’s needs and interests
    • Supporting classroom/playgroup management
    • Supporting play and exploration
  • Practices aimed at facilitating domain-specific development
    • Supporting language
    • Supporting early literacy
    • Supporting early numeracy
    • Supporting pro-social behavior
    • Supporting emotional development and well-being
• Monitoring and assessment of children’s development, well-being, and learning
  • Content of initial education regarding monitoring and assessment
  • Content of professional development and need for further development regarding monitoring and assessment
  • Self-efficacy regarding the monitoring and assessment of children
  • Staff use of monitoring and assessment
  • Time spent on the monitoring and assessment of children
  • Staff engagement in collaborative professional practices related to the monitoring and assessment of children
  • Monitoring and assessment information sharing with stakeholders
• Professional beliefs about children’s development, well-being, and learning
  • Beliefs about enhancing the development of children’s abilities and skills
  • Beliefs about diversity, equity, and inclusion practices
• Self-efficacy - related to
  • Staff-child interaction
  • The monitoring and assessment of children
  • Facilitating children’s development, well-being, and learning
  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion practices
  • Use of digital technologies
     

Staff and leader characteristics

• Staff and leader demographic and education background
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Linguistic background
  • Years of experience in ECEC
  • Content of prior formal education
  • Characteristics of prior formal education
  • Qualifications gained from prior formal education
• Continuing professional development
  • Participation in continuing professional development activities
  • Engagement in collaborative professional practices
  • Type and content of continuing professional development
  • Incentives and resources to participate in continuing professional development
  • Perceived usefulness of continuing professional development
  • Barriers to continuing professional development
  • Staff needs for further continuing professional development
  • Use of digital technologies for continuing professional development
• Well-being
  • Satisfaction with career and profession
  • Satisfaction with levels of autonomy afforded
  • Sources of work stress
  • Perception of societal value of the profession

ECEC setting characteristics

• The structural quality
  • Setting location and environment of the neighborhood
  • Setting funding and budget constraints
  • Resources, including digital technologies
  • Physical space
  • Setting staff human resources
  • Staff turnover
  • Staff-child ratio and group size
• Pedagogical and administrative leadership
  • Time spent on pedagogical and administrative leadership
  • Beliefs about pedagogical, administrative, and collaborative leadership
  • Education background on leadership
  • Professional development needs on leadership
  • Providing feedback to staff
  • Budget constraints to leadership
  • External inspection and monitoring
  • Setting resources
  • Regulation constraints
  • Resources for professional development for staff
• Organizational climate and working conditions
  • Facilitation of and opportunities for continuous professional development and learning
  • Distributed leadership
  • Number of working hours
  • Contractual stability
  • Level of satisfaction with salary
  • Time spent on different tasks that are part of job duties
  • Sources of work stress linked to organizational processes and structures
  • Staff beliefs about priority areas for improving working conditions through targeted spending
• Stakeholder relations
  • Relationships with parents or guardians
  • Relationships with health and social services
  • Relationships with other education institutions (transition to other education levels or primary school)

Cross-cutting content areas (linked to the three other dimensions and applying across the various levels of the ECEC ecosystem)

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion in ECEC settings
  • Composition of children in the ECEC setting
  • Composition of children in a target group
  • Staff linguistic background
  • Approaches to diversity and inclusion
  • Content of professional development and need for further development regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion
  • Beliefs and attitudes towards diversity, equity, and inclusion
  • Self-efficacy relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices
• Approaches to comprehensive and continuous child supports and transitions
  • Beliefs about promoting holistic development in children (e.g., facilitating pro-social behavior and self-regulation alongside skills such as literacy and numeracy)
  • Beliefs and practices pertaining to the role of ECEC in developing early environmental awareness and responsibility in young children
  • Relationships with other stakeholders (e.g., health, social protection, and other child-care services)
  • Staff use of monitoring and assessment of children to facilitate transitions
• Fostering competent ECEC systems
  • Type and content of professional development
  • Staff needs for further professional development
  • Organizational climate for staff learning
  • Distributed leadership
  • Beliefs about leader and pedagogical leadership
  • Satisfaction with autonomy, ECEC setting, work environment, and working conditions
  • Sources of work stress
  • Parent or guardian engagement
  • Relationships with other stakeholders (e.g., parents or guardians, social services, schools, community settings)
  • Opportunities to develop collective competence (in-service)
  • Setting resources
  • Resources for professional development of ECEC staff
  • Autonomy and capacity to respond to changing regulations
• Use of digital technology to support ECEC staff and leaders
  • Initial education received regarding the use of digital technologies
  • Continuing professional development received regarding the use of digital technologies
  • Self-efficacy in using digital technologies to support work with children
  • Barriers to participating in professional development related to digital technologies
  • Use of digital technologies for outreach to parents or guardians
  • Need for investment in digital technology infrastructure