This study investigated how often Rough-and-Tumble occurs among the different types and behaviors of outdoor play focusing on kindergar ten outdoor plays, and how the types and activities of Rough-and- Tumble play change according to gender. Also, we ...
This study investigated how often Rough-and-Tumble occurs among the different types and behaviors of outdoor play focusing on kindergar ten outdoor plays, and how the types and activities of Rough-and- Tumble play change according to gender. Also, we looked into the interrelation between Rough-and-Tumble play and children's peer com petence to find out a new recognition about Rough-and-Tumble and it's desirable teaching methods and suggestions.
The subjects of this experiment were 32 members(male 17, female 15) of one arbitrary chosen class among 3 class of five-year-old childr en in H kindergarten, Gyeonggi-do.
To observe the types of children's outdoor play and Rough-and-Tu mble play, the researcher of this study took a pictures of them using time sample collecting method and drew up categories of observation through preliminary investigation adjusting and complementing the categories of observation on Rough-and-Tumble by Smith and Boulton(1990), the beginning and the end of Rough-and-Tumble by Humphreys and Smith (1987), of which the lists adjusted and complemented by Sookjae Lee (1998), Saja Lee and Myunghee Im(199 8), and Young-ah Kim(2007). The researcher also used a measure of peer competence on preschool children developed by Joohee Park and Eunhae Lee(2001) to measure children's peer competence.
The data collected throughout this study was used to get the freq uency of the types of Rough-and-Tumble play among the outdoor play activities according to gender and got a t-test to see whether it is related to gender. In addition, the researcher computed Pearson correlations to look into the relationship between the frequency of participation in Rough-and-Tumble play and peer competence.
The results shown in this study are as follows:
First, among the types of outdoor play activities in five-year-old chil dren, object play occurred most frequently(28.8%) and Rough-and-T umble play occurred secondly(16%). Regarding the classification of outdoor play activities according to gender, the object play occurred most frequently both in male and female and Rough-and-Tumble play showed a big difference between male and female in the classification.
Second, various looks of children's Rough-and-Tumble play ,were shown as to tease or harass for fun, to hit or nudge for kicks, to brandish arms or foot or to mock taekwondo and boxing, to strike suddenly, to surprize stealthily, to yell, to fight for fun, to chase and to be chased, to pull for fun, to push for fun, etc. As a whole, chasing play was more frequent than similar fighting.
When we see the gender difference among types of Rough-and-Tu mble play, male children did instrumental plays such as brandishing their arms or foot, mocking taekondo or boxing more than females and their Rough-and-Tumble play occurred with a context of story in outdoor play. On the contrary, female children did relational plays such as pulling, hitting, and nudging for fun more than males in a short time as way of expressing their intimacy.
Third, the relationship between childrens' Rough and-Tumble and their peer competence was shown as a static one. Especially in males, their sociability and initiative had static correlation and females didn't have a relationship between the frequency of Rough and-Tumble play and their peer competence.
We can see that Rough and-Tumble play is a play that occurs high frequently among children's outdoor play. In addition, we learned that Rough and-Tumble play is shown as different types according to children's gender and that Rough and-Tumble has a close relation with the peer competence in males. Therefore, we should recognize Rough and-Tumble play as a natural play, not as a negative play and teachers' proper interactions and interventions are needed. Rough and-Tumble play is one of the play stages in which children try to improve their harmonious peer relationships to advance to a better play and appro priate guidances and observations from the teachers or adults are needed to encourage active play activities both indoor and outdoor environments.