Japan Bulletin of Educators for Human Development
Online ISSN : 2424-1598
Print ISSN : 1349-7391
Practical Thinking in Early Childhood Educators’ Environmental Structure
: An Analysis of Situational and Improvisational Acts of “Moving Objects”
Midori Kobayashi
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2026 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 19-28

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Abstract
This study focuses on early childhood educators’ situational and improvisational acts of "moving objects," as part of environmental structure. It examines the practical knowledge and thinking inherent in the process of environmental structure, from the perspectives of improvisational action and improvisational thinking. The reflections by childhood educator were analyzed to clarify the structure of professionalism in early childhood education practice. This was based on the premise that educators can discover new concepts and practical knowledge through reflection, retelling, and meaning-making, as they look back on their practices. The results revealed how the educators’ narratives reconstructed the intentions behind their actions and brought unconscious judgments to conscious awareness. This suggests that educators’ "improvisational thinking" can be positioned as a back-and-forth process, involving immediate responses to events and reinterpretation through reflection.
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© 2026 Japan Association for Research on Educator Transformation
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