Teachers’ pedagogical interactions as linked to personal beliefs and profiles: a mixed-methods study in Hong Kong kindergartens

ABSTRACT

Hong Kong has launched reforms to advocate child-centred pedagogies in kindergartens since 2000. This study examined the actual pedagogical interactions in eight kindergarten classrooms via videotaped observations. The teachers were surveyed before the observation and interviewed after receiving the observational report. Evidence revealed that the Hong Kong teachers used various scaffolding strategies to maintain a reciprocal interaction, and teacher-directed instruction dominated the pedagogical interactions. Most teachers had a positive attitude towards teacher–child interactions, yet traditional beliefs persisted. Teachers’ pedagogical interactions were associated with their age, years of teaching experience and educational level, but not with the age group they taught.

KEYWORDS:

• Pedagogical interaction
• Hong Kong kindergartens
• teachers’ beliefs and practices
• influential factors
• video analysis

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported by the RGC General Research Fund (GRF) with the Project Code as 744506.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Cam-UNAM Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis (SEDA: ©2016) was developed by a research team from the University of Cambridge, UK, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, led by Sara Hennessy and Sylvia Rojas-Drummond and funded through a grant from the British Academy. The original scheme and list of co-creators are available at http://tinyurl.com/BAdialogue.

2 A turn refers to a statement by teacher or child in a recorded dialogue, which may include one or more sentences (Huang, Yang, and Li 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by RGC General Research Fund, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong SAR [grant number 744506].