The research selects 20 kindergarten teachers in urban and rural areas in Chongqing as the samples and adopts time sampling observation method to investigate into kindergarten teachers’ educational behaviors from seven perspectives, i.e. education & teaching, participation into children’s activities, daily behavioral management, observation& monitoring, custody and emotional expression, teachers’ daily activities and teachers’ personal activities. Research results show that kindergarten teachers’ educational behaviors have improved better than before and become more and more reasonable. However, there are still some problems, such as excessive teaching and requirements, inadequate listening to children’s ideas and stimulation of their initiatives, low effectiveness of evaluation on children’s behaviors, excessive orders and interventions in daily management, inadequate emotional exchanges between teachers and children, insufficient care for children’s individual demands, etc.
Educational behaviors refer to the activities or actions that teachers demonstrate in actual education. They are the total sum of teachers’ educational methodologies, actions and approaches as well as external manifestations of teachers’ educational concepts [
The research selects 20 main teachers in the kindergarten classes. Among them, 10 teachers are in rural areas and 10 teachers are in urban areas and in every region, there are 5 novice teachers and 5 veteran teachers.
The research adopts “Manual of Evaluation on Kindergarten’s Educational Quality (Tool V: “Observations on Teachers’ Behaviors”) [
The research mainly adopts 30-second-interval time sampling observation method. On each observation day, the research carries out two observations, with each lasting for 10 minutes, totaling up to 20 minutes. For each research target, two consecutive observations days’ observations are conducted. In total, four times’ observations are executed for each target. The total time is 40 minutes. Therefore, 80 observation records are obtained. There are altogether 20 research targets. Thus, there are 40 observation days. The accumulated observation time is 800 minutes. More than 1600 observation records are gained. Among them, there are 1582 valid records.
The research applies SPSS 11.5 statistics software to carry out descriptive statistics of the distribution of each behavior. In addition, the paper conducts X2 test on the total variations of educational behaviors among urban and rural kindergartens.
Among teachers’ seven types of educational behaviors, education & teaching behaviors appear the most frequently, reaching 23.5 times per person per day. It accounts for 30.1% of all the behaviors. Second, teacher’s daily management behaviors appear 15.6 times per person per day. It accounts for 19.9%, ranking No. 2.
In the comparison between urban and rural areas, teachers’ education & teaching behaviors in urban areas are 6.3 times per person per day more than those in rural areas. There are significant differences (P < 0.01). Teachers’ daily management behaviors in urban areas are 2.4 times per person per day less than those in rural areas. There are also significant differences (P < 0.05). They demonstrate no significant differences in other educational behaviors.
In addition, teachers’ educational behaviors of participation into children’s activities, observation & monitoring and daily activities account for a large percentage in all the behaviors, respectively 16.6%, 15.3% and 13.0%. Among all educational behaviors, custody & emotional expression and personal activities are the least, only occupying 2.8% and 2.3% (refer to
Compared with the results of the research conducted by Xiang Zongping and Liao Yi (1995) [
First variables | Secondary variables | Tertiary variables |
---|---|---|
Education & Teaching | Teaching | Explain: Explain knowledge Present: Presentation and clarification Enlighten: Enlighten on children’s thoughts Listen to Qs: Listen to children’s questions about relevant knowledge Listen to As: Listen to children’s answers about relevant knowledge Listen to expressions: Listen to children’s expression of their ideas Listen to requests: Listen to children’s requests of relevant presentations |
Instruct/Require for practices | Encourage: Encourage children to continue when encountering difficulties Help/Explain/Suggest: Help children, explain what they do not understand, propose suggestions for improvement Listen to statements: Listen to children’s statements of difficulties in activities and put forward requests Instruct/Require practices: Instruct children to answer Qs with operations and continue activities as required Provide activity choices: Provide more than two activity choices for children | |
