De Samenhang tussen Aandacht voor Sociaal Gedrag vanuit de Leerkracht en de Sociale Positie van Kinderen in de Kleuterklas

Abstract

The social position of a child affects the development of the child at a later age in different areas. Because children spend a lot of time at school, teachers may have a major influence on the social position of children: by modeling social behaviour, explaining what behaviour is expected, and rewarding positive social behaviour. Therefore, it is important to understand what the influence of the teacher is. The aim of the study is to measure the correlation between attention for social behaviour of the teacher and the social position of children in the classroom. To study the social position, the sociometric method 'Ratings' is used. In this study, 16 teachers and 297 children in the age of 4-6 years old participated. Results show that there is a big difference between and within classes in terms of social positions. In addition, results show that there is no significant effect of the teacher’s attention on the social position in the classroom. The conclusion is that the attention a teacher gives in class to social behaviour is not a predictor of the social position of children. However, more research is required to conclude this.