Laboratory of Child Development

The Laboratory unites the leading specialists in the fields of assessment and improving the quality and content of early childhood education. The main fields of the Laboratory’s research include:

• Early childhood education quality 

Four experts in comprehensive assessment of the quality of education using ECERS scales, which have passed international certification, are working at the Laboratory at the moment. The Laboratory's staff organised and conducted a study of the quality of preschool education in Moscow (with the participation of the World Bank), as well as a longitudinal study in 74 regions of the Russian Federation (commissioned by Rosobrnadzor).

• Advanced training of teachers of preschool education in Moscow

The experts of the Child Development Laboratory regularly conducts advanced training courses for teachers of preschool education in Moscow and other regions, dedicated to the problems of assessing and developing the quality of preschool education.

• Educational potential of children’s playgrounds in Moscow 

Among the current projects one of the most remarkable is researching the quality of educational role of public children’s playgrounds. The aim of the project is to develop guidelines on renewing and developing subject-spatial environment of public of children’s playgrounds.

• Research of the features of ethical norms of interaction in kindergartens, development of the ethical code of preschool education workers

The Laboratory's staff regularly participates in international conferences: the Annual Conference of the European Association of Preschool Education Researchers (EECERA), the annual International conference "Upbringing and Education of Preschool children (Moscow), the Annual International Conference of the ECERS Association, the International Conference of the European Association of Researchers in Adult Development (ESRAD), the International Conference on Thinking (ICOT). Within the framework of research projects, the laboratory cooperates with many foreign partners: the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), the University of Cologne (Germany), the Educational Quality Assessment Information System (Berlin, Germany), the Institute of Educational Quality Assessment Scales (Chapel Hill, USA), etc.

• Research of mechanisms and development of educational technologies for the development of dialectical thinking of preschoolers, schoolchildren and students

The Laboratory focuses on the main research of the scientific school "Dialectical Psychology of Development" under the guidance of Professor Nikolay Veraksa. An innovative preschool education programme "Transformations" has been developed, which has been tested in a number of kindergartens in Moscow. The programme is aimed at developing the dialectical thinking of preschoolers. The Laboratory's staff also develops approaches to the formation of dialectical thinking in schools and actively uses the technology of positional teaching of psychological and pedagogical disciplines to students. In July 2017, the Laboratory organised and hosted the First International Symposium on the problems of dialectical thinking with the participation of leading experts from the USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Portugal, Germany, and Kyrgyzstan.