This study aims to develop a comprehensive framework to assess the level of satisfaction among students in their fourth year of undergraduate studies specializing in early childhood education in China during their practical teacher training (PTT). Drawing upon customer satisfaction theory and pertinent literature, the research employs factor analysis and structural equation modeling to discern and scrutinize pivotal variables contributing to student satisfaction. The framework encompasses seven core factors: university image (IMA), student expectations (EXPs), perceived quality (PQ) of administrative services, PQ of teaching services, teacher-student interaction, perceived value (PV), and student satisfaction. The findings reveal that IMA, PQ of administrative services, PQ of teaching services, and teacher-student interaction not only directly impact student satisfaction during PTT but also exert indirect effects through PV. While EXPs exhibit no significant direct influence on student satisfaction during PTT, they do manifest a positive direct impact on PQ of administrative services, PQ of teaching services, and PV. Notably, PV emerges as the most influential factor in determining student satisfaction during PTT among the identified variables. The framework successfully accounts for 43% of the total variance by considering constructs such as the reputation of the university, EXPs, interaction between teachers and students, PQ of administrative services, PQ of teaching services, and PV. Therefore, the present study endeavors to establish an evaluative framework that can be employed by early childhood teacher education institutions and policymakers for the purpose of assessing and augmenting PTT programs. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
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