Taking risks and engaging with mistakes in meaningful ways is pivotal for children to gain new knowledge and skills. As a core concept in the area of early childhood education, approaches to learning (ATL) shape the way children navigate mistakes and adjust based on what they learn from the corrective feedback. Children with positive ATL will be more willing to engage in the trial-and-error practice, which generally leads them to learn faster than those with negative ATL and obtain greater academic achievement (McDermott et al., 2014). ATL is also an important factor for future success because it can improve children’s peer relationships and social interactions, but also reduce their problematic behaviors and learning difficulties (Razza et al., 2015; Peng, 2020). Overall, ATL constitutes a core area of early school readiness and is of great importance for children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development (Mcclelland et al., 2006; Hyson, 2008).

Since the concept of ATL was introduced, researchers have engaged in a series of discussions on its connotations. Early researchers believed that ‘approaches to learning’ is a general term covering a series of attitudes, habits, dispositions and styles that represent the behavioral disposition of children toward participation in learning activities (Kagan, 1995). Research points out that there are obvious differences in the concept of ATL (Serife, 2008). ATL is not a substitute for learning style. Learning style reflects stable personality characteristics (Price, 2004), while ATL has acquired plasticity and can be improved through a well-designed curriculum and teaching strategies (McDermott et al., 2016).

In recent years, researchers have posited that ATL reflects children’s enthusiasm for learning and engagement in learning (Hyson, 2008). ATL is regarded as an observable explicit behavior related to learning (McClelland et al., 2000; McDermott et al., 2001; Fantuzzo et al., 2007) or an adaptive behavior reflecting how children adapt to learning situations (Li-Grining et al., 2010). ATL describes children’s active, committed, and persistent behaviors in different learning situations (Hu et al., 2017). In prior work, ATL was defined as an umbrella concept that encompasses a series of motives and observable behaviors when children participate in learning activities. ATL has the characteristics of domain-general, acquired plasticity, and behavior externality (McClelland et al., 2000; McDermott et al., 2001; Fantuzzo et al., 2007).

Although Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (2012) put forward in-depth issues regarding the factor structure of ATL earlier, there is no consensus on the factor structure of children’s ATL. The factors involved in children’s ATL may include initiative, curiosity, persistence, innovation and creativity, problem-solving, concentration, reasoning ability, and flexibility (Scott-Little et al., 2006; Peng, 2020). On the other hand, prior research suggests that the factors involved in children’s ATL include concentration, persistence, novelty and adventure, competence motivation, flexibility, learning attitude, problem-solving, and initiative (Fantuzzo et al., 2007; Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2011; McDermott et al., 2012; Rikoon et al., 2012; Ziv, 2013). At the same time, based on research regarding China’s policy and cultural background, the factors involved in children’s ATL include persistence and concentration, initiative, imagination, creativity and invention, curiosity, learning attitude, etc. (Qian and Ding, 2010; Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2012; Wu et al., 2016; Hu et al., 2017). Obviously, there are substantial inconsistencies and disputes in terms of the factor structure of ATL, which motivates us to examine the factor structure of ATL in the Chinese context.

In most empirical studies and early education policy documents, researchers and policymakers describe the core factors of ATL from multiple dimensions. The first is to establish the factor structure from the perspective of developmental psychology, educational psychology, and cultural psychology, and organize it in a meaningful way while being consistent with the way others organize content related to this field. The second is based on empirical research evidence. Based on the data of preschool education practice and empirical research, it emphasizes the organizational factors closely related to children’s learning outcomes (Hyson, 2008). Previous research based large samples has identified children’s competence motivation and persistence as two factors of ATL that are conceptually similar and consistent in time, which can predict children’s future academic performance (McDermott et al., 2014). The third is based on practical application. It has practical application value for the daily work of preschool education practitioners and the educational decision-making of educational policymakers. The factors of ATL should be easy to understand, memorize and describe, suitable for different learning environments, focusing on what preschool education practitioners and educational policymakers can use to operate.

