Development research in natural contexts: A descriptive study of snacktime in the preschool

Abstract

This article considers levels of developmental research from metatheory to phenomenon using an observational, descriptive study as illustration. Eighteen children (31 to 57 months) and their teachers were observed during the first 4 weeks of preschool, in the United States, interacting as a group during snacktime. Ten teacher actions and five child actions were coded. Child requests decreased and non-complies increased during earlier experience. Teacher responses of praise, acknowledge and consent decreased; command and ignore increased. Child requests that led to teacher consent and acknowledge declined; requests leading to command and ignore increased. Three points are discussed: a) children take increasing responsibility for appropriate action during this event; b). increases in children's responsibility occur in parallel with changes in teacher-child interaction, and, c) increasing child responsibility does not follow directly from teacher initiated or child response action. Conducting this research within developmental context provides the possibility of detecting changes that were not anticipated by the research design and so permits consideration of the bi-directionality of this process.