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Chinese and US Preschool Teachers’ Beliefs About Children’s Cooperative Problem-Solving During Play

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Abstract

Many researchers have investigated the cooperative problem solving (CPS) of children during play; however, there is a lack of studies focused on teachers’ beliefs about how to support the development of children’s CPS in classrooms. This study aims to investigate the pedagogical beliefs of Chinese (n = 3) and US (n = 3) teachers about the CPS of children during play and their decision-making capabilities in supporting children to advance this skill in classrooms. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the integration of video-stimulated recall approach in order to achieve this aim. Results confirm that the Chinese and US teachers believe that children are competent and have the autonomy to decide how to solve problems with their peers. The beliefs are similar across the teachers, whereas their execution of these beliefs varies, which reflects their cultural uniqueness in scaffolding and creating classroom environments.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to express their deep gratitude to the teachers and preschool directors in the two research sites for their participation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Elementary Education, Western Washington University, 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA, 98225, USA

    Meilan Jin

  2. Department of Child and Family Studies, The University of Tennessee, 1215 W. Cumberland Ave, Knoxville, TN, 37996-1912, USA

    Mary Jane Moran

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Correspondence to Meilan Jin.

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Jin, M., Moran, M.J. Chinese and US Preschool Teachers’ Beliefs About Children’s Cooperative Problem-Solving During Play. Early Childhood Educ J 49, 503–513 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01087-9

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