Number of staff and children in the target group
A similar set of variables is also built at the level of the target group. TALIS Starting Strong asks staff to take the example of the target group (the first group of children they were working with on the last working day before the day of the survey). Respondents indicate the category that best represents their role when working with this group of children (leader, teacher, assistant, staff for individual children, staff for special tasks, interns and other staff) (SS1G36), as well as the number of girls and boys who made up the group (SS1G37).
This information is used to derive three indicators: 1) the number of children per target group; 2) the number of staff working with the same target group on the same day; and 3) the number of staff per child working with the same target group on the same day.
The number of staff per child with the same target group on the same day refers to the number of staff working with the same target group, regardless of their role, divided by the number of children in the target group. Because the number of staff per individual child is very low, when specific examples are cited for comparative purposes, they are presented as “number of staff per ten children”, which is obtained by multiplying the number of staff per child by ten.
The number of staff per child working with the same target group on the same day reflects a specific situation and is, therefore, different from the number of staff per child at the centre level. Staff may be working with the same target group at different moments of the day and not together, or may work part time. Children in the same group may also change over the day into different group compositions, and children’s attendance hours can differ. This concept also differs from the regulated maximum numbers of children per staff member, as that could include some restrictions on the staff to be included (depending on their qualifications or role) and can be specific to the age group of children.
As there is no indicator clarifying which target group each staff member referred to, several staff members may have referred to the same target group. This can result in a bias, as some target groups may be overrepresented in the data.
Share of staff who left their ECEC centre in the previous year
Leaders participating in TALIS Starting Strong reported on the number of staff who left the ECEC centre in the previous year (SL1G18B). The share of staff who left their ECEC centre in the previous year is obtained by dividing this variable by the total number of staff at the centre at the time leaders responded to the survey.
Novice and experienced staff and leaders
The novice and experienced staff variables were calculated by using staff reports about their total years working as an ECEC staff (SS1G06B). Respondents were considered novice staff if they had worked for three years or less in the ECEC sector in staff roles (i.e. teachers, assistants, staff for individual children, staff for special tasks and interns), and experienced staff if they had worked for more than three years in the sector in staff roles.
The novice and experienced centre leader variables were calculated by using centre leader reports about their total years working as an ECEC centre leader (SL1G05B). Respondents were considered novice centre leaders if they had worked for three years or less in the ECEC sector in a centre leader role, and experienced centre leaders if they had worked for more than three years in the sector in a centre leader role.
Staff’s weekly hours spent without children
The number of weekly working hours without children was calculated by using staff reports to questions about their weekly total weekly working hours (SS1G18) and about their weekly hours spent with children (SS1G19). To calculate this indicator, the number of hours spent with children (SS1G19) was subtracted from the total number of hours worked (SS1G18). Negative values, resulting from staff who reported more hours spent with children than overall working hours, were excluded.
Percentage of working hours spent without children
The percentage of working hours without children variable was calculated by multiplying the number of weekly working hours spent without children (see above) by 100 and divided by the total number of weekly working hours using staff reports about their total weekly working hours (SS1G18). Some analysis required this continuous variable to be split into national quarters (see below).
Percentage of working hours spent with children
The percentage of working hours without children variable was calculated by using staff reports about their total weekly working hours (SS1G18) and about their weekly working hours spent with children (SS1G19). To calculate this indicator, the number of weekly working hours spent with children was multiplied by 100 and divided by the total number of weekly working hours. All values that exceeded 100%, resulting from staff who reported more hours spent with children than overall working hours, were excluded. Some analysis required this continuous variable to be split into national quarters (see below).
Leaders’ weekly working hours
The number of weekly working hours of ECEC centre leaders was calculated by using centre leader reports about their usual working hours per week in this centre (SL1G06). To calculate this indicator, all values of 10 weekly hours or below (equivalent to 2 hours per day, on average, for a 5-day work week) and above 60 weekly hours (equivalent to 12 hours per day, on average, for a 5-day work week) were excluded to reduce the impact of outliers on the analysis of national averages and percentiles.
Level of ECEC centre autonomy for tasks
This set of indicators was derived from ECEC centre leader reports about who has significant responsibilities for eight different tasks related to curriculum, policies, staffing and budgeting (SL1G21): “deciding which activities for children are offered” and “choosing which materials/toys are used” (curriculum-related tasks); “establishing monitoring plans for children’s development, well‑being and learning” and “approving children for admission to the centre” (policies-related tasks); “appointing or hiring staff” and “dismissing or suspending staff from employment” (staffing-related tasks); and “establishing staff salaries” and “deciding on budget allocations within the centre” (budgeting-related tasks).
