Imagine a preschool classroom where each child’s unique abilities, interests, and needs are not only acknowledged but actively supported through intentional, evidence-informed practices. A teacher, for instance, understands how important it is to maximize children’s learning throughout the day and wonders what children actually learn during transition moments. She decides to measure the richness of children’s language during these moments to understand whether routine activities offer opportunities for expanding vocabulary and how she might stimulate them. Another teacher wants to nurture children’s initiative and leadership and asks herself whether the children truly have a say in ambiguous situations. She begins documenting how often she asks for their opinions and how often she listens and responds to what they share.
Teachers in high-quality educational settings stand out because they collect data about their work and tailor their approaches to the diverse interests and needs of young children. This means that teachers observe themselves, their colleagues, and the children; document these observations; reflect on them with other team members; and make changes based on this analysis. They also regularly gather a wide range of data from multiple sources, such as parent surveys, checklists, children’s creative work, and more.
In this way, the kindergarten effectively applies a continuous cycle of data use — of measuring in order to learn. It collects information on the effectiveness of its work, analyses it, interprets it, and then plans and implements changes aimed at improvement. This enables teachers to make informed decisions about how their practices influence children’s learning and development, which in turn helps them continuously refine what they do. A personalized and supportive environment increases children’s interest and engagement — what we call a state of flow — which is essential for effective learning. Children absorb skills and attitudes more deeply, including those vital for later academic success and lifelong wellbeing in the dynamic context of the 21st century: language and social-emotional skills, a positive attitude toward learning, curiosity, problem solving, and more.
The situation in Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, however, kindergartens rarely conduct systematic analysis of trends, processes, or the effects of their work for the purpose of team learning and improvement. Observations of teaching practice remain undocumented and are not used to adapt teacher approaches in real time. Parent feedback is collected sporadically and usually concerns administrative issues. Team-based learning interactions, as well as professional reflection between the two teachers in a group — although partly regulated by law — are not practiced in reality.
The consequences of these gaps include the lack of an individualized approach to each child’s strengths and challenges, and the underutilization of early childhood as a critical period for developing cognitive and social-emotional potential — a period that leaves a lasting imprint on later development. And since no system-wide measurement of preschool outcomes exists — unlike the school system, where national assessments (NVO and State Matura) are used, though even these do not measure the added value of schooling — there is little incentive to rethink pedagogical approaches so they become more individualized and more capable of developing children’s unique abilities. These gaps accumulate and later become visible in school assessments.
Some indicators are particularly noticeable — for example, Bulgaria’s consistently low results on PISA, which no longer surprise anyone. Others receive less media and public attention — such as the fact that Bulgaria has the lowest share of academically resilient students in Europe (students from disadvantaged backgrounds who achieve high results compared with their peers). In other words, although kindergarten and school should act as powerful tools for reducing social and economic inequalities, in Bulgaria they often reinforce them, because children from vulnerable communities struggle to compensate at home for the low-quality educational process they receive.
TSA’s perspective: what needs to change
At TSA, we believe that meaningful change in practice — the kind that can successfully support every child by meeting their individual needs and talents and fully engaging them in learning — can only happen when educational teams are supported to develop the mindsets and skills needed for regularly reflecting on their approaches through verifiable data.
With this vision, we approached universities in Bulgaria with strong research teams in pedagogy and invited them to develop concepts for supporting kindergartens in sustainably collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data, and for implementing new pedagogical approaches based on that data. Since mid-2025, we have been working with:
- Shumen University “Bishop Konstantin Preslavski”,
- Thracian University – Stara Zagora, and
- New Bulgarian University,
which are together supporting six kindergartens to pilot models of data-informed learning in the classroom.
“We clearly see the need for a more organised and consistent approach to collecting and analysing information in order to facilitate the implementation of quality educational practices. Staff training programmes are essential; teachers need support to develop reflective practice; and parents should be encouraged to participate actively. We believe TSA’s initiative offers a practical solution for strengthening educational practices and increasing teachers’ professional competence. This is an urgent and strategic step towards improving the entire early childhood education system,” says Prof. Sevdzihan Eyubova, project lead at Shumen University, working with kindergartens Zlatna Ribka and Proletna Daga in Shumen and Dobri Lyutskanov in the village of Dibich.
Progress so far
Tools have already been developed and applied to assess staff support needs and attitudes toward quality evaluation. New Bulgarian University has supported teachers at Sinchets Kindergarten in Sofia to form a team studying the process of change through a participatory, action-research approach. Thracian University, on the other hand, emphasizes collaboration with families and conducts team meetings to support teachers in partnering with parents in the participating kindergartens Kalinka and Gorski Kat in Stara Zagora region.
Reflective meetings will continue for all teams as they refine their approaches to data collection. An initial measurement of teacher practices was conducted using the TEACH ECE tool, revealing a need for improvement in areas such as social-emotional support, feedback, and the encouragement of critical thinking.
Looking ahead
Experts involved in the TSA initiative expect that after two years, sustainable models for team-based learning from data in kindergartens will be developed — models that can serve as system-level examples. This is particularly important in light of the upcoming changes under the draft regulation on quality management, which introduces an expectation for annual data collection, analysis, and planning in the preschool education system.
Moreover, the three participating universities plan to update their study programs based on the experience gained, ensuring that their students — Bulgaria’s future teachers — are equipped to analyze information about their work in the kindergarten and thus improve its effectiveness.