There are two types of assessment instruments for ATL: one is teachers’ assessments of children’s learning behavior in various activities, and the other is the assessment of children’s classroom performance by researchers. For example, the Preschool Learning Behavior Scale (PLBS) is an instrument for teachers to measure children’s learning behavior from the following four perspectives: competence motivation, attention/persistence, strategy/flexibility, and learning attitude in the previous 2 months (McDermott et al., 2002). The classroom performance profile (CPP) enables teachers to measure children’s learning, social interaction, and creativity in the classroom (Crosby and French, 2010). The ‘children’s ATL observation and evaluation scale’ scores children’s learning behavior in-class activities on a five-point scale (Wang et al., 2010). Unfortunately, it is complex and time-consuming. Moreover, the 3- to 6-year-old children’s ATL observation and assessment scales are based on the children’s performance in an autonomous snowflake construction game (Zhao and Wang, 2018).

The instrument focuses on performing assessment in a specific situation and has many measurement aspects, which makes it overly complex. The existing assessment instruments for ATL have too many items and limited assessment scenarios (for example, building block construction game scenarios) and are suitable for a single age (for example, upperclassmen). The assessors not only have to complete many assessment items but also need to change assessment instruments for children of different ages, which makes the assessment of children’s ATL inefficient and serves to increase teachers’ workloads. Teachers also tend to ‘fill in at will,’ which is not conducive to obtaining accurate assessment results.

Scholars have called for a short and effective instrument for assessing preschoolers’ ATL (McDermott and Beitman, 1984; Diamond et al., 2013; Barbu et al., 2015). Although preschool teachers can observe children’s learning behavior in kindergarten (Ye and Guo, 2021), parents are children’s first teachers and create a family environment in which children can learn (Feng, 2020; Yue and Ren, 2021). Both teachers and parents are important educators in children’s growth, so the task of assessing children’s ATL development should fall on teachers and parents concurrently (Bodovski and Fa Rkas, 2008). In the Chinese cultural context, observations on children’s ATL are limited to those of a single reporter; for example, assessments of children’s ATL development being only conducted by teachers create an inability to obtain a comprehensive assessment. Therefore, a short and effective instrument for Chinese teachers and parents to assess children’s ATL should be developed.

To address this research gap, the current study is to develop an assessment instrument for 3 ~ 6 children that is suitable for different learning activities in both family and preschool settings. The assessment content and time needed are short, which is beneficial to obtaining an accurate assessment of the development level of children’s ATL. At the same time, this study attempts to expand the reporter role to parents; both teachers and parents should assess children’s ATL simultaneously to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of children’s ATL development.

ATL is externally manifested learning behaviors in the context of specific learning activities. Based on the real situation of children’s participation in learning activities, preschool teachers and parents can observe a series of learning-related behaviors displayed by children through their learning activities. Educators can properly understand the core factors of preschoolers’ ATL by understanding how children’s initiation, participation, and completion of learning activities, represent typical behavioral manifestations of underlying psychosocial processes including competence motivation, attention/persistence, learning strategies, and creativity.

Chinese policy related to the ATL of children aged 3–6 points out that “Children’s positive attitude and behavior disposition in the process of activities are valuable qualities necessary for perpetual learning and development. We should fully respect and protect children’s curiosity and interest in learning and help them gradually develop positive approaches to learning, such as showing initiative and being conscientious, fearless of difficulties, brave to explore, and willing to create.” The guide for evaluating the quality of early childhood care education points out that assessors should “fully respect and protect children’s curiosity and interest in the inquiry, and believe that every child is an active and capable learner.”

Based on the Chinese cultural background and preschool education policy requirements, as well as drawing upon transactional theories of development and empirical research findings of children’s ATL in the literature, we posit that children’s ATL includes four factors: competence motivation, attention/persistence, creativity, and learning strategies. The definition and examples for the four factors are shown in Table 1. In particular, creativity, in addition to the other common factors identified in the literature, should be embraced as a vital factor when measuring the ATL of Chinese children.

