A questionnaire as a tool for assessing the development of team skills in preschool children through the prism of parental perception

Abstract

Introduction. The development of social norms in preschool children influences subsequent skills in collaboration, self-regulation, and social behavior. Project-based activities create a context for collective activity, where children practice rules of interaction, role assignment, and collaborative problem-solving skills. Parental perceptions serve as an important source of information on the transfer of learned norms to everyday practice and complement pedagogical observations. The aim of this study is to describe the development and validation of a parent questionnaire designed to assess the impact of project-based activities on the development of teamwork skills in preschoolers and its application in monitoring educational outcomes. Materials and methods. 274 respondents took part in the study: 137 parents and 137 children (62 girls, 76 boys, ages 6–7) from a municipal kindergarten. The «We Are a Team!» project lasted two months and included training sessions, quests, theater and creative activities, family assignments, and parent consultations. Taking into account the identified systemic errors in collecting feedback from parents and the measures envisaged for their mitigation, a questionnaire «Assessment of the development of team skills» was developed with control fields, a scale of questions, a mandatory text field, and a verification question. The questionnaire was administered offline and online immediately after the project's completion and again eight weeks later. Processing included filtering, quantitative and content analysis, factor analysis, and criterion validation testing using external methods. Results of the study. In a pilot study of the «Assessment of Teamwork Skills Development» questionnaire, 129 parent questionnaires were analyzed and repeated eight weeks later. Four percent of questionnaires were excluded from the analysis after filtering. Factor analysis confirmed the four-factor structure; the scales demonstrated acceptable to good reliability. Test-retest analysis revealed no differences. Criterion validity was confirmed by significant correlations with external methods. Active family involvement is associated with higher scores on the effect of teamwork skill development in preschoolers. Discussion and Conclusions. The developed questionnaire «Assessment of Team Skill Development» demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties in the pilot study: an interpretable factor structure, adequate internal consistency, criterion validity, and temporal stability. With further testing on a larger sample and integration of additional qualitative methods, the tool could serve as a model for collecting parental feedback in early childhood education settings.