Teaching Strategies and Infants‘/Toddlers‘ Exploration and Play Activities

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aims to see whether there are any differences in infants‘ and toddlers‘ exploration and play activities related to the teacher‘s teaching strategies. The teaching behaviors of 16 teachers from the eight child care centers were videotaped and analyzed. The teachers were classified under two types of teaching strategies: the nondirective and the directive type. One hundred and ninety infants and toddlers of these teachers were also observed and videotaped during two play sessions, for a total of 160 minutes on four consecutive days. Children‘s exploration and play activities were analyzed in terms of the frequencies of exploration, observation (teacher-initiated vs child-initiated), negative behavior, initiation of play (teacher-initiated vs child-initiated), functional, constructive, dramatic, solitary, parallel/associative, teacher-supported, and creative behaviors. The results showed that the occurrence of the child-initiated play, constructive play, parallel/associative play, and creativity in the group of non-directive teachers were higher than in the group of directive teachers. Infants in the directive teachers showed more exploration and teacher-initiated observation.