The purpose of this study is thus to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the ATL, a 20-item instrument measuring ATL in early childhood education based on Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (2012). First, we determined four factors of the ATL instrument across teachers and parents using scree plot and expert evaluations. Second, we ensured that the factor solution applied in both groups (i.e., teachers and parents) and, thus, we validated the ATL instrument’s structure using the multi-group CFA techniques. Finally, we examined the reliability of the ATL instrument by assessing the convergent validity and calculating its composite reliability.

The procedure behind the ATL scale development process in this study is presented in Figure 1.

Initially, there were 43 items in the teacher version and 39 items in the parent version. We then invited 15 experts in the field of early childhood development to evaluate the language expression and content appropriateness of the items. In accordance with several expert assessments and suggestions, we modified the scale items. Specifically, 12 experts stated that the descriptions of items TCM10, PCM10, TCR24, PCR24, TCR29, and PCR29 were not clear enough, which was not conducive to evaluation. Eight experts stated that the expressions in TAP12, PAP12, TAP15, PAP15, TAP18, and PAP18 reflect age characteristics of children’s psychological development or behavior problems, which was not suitable for the assessment of children’s ATL. After deleting TCM10, PCM10, TAP12, PAP12, TAP15, PAP15, TAP18, PAP18, TCR24, PCR24, TCR29, and PCR29, we finalized the original scale for data collection and psychometric analysis. After expert assessment, 37 items remained in the teacher version, and 33 items remained in the parent version. These items were then analyzed.

Although the Learning and Development Guide for Children Aged 3–6 in China (2012) has pointed out the importance of children’s ATL, there are few instruments to effectively measure children’s ATL. The developed ATL scale in this study can be a reliable and effective instrument that is easy for teachers and parents to report. It identifies the reliability and effectiveness of children’s ATL factor structure. In particular, the study points out the need to develop instruments that are easily accessible to teachers and other practitioners in the daily educational process, because some instruments are time-consuming and restrictive in daily use. Therefore, the new scale of children’s learning products is not only an easy-to-use instrument in a short time in preschool classes but also a reliable and effective instrument for long-term observation and tracking.

This study developed a new instrument for teachers and parents to effectively assess the development level of children’s ATL. Prior research has shown that children with positive ATL exhibit better learning performance, and positive ATL have been underlined in policy documents and early education standards in multiple nations (Kagan, 1995; Yan and Wei, 2013; Peng, 2020). Previous studies have also suggested that if we use more factors to assess children’s ATL, the connotation of ATL becomes too broad to grasp (Chen and McNamee, 2011; McDermott et al., 2011; Huang et al., 2019). It is more important to unravel the core elements of ATL. Based on the policy requirements of China’s preschool education, our research focuses on the core elements of children’s ATL to establish its four-factor structure (i.e., creativity, learning strategy, competence motivation, and attention/persistence), which can be used to effectively assess children’s ATL and provide practical instruments for preschool teachers and parents to effectively train children’s ATL.

Previous studies rarely use “creativity” in the factor structure for ATL, assuming that creativity is irrelevant to children’s learning. However, creativity is the driving force for children to learn, which is one of children’s more important potentials. Children can use creative imagination to expand their knowledge, carry out new learning, generate new ideas, discover and create new things, and express themselves in unique ways (Yan-Wei, 2013). In this study, the measure of ATL and the factor of “creativity” highlight the way that children show their innate ability and describe the novelty in children’s thinking and use of materials. For example, through imagination, children can show their uniqueness and particularities through various activities, give full play to their imagination, and show confidence and positivity in the face of new events.