Evaluation/ Feedback on results of activities | General praise: Make good judgment only on the results Specific praise: Point out the details worth praising General disapproval: Make negative judgment on the results Specific disapproval: Point out the negative details | |
Participation into children’s activities | No participation Observation and monitoring Temporary intervention General instructions and teaching Complete participation | |
Daily behavior management | Give Instructions | Give instructions Listen to children’s response to instructions |
Require for silence | Require children keep quiet Pay attention to and intervene or prevent children’s some behaviors | |
Propose rules | Propose rules Listen to children’s sayings about relevant behavioral rules | |
Solve individual’s questions | Listen to children’ Approve the requests Refuse the requests Solve disputes Listen to children’s statement about relevant disputes | |
Evaluation and feedback on behaviors | General positive feedback Specific positive feedback General negative feedback Specific negative feedback Listen to children’s saying about relevant behavioral evaluation | |
Observation & Monitoring | Observations with records: Record children’s behaviors over observations Accompanying monitoring: Same with children’ activities without any exchanges General inspection: No participation into Activities after giving the instructions but only observe children’s operational behaviors | |
Custody & Emotional Expression | Expression of friendly emotions Comfort & protection Expression of negative emotions | |
Teachers’ daily activities | Transitional behaviors Prepare teaching lessons Arrange and tidy the environment Hand out materials Take care of children’s life | |
Personal activities: Activities irrelevant to children |
Category | General | Urban And Rural Differences | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Urban Areas | Rural Areas | X2 test | |||||
N | % | N | % | N | % | ||
Education & teaching | 23.5 | 30.1 | 26.6 | 33.5 | 20.3 | 26.3 | P < 0.01 |
Daily management | 15.6 | 19.9 | 14.4 | 18.1 | 16.8 | 21.8 | P < 0.05 |
Participation into children’s activities | 13.0 | 16.6 | 13.4 | 16.9 | 12.6 | 16.3 | P > 0.05 |
Observation & monitoring | 12.0 | 15.3 | 11.8 | 14.9 | 12.2 | 15.8 | P > 0.05 |
Daily activities | 10.2 | 13.0 | 9.3 | 11.7 | 11.2 | 14.5 | P > 0.05 |
Custody & emotional expression | 2.2 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 1.8 | 2.3 | P > 0.05 |
Personal activities | 1.8 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 3.0 | P > 0.05 |
Total | 78.3 | 100 | 79.4 | 100 | 77.1 | 100 |
the research. Compared to the results of the research carried out by Liu Zhanlan et al. (2008) [
Among education and teaching behaviors, teaching behaviors account for 58.3%, reaching 13.7 times per person per day and ranking top one among all the behaviors. Instruct/Require for practices behaviors rank the second, reaching 8.5 times per person per day. Evaluation & feedback behaviors are the least, only 1.3 times per person per day, taking up 5.5%. In particular, teaching behaviors in urban areas are subtly more than those in rural areas. Instruct/require for practices behaviors in rural areas are more than those in urban areas (refer to
1) Teaching Behaviors
Among teaching behaviors, direct explanations or presentations account for 31.4%, reaching 4.3 times per person per day and ranking top one. Instilling knowledge ranks the second, reaching 3.0 times per person per day (refer to
Teacher’s listening to children’s answers to and expressions of their own ideas, children’s questions about relevant knowledge, and children’s requests for relevant requests are less than 10% and even none (refer to
2) Instruct/Require for Practices
Among instruct/require for practices behaviors, help/suggest/explain behaviors are the most, accounting for 58.8%. Instruct/require for practices rank the second, reaching 2.1 times per person per day, accounting for 24.7%. Encourage children to continue activities behaviors reach one time per person per day, accounting for 11.9%. However, listen to children’s statement of difficulties and provide activity choices behaviors only reach 0.2 times per person per day, accounting for 2.4% respectively (refer to
3) Evaluation & Feedback Behaviors
Among the evaluation/feedback on children’s activity results behaviors, teachers mainly show praises for children. The praising behaviors take up for 76.9% of such behaviors (general praise account for 46.1% and specific praise account for about 30.8%). From this, we can see that general praise occur the most frequently. Specific praises are less comparatively. Moreover, there is no listening to relevant sayings about behavioral evaluation (refer to
Category | Item | General | Urban areas | Rural areas | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N | % | N | % | N | % | ||
