Revealing Young Children and Teachers Behaviour through Active Participation in Deciding Classroom Layout

#CAR10

Including children in planning and decision making can promote a higher level of learning experience to them. Various institutions, organizations and local authorities have been continuosly trying to include children  as early as in the planning stage. At the global stage, children’s level of participation has risen from tokenism where children are consulted for their feedback, to initiate shared decisions with adults as equal partners and decision makers with the adults (Hart, 1992).

Children participation at the preschool level has also been widely encouraged. Each child has the rights to be listened to and value. Garrick, Bath, Dunn, Maconochie, Wilis & Wolstenholme (2010) provide evidence that children saw themselves to be capable of planning their own activities, especially when the space was less clearly organized into designated areas and children enjoyed being involved in planning their activities.

A series of active inquiry sessions were observed between the children and their teacher especially during the creating and sharing processes. Several behavior patterns were observed between teachers and children throughout the inquiry process. These behaviors do reflect the benefits that inquiry could offer to both teacher and children such as allowing teachers to understand what their children already know, what they want to arouse their interest in a particular topic and to motivate them to participate in an active teaching and learning session (Martin, Sexton & Franklin, 2005).

Teachers and children were observed to gain these benefits based on several behavior pattern during their interaction in the inquiry process.

·         Childrens’ behavior

-       Giving ideas and express preferences

-       Express dissatisfaction

-       Negotiating and accepting other preferences

-       Negotiating and accepting other preferences

-       Claiming for adult’s explanations

·         Teacher’s behavior

-     Giving encouragement and positive feedback

-     Express dissatisfaction and uncertainty

Source:    Revealing Young Children and Teachers Behaviour through Active Participation in

 Deciding Classroom Layout

 by Ismail Saida*, Nurul Nadiah Sahimi, Putri Zabariah Megat A. Rahman

 Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 168 ( 2015 ) 22 – 29