A review: Journal of Research in Childhood Education Vol. 9, No. 2, Spring/Summer 1995

Childhood Education, Fall 1995 by Bergen, Doris

* Climates in Swedish Day Care Centers: A Methodological Study -- Ekholm, Hedin & Andersson

This study directly investigated the behavior and the attitudes of adults at 12 child care centers, focusing on the relationship of center climate to the way children were developing and the way adults were interacting. The authors describe structural factors such as attitudes toward child rearing, state-regulated goals and teacher educational level; organizational factors such as group size and staff density; and demographic conditions such as socioeconomic level. The interactional factors related to adult behaviors and attitudes, however, were of primary interest because of their effect on the center climates.

After observing each center for 10 days and interviewing staff, the researcher categorized the child rearing climate of the centers as future-focused, present-focused or combined, with three to five centers in each group. Adults at the future-focused centers seemed most concerned about providing a range of active opportunities for children that would prepare them for the future, while those at present-focused centers saw their role as trying to make everything move smoothly and routinely on a day-to-day basis. The researchers also identified working climates for adults as strained, relaxed or mixed. A relaxed working environment did not always translate into a future-focused center for children, and adult perception of the working climate varied even when observational data did not provide supporting evidence for their perception. The management and the size of the center also affected the climate. The study provides some categories of interaction that teachers could use to assess their own classroom climate and raises some interesting questions about factors that influence center climates.

* Young Children's Representation of Replay: Developmental Stages and Effects of Mediated Computer Environments -- Park & Clements

This study provides another type of information to aid teacher decision-making about best instructional practice. It explores the effects of a teacher-mediated child-computer interactive approach on representational competence. Using both a Vygotskian constructivist and a distancing theoretical base, this experimental study explored the development of one aspect of representational competence -- child remembrance of replay to construct action sequence schema. In order to test whether the presence of a teacher mediating strategy would establish what Vygotsky calls "the zone of proximal development (ZPG)" so that replay could be accessed by the child, the researchers used Sigel's distancing hypothesis. Teachers mediated during child-computer interaction with three types of software designed to encourage the use of replay.

For the study, 34 children ranging in age from 2 to 5 were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. Teacher strategies used were telling and asking, 4 levels of distancing: no prompts, information/description, relating/analyzing and causal inference. The software included one specially created, one adapted from Logo and Lego-Logo. Children were videotaped and also interviewed to determine their levels of replay understanding, which were categorized as: no recognition of replay, recognition of replay, anticipation of action sequences and recognition with planning evaluation, transformation or generalization. Transfer of learning was also assessed. Results indicated that there was gradual and incremental developmental progress toward higher stages with some inconsistencies; children did not always demonstrate their highest stage of performance. Thus, a qualitative stage hypothesis was not supported. Because there was developmental progress over the treatment sessions, the researchers conclude that teacher mediation was a helpful strategy when using a child-computer interactive environment.