A Study On Peer Interaction In The Mixed Age Class In Kindergarten

The purpose of this study is to know about the current status of children’s peer interaction in mixed age class of kindergarten and the manifestation of the same age and cross age partner’s interaction in the mixed age education background of continuity. The core is the characteristics and influencing factors of children cross age interaction.On the basis of previous studies, what is demonstrated through statistical and qualitative description of the observation in this paper is as follows:l.In mixed age class, the characteristics of children’s peer interaction is:1) Children are more like to contact with the same age peer.2)Children’s peer interaction with the same age, concentrated most of the middle class in kindergarten.3) children’s peer interaction of different ages is mainly span of one year old.4) There are different characteristics in different age span of cross age interaction:First, the children of one age span interact more in themes of advance, remind the rules, expression status and asking. Second, Age span for two-year-old children’s interaction is obviously concentrated in the topics of care and asking for help.5) Cross age children’s interaction rejection rate is higher than the same age interaction.6)There are differences in cross age children’s interaction by gender and age:Girls communicate by language more than boys and boys communicate by motion more than girls.7) The interaction of cross-age children is more likely with long time, multi round, in-depth exchanges.8)The initiated frequency is similar between the top and middle class more than the initiated frequency in the bottom class. Initiation rate for girls is higher than boys.2. Influencing factors in communication of different-age children:1) Family, kindergarten, preschool teachers and other factor from external environment.2) The influence from the mechanism of cross-age interaction:First, age compositions affect the theme of cross-age children’s interaction. Second, the frequency and quality of the cross-age interaction is different among different types, teachers’behavior and the familiarity between both sides. Third, communication results influenced by the subject and method of communication.This study promotes some suggestions on the proposing of cross-age interaction in addition to characteristics and influential factors of the mixed-age children’s peer interaction.