Exploring regulatory interactions among young children and their teachers : a focus on teachers’ monitoring activities

Abstract

This study explored the differences in teachers’ monitoring of children during socio-emotional challenges children face in day care. Furthermore, the study investigated the association between teachers’ monitoring activities and children’s strategy use targeted at regulating emotions and behavior in these challenging situations. The data consist of 44 video-recorded events of challenging situations. First, quantitative associations were explored between teachers’ monitoring and children’s use of different strategies, as well as children’s possible adaptation of strategy use. Furthermore, these interactions were explored qualitatively, describing the ways teachers’ active monitoring manifested and contributed to the children’s strategy use. The results show that teachers’ active monitoring was associated with children’s adaptation of strategy use during the challenge. Qualitative exploration further illustrated how teachers’ active monitoring in challenging situations enabled the teachers to adjust their support for children and further, help children adapt strategy use. In contrast, weak monitoring resulted in less adequate support, leading to children repeating ineffective strategies or turning back to less constructive ways of resolving the challenges instead of adapting their behavior according to the situational demands. The findings highlight the importance of teachers’ constant monitoring of children’s behavior, so that the teachers can identify the need for support when children experience challenging situations, as they are the situations in which children can learn to manage challenges and adapt their regulatory behavior according to the demands of the situation.