Quality of Preschool Playgrounds and Preschool Teachers' Behaviors and Verbalizations During Children's Outdoor Play Naoko Fukuchi Iowa State University
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1-1-1995 Quality of preschool playgrounds and preschool teachers' behaviors and verbalizations during children's outdoor play Naoko Fukuchi Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Recommended Citation Fukuchi, Naoko, "Quality of preschool playgrounds and preschool teachers' behaviors and verbalizations during children's outdoor play" (1995). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 18408. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/18408 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Quality of preschool playgrounds and preschool teachers' behaviors and verbalizations during children's outdoor play by Naoko Fukuchi A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Department: Human Development and Family Studies Major: Human Development and Family Studies (Early Childhood Education) Signatures have been redacted for privacy Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1995 ii To the memory of my father iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES ix INTRODUCTION 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 Outdoor Play 5 The type of playgrounds 5 Play equipment and materials 12 Zoning the playground 16 Teachers and Children's Play 18 Theoretical view of adult roles in children's play 18 Adults' role for promoting children's development 21 Outdoor play curricula 25 Setting the environment 27 Teaching strategies with young children 30 Teacher involvement in children's play enviomment 37 METHOD 40 Sample 40 Programs 40 Teachers 41 Measures 41 Quality of outdoor preschool playground 42 Play area 44 Portable equipment and materials 45 iv Teacher's behaviors and verbalizations 45 Teachers' demographic information 48 Procedure 48 Analysis 49 Coding and reliability 49 RESULTS 51 Quality of Preschool Playgrounds 51 Preliminary data and analyses concerning playground variables 51 What relationships exist among the preschool playground quality variables? 51 What relationships exist among the created preschool playground quality 57 variables? How do day, playground location, and teacher influence the quality of 62 preschool playgrounds? How is preschool teachers' provision for outdoor play related to their 67 background? Teachers' Behaviors and Verbalizations 68 Preliminary data concerning teachers' behavior and verbalization variables 68 How do day, playground location, and teacher influence the preschool 68 teachers' behaviors and verbalizations? .How are teachers' behaviors and verbalizations related to the quality of 72 preschool playgrounds? Preliminary data concerning play area of teachers' location 81 How are preschool teachers' behaviors and verbalizations related to 83 playground play areas? How are preschool teachers' behaviors and verbalizations related to their 84 background? DISCUSSION 88 Discussion of the Findings 88 What kinds of equipment and materials are used on preschool playgrounds? 88 v What relationships exist among the preschool playground quality variables? 91 How do day, playground location, and teacher influence the quality of 93 preschool playgrounds? How do the preschool teachers use their teaching and non-teaching strategies 94 on playgrounds? How do day, playground location, and teacher influence the preschool 95 teachers' behaviors and verbalizations? How are teachers' behaviors and verbalizations related to the quality of 97 preschool playgrounds? How are preschool teachers' behaviors and verbalizations related to 98 playground play areas? How are preschool teachers' behaviors and verbalizations related to their 100 background? Summary 101 Implications 101 Curriculum planning 101 Future research 103 REFERENCES 107 ACKNO~EDGMENTS 117 APPENDIX A: FIGURES 119 APPENDIX B: CORRESPONDENCE 126 APPENDIX C: OUTDOOR PRESCHOOL PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT AND 131 MATERIALS RECORDING FORM APPENDIX 0: OUTDOOR PRESCHOOL PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT AND 133 DETERMINATION OF VARIETY APPENDIX E: OUTDOOR PRESCHOOL PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT CHECKLIST 135 APPENDIX F: TEACHER TRANSCRIPTION FORM 137 APPENDIX G: TEACHER INFORMATION FORM 144 APPENDIX H: CODING MANUAL 146 vi APPENDIX I: PLAYGROUND DIAGRAMS 154 APPENDIX J: CODING MAP FOR DATA 160 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Number of play units and play spaces 14 Table 2. Descriptive statistics for background information 41 Table 3. Descriptive statistics for quality of playgrounds 52 Table 4. Correlation coefficients among complexity variables across reporting times 53 Table 5. Correlation coefficients among variety variables across reporting times 53 Table 6. Correlation coefficients among play spaces variables across reporting times 54 Table 7. Correlation coefficients among loose parts variables across reporting times 54 Table 8. Cronbach's coefficient alpha for quality of playgrounds 55 Table 9. Correlation coefficients among playground quality variables before outdoor play 56 (time 1) Table 10. Correlation coefficients among playground quality variables at the beginning of 56 outdoor play (time 2) Table 11. Correlation coefficients among playground quality variables after 10-minutes 56 outdoor play observation (time 3) Table 12. Combined standardized playground quality variables for 30 observations 59 Table 13. Standardized loose parts variables for 30 observations 60 Table 14. Correlation coefficients among combined playground quality variables (0 = 30) 61 Table 15. Correla~ion coefficients among combined playground quality variables (0 = 27) 61 Table 16. Results of one-way ANOVAs with day as an independent variable and 62 Quality variables as dependent variables Table 17. Results of one-way ANOVAs with day as an independent variable and 63 Loose Parts variables as dependent variables Table 18. Results of one-way ANOVAs with playground location as an independent variable 64 and Quality variables as dependent variables Table 19. Results of one-way ANOVAs with playground location as an independent variable 64 and Loose Parts variables as dependent variables Table 20. Results of one-way ANOVAs with teachers as an independent variable 65 and Quality variables as dependent variables viii Table 21. Results of one-way ANOVAs with teachers as an independent variable and 66 Loose Parts variables as dependent variables Table 22. Relationships between teachers' background and quality of playground added 67 Table 23. Frequency of teachers' behaviors and verbalizations on the preschool 69 playgrounds Table 24. Frequency of play areas of teachers' behaviors and verbalizations 82 Table 25. Frequency of play areas of teachers' behaviors and verbalizations 82 controlling for portable equipment and materials Table 26. Frequency of teachers' behaviors and verbalizations according to play areas 84 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Teacher involvement in children's play environment 37 Figure 2. The proposed model 39 Figure 3. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by days 70 Figure 4. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playgrounds 71 Figure 5. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by individual teachers 72 Figure 6. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playground Quality 1 for 73 30 observations for 10 teachers Figure 7. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playground Quality 2 for 73 30 observations for 10 teachers Figure 8. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playground Quality 3 for 74 30 observations for 10 teachers Figure 9. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playground Quality Added for 74 30 observations for 10 teachers Figure 10. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playground Quality 1 for 9 teachers 76 Figure 11. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playground Quality 2 for 9 teachers 76 Figure 12. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playground Quality 3 for 9 teachers 77 Figure 13. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by playground Quality Added for 77 9 teachers Figure 14. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by Loose Parts 1 for 10 teachers 78 Figure 15. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by Loose Parts 2 for 10 teachers 78 Figure 16. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by Loose Parts 3 for 10 teachers 79 Figure 17. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by Loose Parts Added for 10 teachers 79 Figure 18. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by Loose Parts 1 for 9 teachers 80 Figure 19. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by Loose Parts 2 for 9 teachers 80 Figure 20. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by Loose Parts 3 for 9 teachers 80 Figure 21. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by Loose Parts Added for 9 teachers 81 x Figure 22. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by play areas for 10 teachers 85 Figure 23. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by play areas for 9 teachers 85 Figure 24. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by their years of education for 10 teachers 86 Figure 25. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by their years of education for 9 teachers 86 Figure 26. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by their years of teaching experience 87 for 10 teachers Figure 27. Percentage of teachers' verbalizations by their years of teaching experience 87 for 9 teachers Figure A 1. Plot of Quality 1 and Quality 2 120 Figure