With the purpose of improving the efficiency of teacher-children interactions and enhancing the quality of pre-school education, the writer uses 20 kindergartens in urban areas of Chongqing as samples to study the teacher-children interactions through observation. The findings show that: 1) The teacher-children interaction is unbalanced, mainly presenting as the teacher-centered “asym-metrical interdependent interactions”. Interactions initiated by the teacher and positive emotions of the children during these interactions are obviously more than those initiated by the children. 2) Interactions between the teacher and the children lack emotional depth. In the interactions, the children response less although they participate more; major methods of initiating and responding to the interactions are non-verbal actions, short or perfunctory replies; and most contents of the interactions are events without touching upon emotions.
The teacher-children interaction is a process of mental interactions or mutual behavioral influence between the teacher and children. It is a necessary condition for children to shape and develop the personality and the individuality [
The research mainly uses non-participating observation to study teacher-children interactions in kindergartens.
As the object of the research, 20 master teachers and the children who interact with these teachers are selected randomly from intermediate classes in 20 kindergartens of Chongqing’s main urban zone in China.
The research tool refers to Handbook for Quality Evaluation in Kindergarten Education (Tool 6: Observation of Teacher-Children Interactions) [
With the sampling method to observe, the research selects 10 minutes of daily life activities and transition activities respectively, 15 minutes of indoor and outdoor games and collective or group educational activities respectively, totally 65 minutes to record the communications between the teacher and the children in two days successively.
With spss11.5 database, the research performed percentile ranking for the distributions of observation variables, and T-test on differences of initiators of continuous variables.
In such interactions as life activities, indoor games, outdoor games, collective educational activities, and transition activities, numbers of interactions initiated by urban teachers are respectively 9.6, 9.6, 13.6, 14.7, and 8.0, while those by children are respectively 3.1, 4.8, 3.2, 3.5, and 1.4. With t-test, there are extremely significant differences, and the teacher initiates more interactions than the children (see
In the interactions initiated by the children, the frequency of causing the teacher to respond once is 50% -
| First variables | Secondary variables | Tertiary variables |
|---|---|---|
| Initiator of interactions | Teacher | |
| Child | ||
| Ways to initiate and respond | Unified verbal requirements or replies | Call the name or the appellation |
| Short or perfunctory answers | ||
| Simple verbal YES | ||
| Simple verbal NO | ||
| Teacher’s short instructions or requirements | ||
| Brief answers according to the requirements | ||
| Teacher’s oral demonstration | ||
| Question posing | Directly definitive-answer-oriented questions | |
| Questions for information inquiry, advices or help | ||
| Heuristic questioning | ||
| Questions oppugning against the expression or performance of the other party | ||
| Active learning or individualized expression | Children actively expressing what they are thinking and doing, or the individualized requirements | |
| Children’s complaints | ||
| The teacher requires, suggests or gives options in form of consultation | ||
| Describing knowledge, truth, ideas, stories and reason | ||
| The teacher encourages children to explore further, reattempt, and practice. | ||
| Expressing and communicating feelings | Positive, gentle and comforting languages | |
| Bullies, satirization, and blame | ||
| Language evaluation | Positive evaluative language | |
| Negative evaluative language | ||
| Non-verbal actions | Joint activities of the teacher and children | |
| Listening or watching | ||
| With actions to giving instructions or making requests | ||
| Following or according to instructions or suggestions to act, simulating actions | ||
| The teacher inspires with actions. | ||
| The teacher demonstrates, corrects and helps with actions. | ||
| Positive, gentle and comforting expression and actions. | ||
| Children’s negative emotional expression of | ||
| Expressions and actions of positive evaluation | ||
| Expressions and actions of negative evaluation or determent | ||
| Interactive contents | Disciplinary rules | |
| Meeting life needs and tidying up | ||
| Games and teaching activities | ||
| Games and seeking help for learning difficulties | ||
