保育における子ども理解の研究動向 : 保育者の認知過程の観点から

Recently, researchers have begun to examine teachers’ perspectives on and understanding of the behaviors and characteristics of children. This paper reviews previous studies based on the following four topics. First, it examines the link between teachers’ perspectives and teachers’ behaviors, suggesting that teachers have common perspectives or frameworks and particular interaction styles depending on children’s behaviors and characteristics. Second, it examines teachers’ perspectives toward children’s behaviors and characteristics, identifying the importance of the external objective viewpoint, the internal empathetic viewpoint, and the background environment. Third, regarding reflection for improving teachers’ understanding of children, previous research suggests that it is important that teachersreflect on children analytically. To reflect on children analytically, teachers need to be particularly aware of the external objective viewpoint, the internal empathetic viewpoint, and the background environment. Fourth, regarding knowledge for understanding the behaviors and characteristics of children, more research is needed concerning the specific nature of knowledge and knowledge representation, particularly with reference to cognitive psychology research. Finally, the review suggests that it is necessary to clarify and visualize the cognitive processes involved in teachers’ understanding of children’s behaviors and characteristics.