The purpose of th study is to find the difference of young children's emotional intelligence and social interaction by early childhood teachers' constructivist belief and practices.
Questions to find the purpose are following;
1. How is children's e...
The purpose of th study is to find the difference of young children's emotional intelligence and social interaction by early childhood teachers' constructivist belief and practices.
Questions to find the purpose are following;
1. How is children's emotional intelligence affected by early childhood teachers' constructivist belief and practices?
2. How is children's social interaction affected by early childhood teachers' constructivist belief and practices?
The subject of the study was seventy-six children who are five-years-old and their four teachers at the preschool in ChungNam, Korea.
Four measurements were used in this study. The first measurement to know teachers' constructivist recognition was 'constructivist belief and teaching practices' made by EunJung Lim(2007). Second, Selman's 'The behavior range of interpersonal interaction understanding for teachers'(1980), to measure the level of teachers' constructivist classroom management skills. This test is divided into negotiation strategy level of 0,1,2,3 and sharing experience level of 1,2,3. According to formal study by Devries, Haney & Zan (1991), we can call a constructivist teacher when negotiation strategy and sharing experience are balanced and each of them is more than level 2. Third, the test for young children's emotional intelligence is made by ByungRae Lee(1997) and it is composed of thirty-one questions which young children can experience in their daily routine. Questions in the test is also coincided with Salovey and Mayer's elements of the contents(1996). Fourth, as a measurement for children's social interactions, Holloway and Reichhart-Ericson(1988)'s observation range was translated by HyeWon Shin(1992) and revised by JuRan(1999)through a pre-examination. This test is composed of three sections which are individual activities, interactions with peers, interactions with a teacher. They all occur during indoor free activity time.
To know difference between young children's emotional intelligence and social interaction according to teachers' level of interpersonal realtion understanding, statistic analysis was used. Young children's emotional intelligence was tested by independent t test after it was scored and average and standard deviation were also calculated. χ²test is taken by observation frequency for social interaction.
Results of the study are following;
First, there is a significant difference in young children's emotional intelligence by teachers' constructivist belief and practices. That is, the children taught by constructivist belief and practices have higher emotional intelligence than non-constructivist belief and practices class children.
Second, there are difference in young children's social interpersonal relation according to teachers' constructivist belief and practices. That is, children whose classroom applied constructivist belief and practices decreased their purposeless behaviors and increased their interactions with peers. Moreover, negative interaction with their teacher decreased.
As a result, children whose teacher has constructivist belief and practice show more positive effects on their emotional intelligence and social interaction.