Browsing by Author "Siti Noor Fauziah bt Abd Rahim"

This qualitative research aims to explore children interactions during learning activities. It seeks to examine the motivations and barriers that contribute to the manner in which the interaction takes place. The study involves children of 6 years old (4 boys and 2 girls) and two informants from a selected public kindergarten administered by the Social Development Department (also known as Jabatan Kemajuan Masyarakat or KEMAS) in Penang. This study employs case study design. The data was collected using direct observation (non-participant observation) and semi-structured interview questions which were recorded verbatim. It is noted from the study that children interactions during learning activities can be divided into two; children-adult interaction and children-peers interaction. The pattern or nature of children interaction in children-adults interaction comprises of constructive-dialogic and explicit correction; while in children-peers interaction, the children engaged in three patterns of interaction namely sociable, creative and non-verbal. The interview session with the two informants - the teacher and assistant teacher – indicated that there were three factors that support children interaction during learning activities; teacher’s facilitation, group encouragement and educational/teaching resources. The most common factor that hinders children’s interaction revealed from interview sessions were teacher’s unpreparedness of accommodating diverse learners and teacher’s ambivalence of promoting creativity in talk and learning.