In addition, previous studies mostly measured children’s ATL from the single perspective of teachers and professionals, while less research adopted the perspective of parents (Barbu et al., 2015). However, it is necessary to develop instruments that teachers and other practitioners can easily use in the daily educational environment because many of the existing measurement instruments are too time-consuming and thus unsuitable for daily practice (Diamond et al., 2013). The scale developed in this study is based on the simultaneous use of two groups, namely teachers and parents, to assess children’s ATL. The scale contains four identical factors across the two reporting groups. The number of items is also appropriate and is not affected by rater identity. In sum, this paper contributes a new instrument for convenient but effective assessment of children’s ATL. ATL can enhance or reduce children’s learning outcomes (Hyson, 2008). Positive ATL will promote children’s academic achievements, while negative ATL will hinder children’s acquisition of knowledge or skills.

Children with learning difficulties need early detection and intervention. In this sense, the developed scale of approaches to learning provide us with a new screening tool. When encountering learning difficulties, children with positive ATL are more likely to show initiative, persistence, flexibility, and creativity, which can help children reduce the incidence of learning errors. ATL assessment can identify children with potential learning difficulties, to intervene in children with learning difficulties as soon as possible. In addition, even if children make learning mistakes, children with positive ATL can easier to learn from mistakes. Learning difficulties need early diagnosis and prevention. ATL has become a screening device for children with learning difficulties. Early detection, diagnosis, and intervention of children with learning difficulties will help promote the development of children’s academic performance and social–emotional ability (Chen and Huang, 2018).

The research sample in this study only represented a single province of China, which could limit the sample representativeness of this study to a certain extent, so caution should be used when applying the scale across regions. Future research can collect samples from multiple regions to confirm the structure of the developed scale. Although the sample size of this study seems adequate relative to relevant works in the ATL literature, future research can collect more samples to provide stronger evidence for the psychometric properties of the new ATL scale in our research. After the statistical analysis of preschoolers’ approaches to the learning scale, the inappropriate items were deleted according to the standards suggested in the literature, but these items may remain in other samples in future research. In this study, we completed the preparation of the scale and developed a reasonable structure and scientific content. Future research should explore the individual differences in sex, class, and parents’ economic and cultural levels to advance the understanding of factors affecting the development of children’s ATL and advance more comprehensive strategies to cultivate children’s ATL.

The approaches to learning of preschoolers are crucial for their development and future success. Effectively assessing preschoolers’ approaches to learning is thus important for parents and teachers to identify potential learning problems of preschoolers and implement timely intervention. However, there is a lack of a valid assessment instrument that can adapt to the Chinese context and be used by both teachers and parents. In this regard, this study develops an easy-to-use assessment instrument for preschool teachers and parents to measure approaches to learning in China, and for scholars who are interested in the current status and development of Chinese children’s approaches to learning. Both the results of EFA and CFA supported the 4-factor structure (creativity, learning strategy, competence motivation, and attention/persistence). Using social skills and executive function to examine the predictive validity of the approaches to learning scale, we find that all dimensions of the scale can positively predict children’s social skills and negatively predict children’s executive function, which is consistent with the findings of previous studies (McDermott et al., 2012; Wu et al., 2016). Multi-group CFA further showed that the measurement model was robust and had cross-evaluator stability. Particularly, creativity was found as a new dimension of approaches to learning in the Chinese context, contributing to the literature stream of approaches to learning with a context-specific factor and possibly spurring more researchers to examine the cross-national or even cross-cultural differences in the future. Overall, this new instrument can be used as an effective instrument for educators to assess children’s approaches to learning and for future researchers to investigate various factors influencing the development of children’s approaches to learning in the field of early childhood.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

This research was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the American Psychological Association and was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Ningbo University.

LF contributed to conception and design of the study, performed the statistical analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. JW provided substantial support for data collection and statistical analysis. All authors contributed to the manuscript revision and approved the submitted version.

This study was supported by grants from the National Social Science Fund of China “Multilevel Modeling on the Influence of Parent Involvement on Children’s Approaches to Learning” (Grant No. BHA190151).

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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