| Presentation of games and learning methods, process and results | ||
| Assessment | ||
| Expressing and communicating feelings | ||
| Children’s mood during the interaction | Happy (3 marks) | |
| Unable to tell (2 marks) | ||
| Unhappy (1 marks) | ||
| Response Times |
| Activity type | Initiator | Number of teacher/children-initiated interactions | Number of children participants (%) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | t | ||||
| Life activity | Teacher | 9.6 | 4.1 | 9.1** | 57.8 |
| Children | 3.1 | 1.8 | |||
| Indoor games | Teacher | 9.6 | 5.4 | 5.0** | 64.4 |
| Children | 4.8 | 3.0 | |||
| Outdoor games | Teacher | 13.6 | 7.3 | 8.4** | 67.3 |
| Children | 3.2 | 2.6 | |||
| Collective education | Teacher | 14.7 | 5.9 | 10.5** | 71.5 |
| Children | 3.5 | 3.3 | |||
| Transition activity | Teacher | 8.0 | 3.1 | 12.5** | 68.9 |
| Children | 1.4 | 1.4 | |||
| Initiator | Life activities | Indoor games | Outdoor games | Collective & group education | Transition activities | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Times | Frequency | Times | Frequency | Times | Frequency | Times | Frequency | Times | Frequency | |
| Teacher | 1 | 62.1 | 3 | 40.4 | 3 | 42.4 | 3 | 43.8 | 1 | 69.0 |
| 3 | 33.6 | 1 | 29.8 | 1 | 41.0 | 5 | 23.7 | 3 | 24.5 | |
| ／ | ／ | 5 | 19.7 | 5 | / | 1 | 20.7 | ／ | ／ | |
| Children | 1 | 72.0 | 1 | 54.9 | 1 | 64.1 | 1 | 74.3 | 1 | 75.0 |
| 3 | 25.0 | 3 | 35.2 | 3 | 32.0 | 3 | 23.8 | 3 | 19.2 | |
Note: The initiation of and response to interactions exchange back and forth, thus times of both initiating of and responding to an interaction are even numbers. Therefore, times of responses could only be odd numbers except one time for initiating the interaction (every interaction can only have one initiation).
75%; and the frequency of causing three responses is 20% - 35% or so.
Among the interactions initiated by the teacher with unified verbal requirements, over 90% have presented as short instructions of the teacher (see
In addition to collective educational activities, among such interactions as life activities, indoor and outdoor
| Interaction Background | Method category | Results of initiating methods | Results of response methods | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By the teacher | By the children | By the teacher | By the children | ||
| Life activities | Unified verbal requirements/replies | 59.3 | / | 14.1 | 40.9 |
| Posing questions | 24.3 | / | / | / | |
| Active and individualized representation | / | 71.0 | / | 10.6 | |
| Non-verbal actions | / | 12.0 | 73.2 | 22.0 | |
| Indoor games | Unified verbal requirements/replies | 32.0 | / | 34.7 | 31.1 |
| Posing questions | 49.4 | 11.3 | / | 17.5 | |
| Active and individualized representation | / | 73.2 | 10.1 | 18.9 | |
| Non-verbal actions | / | 12.0 | 53.9 | 16.2 | |
| Outdoor games | Active and individualized representation | 45.6 | / | 23.0 | 32.4 |
| Posing questions | 27.7 | 10.7 | / | 14.5 | |
| Active and individualized representation | 17.5 | 68.0 | / | 15.2 | |
| Non-verbal actions | / | 18.5 | 68.4 | 23.5 | |
| Collective education | Active and individualized representation | 21.1 | / | 45.0 | 30.0 |
| Posing questions | 61.9 | 15.8 | / | 13.1 | |
| Active and individualized representation | 11.4 | 67.3 | 18.5 | 17.7 | |
| Non-verbal actions | / | 15.8 | 35.5 | 22.6 | |
| Transition activities | Active and individualized representation | 65.2 | / | 22.7 | 36.2 |
| Posing questions | 12.0 | / | / | 13.0 | |
| Active and individualized representation | / | 76.9 | / | 15.9 | |
| Non-verbal actions | 14.1 | / | 70.3 | 27.5 | |
| Methods | Life activities | Outdoor games | Transition activities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appellation | 3.6 | 2.0 | 2.5 |
| Short instructions | 96.4 | 93.9 | 90.8 |
| Oral demonstrations | 0 | 4.0 | 6.7 |
games, and transition activities that are initiated by the teacher, non-verbal actions by the children as responses rank the first, which is 55% - 75% or so; verbal replies account for 14% - 35%, ranking the second. In the interaction of collective educational activities that are initiated by the teacher, verbal replies head the list of responses by the children, accounting for about 45.0%; and it is followed by non-verbal actions, which is 35.5% (see
Responses by children with non-verbal actions are mainly represented as action submission, accounting for 70% - 85%; in joint activities of both the teacher and the children, it is not more than 2.8%; while responses with positive and gentle expressions and actions are not more than 5.5% (see
In various interactive activities started by the children, unified verbal replies by the teacher rank the first in all the responding methods, which is 30% - 40%; responses with non-verbal actions rank the second (excluding indoor games), accounting for 20% - 30% (see
