A Case Study of Five Chinese Kindergarten Teachers’ Perceptions and Reactions to Children’s Displays of Emotions in the Classroom

Abstract

Teaching children higher level emotions (e.g., empathy, gratitude, love) has been present in the curriculum of kindergartens in China for a long time. Conversely, little attention has been paid to teaching children lower level emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness, anger). This study examined five kindergarten teachers’ perceptions and reactions toward young children’s expressions of lower level emotions in a way to explore kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about young children’s lower level emotions. It was revealed that the participating teachers (1) have limited knowledge or misperceptions of young children’s lower level emotions; (2) pay little attention to children’s expressions of lower level emotions; (3) tend to respond to children’s displays of emotions in three patterns which are ignore, disapprove, and/or support; and (4) tend to ignore/disapprove children’s displays of “unreasonable” negative emotions. The results of this study could be helpful for the development of intervention programs and in-service training to help kindergarten teachers better meet children's emotional learning needs.