Emotion-Focused Curricula Models and Expressions of and Talk About Emotions Between Teachers and Young Children

ABSTRACT

Early childhood curricula reflect guiding principles or beliefs about the knowledge, skills, and behavior that are considered important for learning in the early childhood setting. This study examined linkages between teachers’ and young children’s expression of and talk about emotions during interactions in early childhood programs, using either the Creative Curriculum or the more emotion-focused Responsive Classroom approach. The research also examined teachers’ and children’s emotion-related behavior in relation to the gender composition of the interactions and teachers’ social-emotional teaching practices. Participants were 117 preschoolers (64 girls) and their teachers. Teachers and children in the Creative Curriculum classrooms displayed proportionately more negative emotional expressions than their counterparts in classrooms adopting the Responsive Classroom approach. Teachers’ negative emotional expressions were also more likely when children expressed negative emotions. Teachers’ and children’s negative expressions were less likely when teachers reported high use of social-emotional teaching practices. Teachers’ emotion talk was also more likely when social-emotional teaching practices were high. Gender composition of the interactions was also predictive of teachers’ emotion-related behavior. Discussion focuses on the important effect of curricula in supporting teachers’ and young children’s expression of and emotion talk in the early childhood classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Curricula type
• emotion
• teacher-child interactions

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the many research assistants who helped with data collection and data management, and the children, parents, and staff associated with the early childhood programs for their cooperation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.