2022 Volume 70 Issue 1 Pages 48-66
Kindergarten children form peer relationships ranging from solitary to pairs to groups. However, during that process, some of them become lonely children or form a dyad that is too close. Both of those inhibit the children from expanding their peer relationships. The present study investigated teachers' practical knowledge of how to encourage changes in children's peer relationships. In interviews, 30 kindergarten teachers were presented with 3 hypothetical cases: a lonely child, children in a dyad that was considered to be too close, and a case combining both a lonely child and a too-close dyad. When the teachers' narrative replies were analyzed using grounded theory, 16 categories, involving 6 intervention processes, emerged. Integrating the 16 categories resulted in a hypothetical model of teachers' practical knowledge. The model suggests that teachers encourage changes in children's peer relationships with a 5-step intervention, in order to develop children's play. The discussion compares the present results with the results of previous studies of social skill training for children and the practical study of early childhood education, and emphasizes the professionalism of kindergarten teachers for developing children's peer relationships, as well as limitations of the present study.
