Features of Childcare Workers’ Practical Recognition of Gaps

Abstract

This article focuses on childcare workers’ practical “recognition of gaps”. Specifically, we have collected and analyzed a number of episodes in which childcare workers experienced gaps based on their knowledge of children. First, narration contents were sorted in the KJ method to summarize the gaps childcare workers recognize. It’s then followed by a text mining analysis of the relationship between workers’ years of childcare experience and recognition of gaps. The result revealed that 1) gaps of childcare workers includes “those due to preconception and assumption”, “those stemmed from expectation and high hopes to accumulate experience”, “those due to implementation of plans and strong faith”, “those brought by struggles and confusion”, “those due to direct acceptance”; 2) recognition of gaps is not related to the years of childcare experience; 3) yet, there are different features in the recognition of gaps when childcare workers have different years of experience. Finally, possibilities for future elaboration were depicted from the relationship between standards put on the workers and their efficacy.