Psychometric Properties and Factor Structure of the Greek Version of the Preschool Learning Behavior Scale Efthymia Penderi Department of Education Sciences in Pre-School Age, Democritus University of Thrace, Kavala, Greece Konstantinos Petrogiannis Department of Developmental Psychology, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece Paul McDermott Quantitative Methods Division, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA New developments in the kindergartens in Greece have necessitated the availability of assessment tools that cover a wide range of children’s skills and competencies that are related to the promotion of children’s learning and development. The present study focuses on children’s approaches to learning and aims to provide evidence for the Greek form of the Preschool Learning Behaviors Scale as a promising assessment tool for the Greek preschoolers. A nationally stratified sample of 398 boys and girls attending kindergarten classes provided data for the factor structure of the instrument. Two reliable and valid factors emerged describing children’s motivation, determination to engage and persist in learning activities, as well as their responses toward novelty and frustration with an emphasis on attention. Upon identifying children’s strengths and weaknesses when participating in learning activities, teachers could organize rich and challenging learning environments in the classroom, and design activities and intervention programs to foster children’s adaptive behavior and promote later school success. Keywords: Approaches to learning, Preschool Learning Behaviors Scale, Greek kindergarten, factor structure INTRODUCTION Early Approaches to Learning According to DiPerna and Elliott (2002), academic competence is a multidimensional construct comprised of skills, attitudes, and behaviors that facilitate school success. These components of academic competence fall into two broad categories: academic skills and academic enablers. The former group constitutes a basic and complex set of abilities that are developed with reference to formal elementary and secondary education, whereas the latter describes behaviors and attitudes that benefit from academic instruction and facilitate children’s participation in the classroom (DiPerna, 2006). However, with regard to younger children, the conceptualization of academic skills and enablers cannot tap into their activity and performance in the preschool setting since curricula and programs are not academically oriented, at least not up to the point that elementary school prioritizes relevant goals and subjects. Nevertheless, early academic outcomes concerning special learning areas in the preschool program, such as mathematics and literacy, have been identified as highly predictive of school success later in childhood (e.g., Kern & Correspondence should be addressed to Efthymia Penderi, Department of Education Sciences in Pre-School Age, Democritus University of Thrace, Pireos 9, 65404 Kavala, Greece. E-mail: effieped55@gmail.com International Journal of School & Educational Psychology , 2, 271–282, 2014 Copyright q International School Psychology Association ISSN 2168-3603 print/ISSN 2168-3611 online DOI: 10.1080/21683603.2014.895462 Downloaded by [University of Northern Colorado] at 08:25 02 May 2016