The present review systematizes information on group composition indexes focusing on preschool contexts and their associations with teachers’ educational practices. This is the first review conducted with this purpose. High-quality classroom processes have been associated with positive child outcomes (Mashburn et al., 2008). Further, child characteristics and the classroom composition, an indicator of the structural features of the social context (Reid & Ready, 2013), can influence classroom quality (Kuger, Kluczniok, Kaplan & Rossbach, 2016). Together, these findings suggest the transactional nature of effects. A systematic search was conducted in Academic Search Complete, ERIC, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, Scopus and Web of Science. Based on the SPIDER framework, search terms were defined considering all possible combinations of the targeted population, the phenomenon of interest, and the method of evaluation (e.g., centre-based childcare OR preschool* AND teacher* OR educator* AND group composition OR classroom characteristics AND class* observation* OR observed interaction*). Thirty-one empirical studies, with samples of preschool-aged children, attending centre-based childcare, and providing quantitative data on the association between group characteristics and observed interactions and teachers’ practices were selected for qualitative syntheses, based on interrater agreement. Findings suggest most classroom composition indexes focused on ability, age, ethnicity, family income, gender, home language, and immigrant background. Results concerning the association patterns between classroom composition and teacher-child interactions will be presented. By systematically gathering and analysing data on how group composition and teacher-child interactions relate, decision-making processes concerning the organization of groups of preschoolers, may be optimized.

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systematic review,group composition,teacher-child interactions preschool,observation measures