Research On The Teacher-Child Verbal Interaction Behavior In The Collective Teaching Activities Of Mixed-age Class

As a unique educational mode,mixed-age education has gradually attracted the attention of domestic scholars.Some Chinese kindergartens began to carry out mixed-age education.In the collective teaching activities of mixed-age class,teachers encounter children of different ages at the same time,each one of them has different development stages.It is not scientific for the teachers to apply same methods based on single development goal.Thus,teacher-child verbal interaction behavior is more complex,which needs higher teachers' educational wit.On the basis of the study of mixed-age education and teacher-child verbal interaction behavior,this study conducted a scientific research on the teacher-child verbal interaction behavior in collective teaching activities of mixed-age class with Flanders Interactive Analysis System.This study selected two mixed age classes(children aged from 3 to 6)and six same age classes(two classes at aged 4,two classes at aged 5,and two classes at aged 6)in a public kindergarten,and 7 mixed age classes(children aged from 3 to 6)in a private kindergarten in Xi'an as study samples.Based on the scene of collective teaching activities in kindergarten,Flanders Interactive Analysis System was used as instrument,and non-participatory observation was carried out according to Flanders Interactive Analysis System.The observation recorded standard 33 collective teaching activities in mixed-age classes and 10 collective teaching activities in the same-age classes,which were transcribed,coded,and analyzed by SPSS24.0 software.As a supplement to the observation data,the study conducted unstructured interviews with 9 teachers in view of some behaviors or problems in the observation process,and analyzed typical cases in the collective teaching activities of mixed-age classes.The results of this study were as follow:(1)No significant difference in the verbal categories of teacher-child verbal interaction between the mixed-age and the same age classes in the collective teaching activities were found(p>0.05).(2)In the collective teaching activities of mixed-age class,the range of teacher-child verbal interaction ratio was between 0.99 and 6.62,and the mode were more than 2,which indicated "teacher-centered".In the emotional atmosphere of teacher and child,the ratio of positive integration was higher than that of defective integration(2.13%>0.53%).In the teaching tendency of teacher,the ratio of positive strengthening was higher than that of negative strengthening(8.50%>2.81%)and the ratio of direct influence was higher than that of indirect influence(43.73%>21.38%).In teacher-child question-and-answer mode,the ratio of open question-and-answer mode was higher than that of closed question-and-answer mode(1 7.36%>7.84%).(3)In the collective teaching activities of mixed-age classes,no significant difference in teachers' experience was found(p>0.05);In terms of "questioning speech"and "directive speech",significant differences among kindergartens of different nature(p<0.05);in "teaching speech","directive speech" and "active speech of children" were found,In addition,significant differences among teachers with different professional titles.(p<0.05),and in different teaching fields in terms of "accepting children's ideas"and "passive speech of children"(p<0.05)were found.The conclusions of this study were as follow:(1)There was no significant difference in the teacher-child verbal interaction behavior between mixed-age class and same age class in the collective teaching activities.(2)In the collective teaching activities of mixed-age classes,the characteristic of the teacher-child verbal interaction behavior were as follows:Teachers' right of speech was accentuated,rather than equal dialogue between teacher and children;in terms of harmonious emotional atmosphere between teachers and children,active strengthening was the major finding,but negative strengthening coexisted;The open teacher-child question-and-answer mode was the primary,followed by the closed teacher-child question-and-answer mode.(3)In the collective teaching activities of mixed-age classes,different frequencies of ten kinds of verbal interactions between teachers and children in different kindergartens,different teaching ages,different professional titles and different teaching fields were found.In addition,varying degrees of differences in teacher-child verbal interaction was identified.In order to improve the teacher-child verbal interaction behavior in collective teaching activities of mixed-age classes and promote the development of children,this study provided following suggestions for kindergartens and teachers.Suggestions for kindergartens:(1)kindergartens should offer decent training to mixed-age class teachers;(2)reasonable allocation of different aged children in mixed-age class is essential.Suggestions for mixed-age teacher:(1)Mixed-age teachers should properly change their educational concepts and respect children's subjectivity;(2)Mixed-age teachers should create an active teaching environment and pay attention to children's routine training;(3)Mixed-age teachers should improve their professional qualities,including flexible and diverse teaching language,enlightening and differentiating question.