This study is an action research on analyzing the meaning of a ‘promise’ from the view of 4 year old children and making class promises as a way of personality education to resolve conflicts in a classroom. The researcher of this study aimed at he...
This study is an action research on analyzing the meaning of a ‘promise’ from the view of 4 year old children and making class promises as a way of personality education to resolve conflicts in a classroom. The researcher of this study aimed at helping the children participate in all the activities in a childcare center more actively and improving the teacher’s own methods of personality education in terms of democracy by conducting a promise-making process as a homeroom teacher of the target class. In the following section, the result of this action research conducted at 3 phases is summarized and discussed.
Before starting this action research, the children seemed to have a concept of a ‘promise’ which can be divided into 3 categories: ‘the one they should keep’, ‘not doing unfair acts’, and ‘the words they use to get along with other peers.’ By sharing thoughts through an individual, a small group and a whole class talking, the teacher-researcher found out that the children considered a promise as a rule for keeping the classroom orderly, protecting themselves in peer relationship, and maintaining or regaining their relationship with peers. Based on this categorization, the teacher-researcher conducted ‘promise-making’ which is required in the classroom with 4 year old children.
In the first phase of the research, the teacher-researcher planned to suggest how to make promises and collect the children's opinions as a process of making promises. Thus, the activities carried out in the first phase are as follows: 'gathering in a circle', 'changing the way of taking snacks during snack break', 'giving the right for lottery to the children', 'revising the fixed number of partners at walking time', ‘remaking the promises on limitation for how many children can play in the interest section during the free choice activity time.’ As a result, the teacher-researcher realized that the promise-making process in the class was teacher-centered and that she had difficulty in deciding between permitting and preventing, which had weakened the role of promises in the class.
The action executed in the second phase included enhancing participation of the children in the process of making promises and the teacher's maintaining consistency in keeping promises. To encourage the children to get involved in making promises, the teacher-researcher decided to respect suggestions from the children by putting down authority and start making promises from conflicts they have in their daily lives. For this purpose, the teacher conducted activities like ‘deciding who is going to be the first through rock-paper-scissors’, ‘making promises of trust’, and ‘creating promises on problem behaviors and snitching.’ As a consequence, the teacher became aware of the fact that she was passing the responsibility to the children in the name of giving autonomy to them and they found the process of making promises not interesting at all.
The third action focused on providing the children with meaningful experience of actively participating in making promises through absorbing ways, as well as responsibly managing the process by putting down authority but not neglecting responsibility. Thus, the teacher-researcher made it a goal to actively apply interesting ways the children suggested to the process and not to intervene in their judgement on what is right or wrong. In the third phase, therefore, the teacher progressed class activities such as ‘understanding violence and wounded hearts through songs’, ‘learning necessity of cleanup through educational drama’, ‘designating drama roles through the way suggested by the children’, and ‘making a promise board using pictures.’
Proceeding these three phases, the teacher-researcher experienced that the former teacher, who was too permissive and authoritative at the same time, changed into an indifferent teacher, and finally an ideal democratic teacher. The children in the research also experienced social and moral atmosphere where their various opinions and judgement are respected upon conflicts and problems in the classroom and eventually they could experience an active role of making promises departing from a passive role of keeping the ones decided by adults.