Page - 63 - in ElFo - Elementarpädagogische Forschungsbeiträge, Volume Jahrgang 3 / Heft 1 / 2021

Indicators of educator-child-interaction quality in early childhood education ElFo – Elementarpädagogische Forschungsbeiträge (2021), 3 (1), S. 61-76 63 (Anders, 2012). Such skill models have a long tradition in pedagogy. Shulman's (1986) model, for example, is based on the three areas of 'content knowledge', 'pedagogical content knowledge' and 'general pedagogical knowledge'. Anders (2012) The second model in contrast – stage models - focus on the development of central skill sets. In early childhood education, the process model approach has been used more frequently in recent years, especially the model devised by Fröhlich-Gildhoff, Nentwig-Gesemann and Pietsch (2011). And much more often in early childhood education are process models. Those begin with a specific pedagogical situation, and attempt to identify the processes underlying professional behaviour and under- standing in that situation. Such processes encompass: knowledge and understanding, analysis and assessment, research and investigation, planning and conception, organization and im- plementation, and evaluation (Anders, 2012). Among other things, Fröhlich-Gildhoff and col- leagues (2014) highlight how important motivation is (as a regular part of any competence) as a precondition for activity planning. We now shift perspective and focus on the level of action. Irrespective of their personal level of motivation, professional educators need to design daily pedagogical routines such that they are conducive to child development. This is a core element of professional didactics. The sci- ence of didactics helps all educators analyse and describe the interplay of teaching and learn- ing in groups and shows them how the necessary processes are to be designed (Meyer & Wal- ter-Laager, 2019). The educator's knowledge and skills and, less directly, his or her child-ori- ented inner positioning, are all crucial in the implementation of didactic principles and con- cepts. However, in practice, the influence of everyday routines and professional socialization often result in 'inner positioning' being neglected even though, ideally, it ought to be directly addressed and incorporated into each round of reflection. Early childhood educators plan everyday activities in nurseries based on their professional knowledge and on their didactical skills. In doing so, they design a learning environment which is suitable for both group and individual activities (Meyer & Walter-Laager, 2012). Everyday life in nurseries contains very movement-intensive (active) phases and others in which the children engage in more quiet activities, so that countless learning opportunities among all children occur and the social group form and degree of self-determination are always chang- ing. Useful here, are the four methodological-didactic building blocks described by Walter and Fasseing (2017), since they support goal-oriented planning. Active observation of children's activities and development enables the early childhood educator to make situational short- term adaptations at the micro level, and also to adapt the learning environment over the long term (Walter-Laager, Pfiffner, Bruns & Schwarz, 2014; Walter-Laager, Luthardt & Pfiffner, 2017). In order to offer suitable developmental activities (the zone of proximal development), or to deepen children’s interest (Eichen, Tinguely, Geissmann & Walter-Laager, 2014; Meyer & Walter-Laager, 2019), pedagogical professionals are in a position to draw on detailed, exist- ing knowledge concerning the various stages of learning and development (e.g. Rettenbacher, Eichen, Pfiffner & Walter-Laager, in press). They can also make use of recurring rounds of team