For each task, a new indicator was calculated by recoding the original responses into three categories: 1) “full autonomy”, which corresponds to original responses that only indicate that “me and/or other members of staff” have significant responsibility; 2) “partial autonomy”, which corresponds to the responses that indicate that “me and/or other members of staff”, plus the “centre governing board” and/or the “local municipality/regional, state or national/federal authority” have significant responsibility; 3) “no autonomy”, which corresponds to responses that indicate that only the “centre governing board” and/or “the local municipality/regional, state or national authority/federal authority” have significant responsibility.
For Japan, the indicator was calculated separately since the response categories to the questions about who has significant responsibilities were adapted to the national context. For each task, the indicator was created by recoding the original responses into the following three categories: 1) “full autonomy”, which corresponds to original responses that only indicate that “me and/or other members of staff” have significant responsibility; 2) “partial autonomy”, which corresponds to the responses that indicate that “me and/or other members of staff”, plus the "Incorporated/social institutes'' and/or the “local, municipality/regional, state, or national/federal authority” have significant responsibility; 3) “no autonomy”, which corresponds to responses that indicate that only the “incorporated/social institutes”' or the “local municipality/regional, state or national /federal authority” have significant responsibility.
Scope of ECEC centre autonomy for resources and pedagogy
To describe the scope of ECEC centre autonomy for resources and pedagogy, two indicators were derived from centre leader reports about who has significant responsibility for such tasks (SL1G21).
Centre autonomy for resources refers to these four items: 1) “appointing or hiring staff”; 2) “dismissing or suspending staff from employment”; 3) “establishing staff's salaries”; and 4) “deciding on budget allocations within the centre”. Centre autonomy for pedagogy refers to the following four items: 1) “establishing monitoring plans for children's development, well-being and learning”; 2) “approving children for admission to the centre”; 3) “choosing which materials/toys are used”; and 4) “deciding which activities for children are offered”.
For each specific task, centre leaders’ responses were recoded into the category “full autonomy”, where centre leaders responded only that “me and/or other members of staff” have significant responsibility.
For each group of tasks (i.e. resources and pedagogy), an indicator “full autonomy in the majority of tasks” was then created based on centre leaders reporting only that “me and/or other members of staff" have significant responsibility in at least three of the four items.
Centre-level indices of human and material resources
TALIS Starting Strong 2018 asked ECEC centre leaders about the extent to which the lack of various human and material resources hindered their centres’ capacity to provide a quality environment for children’s development, learning and well-being (SL1G34).
Two centre-level indicators of resources were based on these reports. The index of shortage of human resources was derived from the following four items: 1) “shortage of qualified staff”; 2) “shortage of staff for the number of enrolled children”; 3) “shortage of staff with competence in working with children from socio‑economically disadvantaged homes”; and 4) “shortage of staff with competence in working with children with special needs”. The index of shortage of material resources was derived from the following four items: 1) “shortage or inadequacy of indoor space”; 2) “shortage or inadequacy of outdoor play space”; 3) “shortage or inadequacy of play or learning materials (e.g. books, picture books, building blocks, clay, paint)”; and 4) “shortage or inadequacy of digital technology for play and learning (e.g. computers, tablets, smart boards)”.
Both indices were recoded to have three values: “not a problem of shortage” (value=1) if leaders responded “not at all” to 3 or 4 items (allowing “to some extent” for 1 item); “problematic shortage” (value=3) if leaders responded “quite a bit” or “a lot” to 3 or 4 items; and “minor problem” (value=2), an intermediate category for all other combinations of leader responses.
Higher values on these indices therefore mean that ECEC centre leaders view the amount and/or quality of resources in their centres as an obstacle to providing quality environments for children.
National quarters
Some analysis using complex continuous variables required these variables to be transformed into interval categories. To accommodate for this need, the report makes use of national quarters. In each country, the weighted distribution of the continuous variable is split into equally sized categories, following the rank order. For instance, the cut-off point between the first quarter and the second quarter of the scale of staff engagement in collaborative professional practices is the 25th percentile of the distribution of the scale in a specific country. As a result, the range of these intervals will differ across countries and vary with the properties of the distribution in each country.