| Response mode terms | Life activities | Indoor games | Outdoor games | Collective education | Transition activities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple or perfunctory replies | 19.6 | 26.8 | 21.3 | 20.5 | 0 |
| Simple oral YES | 3.6 | 11.3 | 8.5 | 5.1 | 8.0 |
| Simple oral NO | 0 | 1.4 | 10.6 | 0 | 0 |
| Short instructions or requirements | 48.2 | 29.6 | 36.2 | 43.6 | 52.0 |
| Short answers | 25.0 | 26.8 | 12.8 | 18.0 | 40.0 |
| Oral demonstration | 0 | 4.2 | 10.6 | 12.8 | 0 |
the children, major verbal responding modes for the teacher are presented as brief instructions, brief answers, and perfunctory replies.
In life activities, interactive contents include meeting life needs and tidying up (63.3%), disciplinary rules (18.3%), and expressing and communicating feelings (7.1%) (see
In the contents of indoor games, 52.2% is play activities, 18.1% is game demonstrations, 13.1% is seeking help for difficulties, and 2.5% and 1.6% are assessing, expressing and communicating feelings respectively (see
In the contents of outdoor activities, 60.6% is play activities, and only 2.2% is expressing and communicating feelings (see
In the contents of collective and group educational activities, 82% is teaching activities; only 5.8% is seeking help for difficulties by the children, and 0.2% is expressing and communicating feelings between the teacher and the children (see
In the contents of transition activities, disciplinary rules rank the first, accounting for 62.7%; meeting of life needs and tidying up account for 14.4, ranking the second; games and teaching activities account for 5.9%; and expressing and communicating feelings account for 4.7% (see
After t-test, except life activities, children’s mood presents evident differences in the interactions initiated by the teacher and by the children, and is more positive in interactions initiated by the teacher than those by themselves (see
It can be seen from the above research results that there are following problems in current teacher-children interactions:
| Interactive activity terms | Life activity | Indoor games | Outdoor games | Collective and group education | Transition activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disciplinary rules | 18.3 | 5.3 | 10.0 | 3.5 | 62.7 |
| Meeting of life needs and tidying up | 63.3 | 2.8 | 5.3 | 0.3 | 14.4 |
| Games and teaching activities | 0.4 | 52.2 | 60.6 | 82.0 | 5.9 |
| Seeking help for difficulties | 0.8 | 13.1 | 6.3 | 5.8 | 3.8 |
| Games and learning presentation | 0.4 | 18.1 | 9.4 | 3.8 | 1.7 |
| Assessment | 2.9 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.3 | 3.0 |
| Interpersonal disputes | 4.6 | 4.4 | 3.4 | 2.0 | 3.8 |
| Expressing and communicating feelings | 7.1 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 4.7 |
| Others | 2.1 | 0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0 |
| Activity type | Initiator | Children’s mood | |
|---|---|---|---|
| t | |||
| Life activities | Teacher | 2.4 | 0.8 |
| Children | 2.4 | ||
| Indoor games | Teacher | 2.7 | 2.8** |
| Children | 2.5 | ||
| Outdoor games | Teacher | 2.7 | 5.1** |
| Children | 2.4 | ||
| Collective education | Teacher | 2.7 | 6.1** |
| Children | 2.4 | ||
| Transition activities | Teacher | 2.6 | 3.3** |
| Children | 2.3 | ||
Interaction is such a process that one person’s behavior causes the changes of behavior or values of the other person [
Currently, the teacher-children interaction in kindergartens of Chongqing mainly manifests as asymmetrical interdependent type, presenting an unbalanced state with the teacher as the center. The teacher initiates more interactions than the children, and the children are in higher spirits in the interactions initiated by the teacher than in those by themselves. In the interactions, the teacher becomes the dominator and the leading role, while the children become the followers and the supporting roles. The teacher starts and responds to the interaction with the purpose of finishing teaching tasks and expressing his/her intentions according to the set purpose. The interactive process is to carry out the teaching plan and finish the teaching tasks for teachers; while it is to cooperate and help the teacher to finish teaching tasks for the children. However, in the interactions, the teacher has hardly taken the ideas and emotions of the children into consideration but devoted him/herself to the teaching program and the schedule wholeheartedly. If the children’s responses and questions are not consistent with the teaching plan, they would be neglected or diverted to the expected answers by the teacher. In the interactions highlighting the teacher’s intention, the children’s confusion, willingness, and thoughts and emotions are neglected and depressed.