Education & Teaching | Teaching | 13.7 | 58.3 | 17.1 | 64.5 | 10.3 | 50.7 |
Instruct/require for practices | 8.5 | 36.2 | 7.9 | 29.8 | 9.0 | 44.3 | |
Evaluation/feedback on activity results | 1.3 | 5.5 | 1.6 | 5.7 | 1.0 | 5.0 | |
Sub-total | 23.5 | 100 | 26.6 | 100 | 20.3 | 100 | |
Daily Behavior Management | Give instructions | 7.4 | 47.4 | 6.0 | 41.7 | 8.8 | 52.4 |
Require for silence | 4.1 | 26.3 | 3.1 | 21.5 | 5.2 | 30.9 | |
Propose rules | 2.5 | 16.0 | 3.6 | 24.9 | 1.4 | 8.3 | |
Solve individuals’ questions | 2.5 | 16.0 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 0.4 | 2.4 | |
Evaluation/feedback on behaviors | 1.1 | 7.1 | 1.2 | 8.4 | 1.0 | 6.0 | |
Sub-total | 15.6 | 100 | 14.4 | 100 | 16.8 | 100 | |
Observation & Monitoring | Observations with records | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Accompanying monitoring | 3.2 | 26.7 | 3.2 | 27.1 | 3.2 | 26.2 | |
General inspections | 8.8 | 73.3 | 8.6 | 72.9 | 9.0 | 73.8 | |
Sub-total | 12.0 | 100 | 11.8 | 100 | 11.2 | 100 | |
Custody & Emotional Expression | Friendly emotions | 0.9 | 40.9 | 0.6 | 24.0 | 1.0 | 55.6 |
Comfort & protection | 1.3 | 59.1 | 1.9 | 76.0 | 0.8 | 44.4 | |
Negative emotions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Sub-total | 2.2 | 100 | 2.5 | 100 | 1.8 | 100 |
Teaching | Instruct/Require For Practices | Evaluation/Feedback | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Item | N | % | Item | N | % | Item | N | % |
Presentation | 4.3 | 31.4 | Instruct/require for practices | 2.1 | 24.7 | General praise | 0.6 | 46.1 |
Teaching | 3.2 | 23.4 | Help/explain/suggest | 5.0 | 58.8 | Specific praise | 0.4 | 30.8 |
Enlightenment | 2.5 | 18.2 | Encourage to continue | 1.0 | 11.8 | General disapproval | 0.2 | 15.4 |
Propose questions | 2.2 | 16.1 | Listen to statement of difficulties | 0.2 | 2.4 | Specific disapproval | 0.1 | 7.7 |
Listen to answers | 1.0 | 7.3 | Provide activity choices | 0.2 | 2.4 | Listen to sayings about evaluation | 0 | 0 |
Listen to expressions | 0.5 | 3.6 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Listen to question proposals | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Listen to request | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Total | 13.7 | 100 | Total | 8.5 | 100 | Total | 1.3 | 100 |
Among give instructions and propose rules behaviors, teachers in urban and rural areas both demonstrate simple give instructions behaviors (account for 98.6%) and propose rules behaviors (accounting for 96%), while listen to children’s response to instructions and listen to their sayings about relevant rules respectively account for 1.4% and 4% (refer to
In evaluation/feedback on children’s behaviors, positive feedback and evaluations account for 72.7%. In particular, general positive feedbacks account for 54.5% while specific positive feedbacks only account for 18.2% (refer to
Observation & monitoring behaviors mainly include observation with records, accompanying monitoring and general inspections.
Give Instructions | Require For Silence | Propose Rules | Solve Individual Questions | Behavior Evaluation/Feedback | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Item | N | % | Item | N | % | Item | N | % | Item | N | % | Item | N | % |
Give Instructions | 7.3 | 98.6 | Require for silence | 3.0 | 73.2 | Propose rules | 2.4 | 96.0 | Listen to children’s requests | 0.2 | 40.0 | General positive feedback | 0.6 | 54.5 |
Listen To Responses To Instructions | 0.1 | 1.4 | Intervention & prevention | 1.1 | 26.8 | Listen to children’s sayings about rules | 0.1 | 4.0 | Approve requests | 0.1 | 20.0 | Specific positive feedback | 0.2 | 18.2 |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Listen to statement of disputes | 0.2 | 40.0 | General negative feedback | 0.2 | 18.2 |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Refuse requests | 0 | 0 | Specific negative feedback | 0.1 | 9.1 |
Total | 7.4 | 100 | - | 4.1 | 100 | - | 2.5 | 100 | - | 0.5 | 100 | - | 1.1 | 100 |
Item | General | Urban areas | Rural areas | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N | % | N | % | N | % | |
Observation With Records | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Accompanying Monitoring | 2.9 | 24.2 | 3.2 | 27.1 | 3.2 | 26.5 |
General Inspections | 8.8 | 73.3 | 8.6 | 72.9 | 9.0 | 73.5 |
Total | 12 | 100 | 11.8 | 100 | 12.2 | 100 |
Custody and emotional expression behaviors rank the sixth, reaching 2.2 times per person per day, accounting for 2.8%. Among such behaviors, the observed teachers demonstrate positive and friendly emotional expressions both in urban and rural areas. In particular, comfort & protection behaviors are the most, accounting for 58.7% of such behaviors. Friendly emotional expressions rank the second, accounting for 41.3%. Moreover, teachers’ comfort & protection behaviors in urban areas are higher than the overall level and more than those in rural areas. However, friendly emotional expressions among teachers in rural areas are subtly higher than the overall level and subtly more than those in urban areas (refer to
