The present study purposed to survey teachers’ and parents’ perception and practice of napping hour in the daily routine of childcare centers and to promote the desirable operation of napping hour through cooperation between teachers and parents. ...
The present study purposed to survey teachers’ and parents’ perception and practice of napping hour in the daily routine of childcare centers and to promote the desirable operation of napping hour through cooperation between teachers and parents. For this purpose, this study set research questions as follows.
1. How do teachers and parents perceive nap in the daily routine of daycare centers?
2. How is the practice of nap in the daycare centers?
3. How is communication between teachers and parents on children’s napping in the daycare centers?
The subjects of this study were 101 teachers at daycare centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi?do and 120 parents, and a questionnaire survey was conducted as a research method. Two kinds of questionnaires were used, one for teachers and the other for parents, which were prepared by the researcher based on previous researches and literature on teachers’ and parents’ perception and practice of young children’s napping in the daycare centers. The prepared questionnaires were composed of 4 categories and 36 questions for teachers and 23 questions for parents. Collected data were analyzed through frequencies and percentages using SPSS 12.0, and descriptive answers were categorized and their frequencies were analyzed.
The results of this study are as follows.
First, as to the teachers’ and the parents’ perception of napping in the daycare centers, most of the teachers and the parents agreed on the necessity for a nap. However, regardless of age, the teachers perceived that a nap is necessary but the parents perceived that a nap is not necessary. In addition, when young children do not want to nap they need to be instructed according to their personal characteristic, but the parents wanted that the teachers would do as the children wanted or the parents wanted.
Second, as to difference in perception on napping between the teachers and the parents, the teachers emphasized that children must have a nap and wanted to convince the parents of their opinion efficiently. However, the parents, though not opposing napping, wanted to operate napping hour flexibly and opposed that the napping hour is longer than the optimal length of sleeping for their children. This shows difference in the opinion on setting the length of napping hour between the teachers and the parents.
Third, as to the actual operation of napping hour in the daycare centers, most of the surveyed institutions were operating napping hour, and teachers were guiding children in desirable ways. In some cases, however, napping hour was longer than the optimal length of sleeping and a nap was forced by teachers regardless of the children’s desire. In addition, many of the teachers used napping hour in doing their works while taking care of napping children.
Fourth, as to parents’ demands and behaviors related to the operation of napping hour in the daycare centers, most of the parents agreed on the institutions’ policies for napping hour operation. In addition, most of the institutions followed parents’ demand to wake the children up early but some of them did not follow the parents’ opinion.
Fifth, as to communication between the teachers and the parents on a nap in the daycare centers, education or materials on napping were provided rarely. As to change in parents’ perception on nap after the provision of education or materials, most of the teachers expected a positive change but the parents’ perception did not change significantly. What is more, while the teachers supported future communication methods, only around half of the parents agreed on them, and both the parents and the teachers preferred parent education most as an education method.