In such unbalanced interactions, the initiatives of the children have not been brought into play, and the thoughts and emotions have not been expressed, hence difficult to develop in a real sense for the children.
The teacher-children interaction should conduce to the healthy development of children and improvement of the education quality. It is not only a “balanced” communication between the teacher and the children with both sides to be the subjects and influence each other, but also a communication of emotional depth at the same time. In essence, educational activities are emotional communications between the teacher and the students.
However, the results show that the teacher-children interaction covers more children, but has fewer responses. And in the interactions started by the children, the teacher has barely one response in general. It indicates that the teacher-children interaction lacks depth although it has a certain range of width. The underlying cause of lacking depth is the emotional absence.
The teacher is the key to an emotional communication of education. Only the teacher’s emotional investment can arouse the children’s emotion; only from the bottom of the teacher’s heart can the education permeate through the hearts of the children. It requires the teacher to have life presence during education, viewing the education as a part of his/her life instead of a means of making a living barely to meet the material needs. But it is found that through observation: many teachers in reality have no emotional input; more of them treat the education and the teaching as tasks to finish. In interactions, these teachers hardly have emotional connections and echoes with the children. They initiate the interactions with brief instructions and questions, and the children mainly respond with actions. Although the children wish to express personal feelings and ideas and initiate the interactions mostly with individualized representation, the teacher responds with short answers or perfunctory replies. In this way, the children won’t continue and deepen their willingness to express personal feelings and communicate with the teacher, finally concluding the interaction with behavioral submission, listening to or looking at the teacher sulkily, which explains the proportion of 60% - 100% of “behavioral submissions” and “listening to or looking at” in both interactions initiated by the children and responses from the children; thus most of the interactive contents are unemotional events.
The above problems can be explained by the following reasons. Firstly, it could lie in the low ratio of teachers and children (the research found that the average ratio of the teachers and the children was 1:18); the teacher is overloaded, and causes the phenomenon of occupational burnout generally [
Based on the above analysis and discussion, we think that the social and economic status of the teacher should be improved substantially to enable the teacher to respect and dive into the work, hence germinating the professional dedication spirit. Meanwhile, the sense of professional responsibility of the teacher can be reinforced through emphasizing on the professional ethics and the enlightenment of professional spirits. In this way, the teacher’s devotion to the pre-school education will be aroused, able to communicate with the children with the heart.
Secondly, relevant administrative departments should increase the authorized posts for pre-school teachers, lower the teacher-children ratio effectively, and relieve the occupational burnout to enable the teacher to have adequate “willingness” and strong “flesh” in interactions with the children.
Finally, professional spirits, professional knowledge and capability education should be strengthened in the pre- and post-employment education of pre-school teachers; and professional development of the teacher should be attended in educational trainings to arouse the “silent” educational knowledge in the teacher’s mind and inspire the teacher to learn theoretical knowledge, thus enhancing the efficiency of the education of professional theoretical knowledge as well as the professional competence of the teacher [
This paper was supported by the Project funded by the Chongqing Social Sciences Planning “The Roadmap for kindergarten teachers’ ethics construction in Chongqing” (Project No. 2013YBJY064).