The purpose of this study was to analyze how the degree of a teacher's liking to different variables of a child affects the teacher-child interaction. Research questions were posed as follows:
1. How does the degree of teacher's liking affect the tea...
The purpose of this study was to analyze how the degree of a teacher's liking to different variables of a child affects the teacher-child interaction. Research questions were posed as follows:
1. How does the degree of teacher's liking affect the teacher-child interaction?
1-1. How does the degree of a teacher's liking to a child's sex affect the teacher-child interaction?
1-2. How does the degree of a teacher's liking to a child's age affect the teacher-child interaction ?
1-3. How does the degree of a teacher's liking to a child's temperament affect the teacher-child interaction?
1-4. How does the degree of a teacher's liking to a child's development affect the teacher-child interaction?
2. What is the relationship between a teacher's liking and the teacher-child interaction?
To answer the questions, questionnaires on the degree of a teacher's liking were distributed to 90 teachers and 90 parents at child care facilities in Gwangju, and the teacher-child interaction was examined by observation. The data was collected during the classes for freely chosen activities. The behavior of subject children was videotaped, and the observation was conducted for 30 minutes for each class using time sampling. Four research instruments were used. The questions on the questionnaire were to name the child of liking and disliking, and were put after being modified and complemented with the items asking about liked and disliked children. The Teacher-Child Interaction Observation Scale, modified and complemented by Kim, Nan-sil(2004), was used to check frequency of the interaction. It is a 5-point scale composed of 18 questions in 5 categories. The data about the temperament of children was collected by the Colorado Childhood Temperament Inventory(CCTI) that Jung, Young-mi(1996) adapted and modified according to the Korean reality. The CCTI is classified into 5 subcategories which are sociability, emotionality, activeness, concentration, placability, and each category has 5 questions, which leads to 25 questions in total. To check the individual development of children, the child development checklist for teachers was used based on the Likert 5-point scale consisting of 77 questions. For data analysis, SPSS 12.0(for windows) statistics program was used. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation were calculated to investigate the backgrounds of subjects and the distribution of major variables, and the Cronbach's coefficient Alpha was reckoned to examine the reliability of measures and the observer. The Pearson's correlation analysis was carried to examine the relationship among the variables, the degree of a teacher's liking, and the teacher-child interaction. For the comparison of the degree of a teacher's liking to a child's sex with the teacher-child interaction the t-test was used, and for the one to age, temperament, individual development with the teacher-child interaction the analysis of variance(ANOVA) was used.
The results of this study are as follows:
First, as for a child's sex, the degree of a teacher's liking for a girl is higher than that for a boy, and the teacher-child interaction occurred more between the teacher and a girl than between the teacher and a boy.
Second, as for a child's age, the degree of a teacher's liking for younger children such as three-year-olds is high, and teachers tend to more positively interact with the children at that age. The negative controlling teacher-child interaction occurs more often when the child is 4 years old.
Third, as for a child's temperament, the differences in the degree of a teacher's liking to the high level group(active), the middle level group(moderate), and the low level group (submissive) were significant, which can be shown by the p-value of 0.041. This also represents that the child's temperament can be changed in accordance with the opportunities provided by the teacher. As a result of the observation of the teacher-child interaction, the high level group was provided with a lot more chances of physical touch, observation, being a model for others to do activities. This tells an active child is physically active and may negatively interact with the teacher often. The more a child is active in temperament, the more it is reflected on the teacher-child interaction.
Fourth, as for a child's development, the average of the degree of a teacher's liking to the high level group(highly developed) is the highest followed by the averages of that to the low level group(low developed) and the middle level group(moderately developed). There are no statistically significant differences in the positive and negative interactions, but the average of the interaction with the high level group is the highest, that with the low level group is in the middle, and that with the middle level group was the lowest. This shows that a teacher should let a child experience constructing knowledge while controlling and guiding the process of learning and provides a child with the opportunity to command the learning according to a child's individual development.
Fifth, as for the relationship between the teacher's liking and the teacher-child interaction, the result shows that the positive interaction is closely related to the degree of a teacher's liking, i.e. a positive child is sociable and pro-social with the low level of aggressiveness and apathy. This means that a positive, healthy, stable relationship between a teacher and a child affects the child's other relationships with friends positively. Therefore, we can see that the positive teacher-child interaction occurs in a highly liked group, and the negative interaction occurs in a low liked group.