Patterns of kindergarten children’s social interaction with peers in the computer area

Abstract

This study explored how young children interact with their peers in the computer area of a public kindergarten classroom. Children’s social interaction, as defined in this study, is the action of giving and taking information that results in children’s knowledge construction and cognitive development that can be accomplished through peer-to-peer interactions. This kind of social interaction is referred to as “Cognitively Effective Social Interaction (CESI)” in this paper. Patterns of young children’s social interaction with peers in the computer area of this classroom were discussed. Two teachers and 28 children in a full-day kindergarten classroom were observed and interviewed. The patterns of young children’s social interaction that occurred in the computer area were described as parallel play, verbal conflicts, sociable interaction, knowledge construction through positive and negative processes, and non-verbal communication.

Appendices

Appendix A. Sample Excerpt from Observation

Feb. 3. 2008 (4:00–5:00 pm) Edu-Care classroom (Teacher A)
Child ID	Activity	Etc.
Child I	• Drawing board program	Com1. I
	• Drew people and many lines, and then erased lines…	Com2. C
Child C	• Upside down the sand watch	Com2. D&F stand back
	• Child D & F in. looked C’s screen
Child D	“You don’t mean to color black there?”
Child F	“Why? It’s cute!”
Child C	“A dinosaur is always cute!”	D&F out
	• Drawing a dinosaur. Filling out with colors.
	• Saved in “My document-Our works”
Child D	• D came in.
	“C drew a monster!”
	• D, went out.
Child L	“What are you doing?”
	• Nobody answered and L went out.
Child C	“all done!”
	• Saved a file name[ltkejowsksg]. just typed anything, but it was not a word.
Teacher A	“What were you doing?”(to Child C)
Child C	“A monster!”
Teacher A	“A monster?”
Child C	“Yes!”	C out
	• (to Child I)”Hey! [ltkejowsksg] is mine!”
Child I	• Looked at Child C’s screen, “Hahahaha~!”
	• Now Child I started imitating Child C. drew people and a sun. filling out with colors. Mistakenly all screen was filled with blue. (I intended to color only people with blue, but a small gap allowed colors to spread to all screen)
Child K	“Hey! How come everything is blue! Hahaha…”	K passed by
	• Child I laughed together.
Teacher A	• Without C’s request, Teacher A saved C’s work in a new folder [Drawing board save].
	“Next time, you can find your file here!”
	<Teacher A saved it so fast. The interaction between a teacher and a child was not occurred.>
	• Saved Child I’s work also in this folder that Teacher A had just created. A file name is “Child I’s name”
Child I	• Drew many zigzag lines, and then erased with an eraser tool. With a spray tool, started drawing a face.
Child C	• Drew a house and filled out with colors again.	Child C out
	• Saved this in My document-our works rather than a new folder [drawing board save] that Teacher A had created. A file name was [ghlrkgkrkrqqqqqgkskm] “I’m done!”
Teacher A	“I! Your computer time is over, right?”
Child I	“huh?”
Teacher A	“Child C & I started together, so finish computer work now.”	C&I out
Child D & F	• Went to com1 together.	Com2. Child L
	“Teacher! Can we work together?”	Com1. Child D
		Child F stood back of D
Child D	“I will draw universe!”
Child F	“Ok! Universe on a black background!”
	• Brought a chair and put it next to Child D’s chair. Child D&F are both in front of com 1.
Child D	• Drew many big and little circles on black background
Child L	• Scrolled up and down very well. Searching internet.
	“Where is Dora? A-Hu..”
Child D	• Stood and looked at Child L,
	“You shouldn’t play games in that computer! There (pointed at L’s screen)! Story Book!”
Child G	“Yahoo Hogan! Enter Yahoo Hogan!”	Stood back of Child L
Child L	“I’m looking for Dora Dora!”
	• Clicked many things on the left. Entered Bookey story book, but didn’t like it. Selected Korean traditional story.
Child D	• Lined Saturn.
	• Child F got a mouse again and then drew lines continuously. Child F put her name card on a computer body.
	“brown?”
	• Child D filled out a screen with a black.
Child F	• Filled out with brown and finally completed Saturn.
Child G	“Oh! It’s Saturn!”
Teacher A	“It seems Saturn!”
Child D & F	Filled out every blank with black.
Child D	“Let’s name it ‘Saturn’”
Child F	“Ok! Save as a different name! my pictures! A file name is ‘Saturn’ !”
Child D	“Teacher! After writing a title, go to a windows background screen, right?”
Teacher A	“Right! Go to a background screen and then open “drawing board save” and saved it as [picture Saturn – Child D & F]. Let me write a helper Child F next to Child D’s name.”
Child D	“Here! Here! With this spray tool (pointed with D’s finger)!”
Child F	• Clicked a spray tool with a mouse.
Child D	• Erased some circles with a spray tool.
	• Looked back. To child G,
	“Are you looking at this?”
Child G	• Played in a block area. “Huh?”
Child D	“Looking at THIS?”
Child L	• Selected Story book.
Child D	• Stood up and looked at G’s screen,
	“Let me see this for a second!”
	• Drew a picture again and asked,
	“What are you doing?”
Child F	“Done! Like this?”
	• Filled out a blank but mistakenly colored unintended to color on unwanted spots.
	“Teacher! This is weird.”
	• Drew an earth. Green land and blue sea.
Child C	“No! There should be any hole. Ok!”
Child F	“This! This one! Do this like this!”	F out

Appendix B. Sample Questions of Children Interview

• 1. When you interacted with your friends, how was your feeling?

• 2. What did you newly gain after interacting with your friend? Is there any new information or new ideas that you learned from your friend?

• 3. When you were playing with your friends at the computer area, what things got in the way of expressing your ideas to other friends?

• 4. Please briefly describe what you did to help your friends create their own artifacts.

Appendix C. Sample Questions of Teacher Interview

• 1. How to scaffold children to interact each other in the computer area of this kindergarten classroom?

• 2. Please explain your teaching experience, how many years have you taught and where have you been a teacher?

• 3. Could you please explain the interaction patterns between children and peers, and teacher’s interpretation about children’s interaction in the computer areas?

• 4. Have you ever taken any college course that is related to computer technology in early childhood education?