| Observing children’s behavior and supporting their learning and development is a must-have professional literacy for kindergarten teachers.It is also a basic requirement for the “child-oriented” modern kindergarten curriculum and an important cornerstone for the improvement of kindergarten quality.Many European and American countries regard the content of child behavior observation and support as the focus of education reform.However,studies have shown that the professional literacy of kindergarten teachers in the field of observing children behavior and supporting their learning and development is not professional enough in China.Simultaneously,the relevant training presents a phenomenon of small number and effectiveness.Considering the improvement of teacher’s observation of children’s behavior and support literacy is an important issue that needs to be paid attention to and solved in the field of preschool education in China and the continuity and stage of teacher professional development,this study focus on the adaptation teachers Who are 2 to 5years of teaching age and seeks to explore their professional status and development needs in the field of child behavior observation and support.This study “rooted” in the kindergarten field,has experienced three stages of “discovering the professional status and development needs of teachers – constructing a training course based on demand – implementing training courses and exploring growth and situation”,using a variety of research andanalytical methods to solve research problems collaboratively.In the first stage,the researcher investigated the professional status and development needs of the adaptation teachers in the field of observing children behavior and supporting their learning and development.Through non-participation observation,the researchers collected 30 minutes of video and child observation records of 16 teachers in the education field.And then,we conducted in-depth interviews with each teacher to collect first-hand research data.At the same time,through the behavior analysis of the teacher video,the text analysis of the observationrecord and the rooted analysis of the interview data,we try to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth inquiry from the perspectives of how teachers do,how to write,and how to say and think.The results of the study indicate that teachers rarely allocate time and energy for professional child behavior observation,and it is rare and difficult to conduct curriculum based on observing and knowing children.Teachers have insufficient knowledge and competence in the field of professional child behavior and support.There are contradictions and conflicts between the educational concept and the practice.In addition to the lack of teachers’ professional literacy during the adaptation period,the internal ecological environment and external ecological environment faced by teachers are not conducive to the implementation of professional child behavior observation and support.In the second stage,based on the teacher’s professional status and development needs from the first research stage and the theoretical basis and practical experience of teacher professional development,this study designed the Training Course about“observation of children behavior and supporting their learning and development”,which emphasizes both “curricular empowerment” and “ curricular environment”.On the one hand,the training course enhances teachers’ professional literacy in observing children behavior and supporting their learning and development through the “PBL-Case based Experience Learning”designed by this study which conduct through multiple “dialogues” between teachers and themselves,peers and experts;on the other hand,it strives to create a suitable ecological environment for the professional growth of teachers,which in order to achieve the internalization and practice of the professional literacy.In the third stage,through the implementation training coursethe,action research paradigm is used to explore the professional development of adaptation teachers in the field of observation of children behavior and supporting their learning and development.In the cycle of planning-practice-reflection,this study conducted two rounds of action research in two kindergartens,a total of 11 adaptation teachers,which lasted for one and a half years.The first round of action research focused on the literacy improvement.The second round of action research focused more on theinternal environment of the kindergarten which carried out a series of kindergartens.strived to create a more suitable ecological environment for the professional growth and educational practice of kindergarten teachers.The results of the two-round action study show that the 2-5 teaching years of adaptation teacher have a significant development in the professional concept,attitude,knowledge and competence of children’s behavior observation and support during the training process.Teachers’ views on children,education,curriculum and practice graduallychanged from the "Teacher-centered" to "Child-oriented",contemporary,the professional learning ability and professional self-confidence have also been improved.In this process,we can find that the kindergarten teachers in the adaptation period have strong plasticity in the professional behavior of observing children behavior and supporting their learning and development,which is in line with their child-oriented view of children,education and kindergarten teachers.The result of this study also closely related to the kindergartens actively promoting reform and innovation in the research process which providing teachers with a more suitable ecological environment..It has to be pointed out that because the ecological environment outside the kindergarten,such as the management and evaluation of local education administration,does not tend to the "child-oriented" value orientation,it pays more attention to forms,results,group teaching and so on,therefore,teachers still have insurmountable dilemmas in the process of normalizing and persisting the practice of observing children behavior and supporting their learning and development.What needs to be emphasized is,this is a reality cannot be changed by the power of researchers,kindergarten directors,and kindergarten teachers,and is also the "incompetence" of this study.Integrating the results of the above three stages,this study found that 2-5 years of teaching age adaptation teachers hold the "child-oriented" educational philosophy and practical tendency and their kindergarten director were also willing to carry out more in-house innovations for the "child-oriented" curriculum reform,which is really worthy of recognition.Meanwhile,we need to be aware of the special characteristics of the adaptation teachers who is between the 2-5 years of school age.Although the teachers have the internal drive of professional development such as professionalunderstanding and identification,self-directed learning,the environment outside also has an important impact on the professional growth,and to a certain extent,adaptation teachers have a “dependency” on the external environment.Therefore,if the internal and external aspects of the kindergarten do not provide adaptation teachers with an ecological environment that support them to be practice professional observation and support for children,thoes young teachers who hold the "child-oriented" educational philosophy will also be submerged in “torrents” focusing on “forms,results,and group teaching” and gradually go far away from children.Therefore,for 2-5 years of teaching age adaptation teachers,it is necessary to integrate individual internal factors and environmental external factors to coordinate support for their professional growth.Finally,this study discusses and suggests how to improve kindergarten teachers’ literacy in observing and supporting children’s learning and development and what necessary factors need to be considered in effective teacher training courses. |
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