Among the seven types of educational behaviors, teachers’ participation into children’s behaviors ranks their third, reaching 13.0 times per person per day and accounting for 16.6% (refer to
From the above results, we can see that kindergarten teachers’ educational behaviors have improved to a great degree compared to the previous situation. Teachers’ behaviors have become more reasonable. In addition, their professional consciousness and career devotedness have enhanced; and irrelevant behaviors in education have reduced. In addition, teachers’ understanding of children education’s nature and characteristics is more profound. They pay more attention to teachers’ “support roles” and attach importance to children’s perception experience. Their participation into children’s activities and direct teaching behaviors increase obviously. Emotional expression behaviors improve subtly. The above improvements may be because:
First, with the issuance and implementation of “Outline of Middle and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Planning in China”, the government and every sector in society have paid great attention to pre-
Item | General | Urban Areas | Rural Areas | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N | % | N | % | N | % | |
Friendly Emotions | 0.9 | 41.3 | 0.6 | 24.0 | 1.0 | 55.6 |
Comfort & Protection | 1.3 | 58.7 | 1.9 | 76.0 | 0.8 | 44.4 |
Negative Emotions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 2.2 | 100 | 2.5 | 100 | 1.8 | 100 |
Area | No Participation | Observation & Monitoring | Temporary Intervention | General Instructions & Teaching | Complete Participation | Total | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | |
General | 8.0 | 9.7 | 14.2 | 17.3 | 40.0 | 48.7 | 7.0 | 8.5 | 13.0 | 15.8 | 82.2 | 100 |
Urban Areas | 7.9 | 9.5 | 13.6 | 16.3 | 40.5 | 48.0 | 8.2 | 9.8 | 13.2 | 15.8 | 83.4 | 100 |
Rural Areas | 8.2 | 10.1 | 14.8 | 17.7 | 39.4 | 48.6 | 5.8 | 7.2 | 12.8 | 15.6 | 81.0 | 100 |
schooling education, which thus improves children teachers’ social status, enhances kindergarten teachers’ sense of profession values and encourages teachers’ career devotedness.
Second, the improvement of teachers’ professional quality due to national, provincial and municipal training planning on kindergarten teachers’ which have been implemented in recent years has made some achievements.
Third, due to the expansion of the scale of cultivating talents in pre-schooling and elevation of talent levels in universities, many graduates with bachelor and master degrees enter kindergartens, thus facilitating the improvement of overall kindergarten teachers’ qualities.
Fourth, the implementation of kindergarten teachers’ qualification system also promotes the improvement of kindergarten teachers’ professional qualities to some degree.
However, there are still some problems, such as excessive teaching and requirements, inadequate listening to children’s ideas and stimulation of their initiatives, low effectiveness of evaluation on children’s behaviors, excessive orders and interventions in daily management, inadequate emotional exchanges between teachers and children, and insufficient care for children’s individual demands. The main reasons are:
First, the structure of kindergarten teachers’ professional knowledge is weak, i.e., “practical knowledge” closely related to education & teaching is relevantly solid while basic cultural knowledge and discipline knowledge is weak. As a result [
Second, teachers-to-children ratio in kindergartens is relatively low (the research finds that the average teachers-to-children ratio is 1:18. In few rural areas, the ratio reached 1:30). The teachers shoulder a heavy burden, get tired of their profession, and lack sufficient energy to care for children’s wills and emotions.
Based on the above discussion and analysis, we believe:
First, in pre-employment education, common education should be enhanced. Teachers’ cultural qualities should be improved and the validity of professional knowledge education should be strengthened.
Second, pay attention to the training of discipline knowledge and teachers’ psychological health in post-em- ployment trainings so as to solve the educational behaviors caused due to teachers’ lack of discipline knowledge and help teachers adjust their psychological pressure.
Third, expand the registration and distribution of kindergarten teachers so as to relieve their burdens.
Finally, enhance the investment into and support on children’s education as well as stabilize teaching personnel in rural and remote areas.
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).