A Study On The Role Choice Of Children In Role - Based Games

This study investigates children’s role selection in real role-playing game situation within3age levels and6classes that are selected from Kindergarten Z, City N.The study mainly takes purposive sampling methods to select a kindergarten that adopts the independent role selection form when it comes to children’s role selection. During the data collection process, classes are regarded as an integral whole, and5times of data collection have been conducted to every class, totaling30times. Data are collected adopting non-participant observation and informal interviews, the former of which mainly uses premade forms to observe and record the content in two dimensions, that is, the class’s topic setting and children’s specific role selection in each role-playing game. The interviewees cover children and teachers in this kindergarten. The motives of children’s role selection can be obtained by interviewing the children, and the general situation of the class games and the individual situation of the children can be acquired by interviewing the teachers. The general situation of children’s role selection is presented through an analysis of the data, including the general distribution of role selection type, age and gender, as well as the distribution of the role selection motive types. What’s more, characteristics and influencing factors of children’s role selection are discussed, which will naturally put forward the corresponding education proposals.The results illustrate:(1) Children’s role selection types are mainly roles of family relationship. Specifically, the role selection type of the primary class covers mainly roles of family relationship, which is a very single type. The role selection type of the middle class presents a transition from family relations to social relations. The role selection type of the top class mainly refers to social class roles.(2) Most of the selected objects are some adults.(3) The role selection motives are mainly connected with role itself concerning the corresponding emotion and behavior of the role, and the secondary motives are connected with the game environment and materials. The role selection motive of the primary class is not clear, while that of the middle class and the top class is pretty clear with a relative sensible role assignment.(4) Children’s role selection illustrates a development tendency from single ones to multiple ones.(5) The topic range of children’s role selection changes from the "near" to the "distant" and the role assignment changes from "coarse" to "fine".(6) The internal factors that may influence children’s role selection are mainly presented in the aspect of preschool children’s awareness of experience, gender, personality and ability. The external factors include the theme type, freshness, space settings, material arrangement of the game, peer relation and teachers’intervention.The researcher of this study believes that to help children make better role selection in the game, teachers must first provide appropriate themes and roles of the game for young children with a variety of channels to achieve new themes and roles. Second, teachers should allow children to make independent role selection establishing game routine together with them, which requires sensible grasp of the educational opportunity in the process of role selection.