Title Details

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Students' perceptions have been very useful in helping educators to understand classroom processes. To achieve a balance of viewpoints about the roles and functions of a preschool teacher, the perceptions of young children need to be taken into account. This study attempts to fulfill two (2) purposes: (1) to gain a deeper insight into what young children think about their teachers and to establish how 4 to 5-year-old children perceive their teachers in terms of the roles they play and the functions they perform; and (2) to find out the roles and functions of the teacher from different methodologies, which are designed to elicit information from school beginners. Based on the findings the following conclusions were drawn: 1. Young children's idea about their first teachers has a large impact on their attitudes towards teachers in general and represents a composite picture of authority, entertainment, knowledge and instructions. The way in which the school beginner perceives the first teachers will influence the way they view subsequent school experiences. 2. The preschool pupils in this study perceived the teacher as primarily an instructor whose authority and control over children are totally accepted. 3. The teacher's role as a caregiver or nurturer is very much acknowledged. 4. The children placed more emphasis on the overly didactic behavior of teaching and were not so aware of the instructional components of many hands-on activities. 5. The data suggested that the children were very conscious of the teacher's role as a setter of standards and enforcer of rules. The teacher's efforts to teach the requirements of the school appeared to have been clearly recognized. 6. The research data from this study highlighted some interesting questions and needs. The drawings and interview data provided valuable insights into pupils' views about the roles of the teachers in relation to the experiences of learning and thus have implications for the ways in which the teachers project certain roles in association with particular teaching/learning situations. 7. Young children in their affluent, technological society consider entertainment to be an essential part of a teacher's job.

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