THE ROLE OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION IN ENHANCING PRESCHOOL LEARNING PROCESS
PREPARED BY : GOH LAI SHIN (SEPT – DEC 2023 )
TITLE OF THE PROJECT
PROJECT PROSOSAL FOR CHAPTER 4 AND 5
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CHAPTER 4��FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
1. Introduction
This chapter discusses the findings and analysis of qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews with 5 selected teachers to respond to the theme questions.
The information gathered focuses mostly on teachers' perspectives on using non-verbal communication in the classroom to enhance student learning. This chapter concludes with a summary of the study.
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DATA COLLECTION
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THEME
Theme 1: Part A question: Please share your perspectives on the non-verbal communication is used in the preschool classroom.
Theme 2 :
Part A: What are the obstacles you face while using non-verbal communication in the classroom? Both online and physical classes.
Part B: Do you have any difficulties in interpreting the student's non-verbal communication? Both online and physical classes.�
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THEME 1
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Teacher’s Interview Responses | |
Teacher | Summary of Responses |
5 Teachers | Children as young as three and four years old are still very active, weak in speech and reliable to non-verbal communication, and children as young as five and six years old are combining non-verbal signals with verbal communication. Their language ability is stronger than the 3-4 years old. |
TEACHER INTERVIEW RESPONSE - 5 TEACHERS
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As teacher Choon said that her children’ language development was still poor for age 3. Total 5 three-year-old children were using non-verbal language to interact with teachers and peers. As a result, she needed to manage both verbal and non-verbal communication in her classroom. She must observe closely for every movement, facial expression, hand gesture, and others body language showed by every child in her class.
Example shown for 1st teacher
As Teacher Kong reported that language development for children in years 5 was considered good if compared to years 3 and 4; they can easily express their thoughts verbally with short sentences. However, there are two children with speech delays and have mild autism who must express themselves through non-verbal ways such as pointing to the items he requested, sometimes cry for toilet.
In general, year 5 children are extremely active and like to demonstrate or share non-verbal acts in the classroom. For example, the children's facial expressions are very interested, and they like to be touched with the sensation of love and care. You can see their moody face, throwing temper face and timid face when they were asked to read the readers.
Example shown for 2nd teacher
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Part B question: Please share your thoughts on the following types of non-verbal communication that occur in your classroom, as well as with the following examples:
THEME 1
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Teacher Hinthu (Four-year-old class teacher) | The teacher must observe the children's body movement during the lesson and activity. For example, children prefer to sit close to friend they like. However, if the children do not active in the classroom, do not move their bodies, it is possible they are not healthy.
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Teacher’s Interview Responses 1st Teacher | |
Facial expressions | Summary of Responses |
Teacher Choon (Three-year-old class teacher) | Children as young as three years old have a wide range of facial expressions that reflect their emotions. For example, student cry and yell because they are moody and refused to attend to school. |
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Teacher’s Interview Responses 1st Teacher | |
Eye Contact | Summary of Responses |
Teacher Choon (Three-year-old class teacher) | Teacher Choon strongly emphasis on the children's eye contact; she will examine their eye contact during the class to assess their comprehensive and concentration level, as well as their eye contact with their peers during interaction and activity time to assess their relationship and psychological state. When 3-year-old children are insecure, lack of confident, unstable, and unable to comply or listen to instruction, they may not make adequate eye contact with the teacher and peers. They prefer to avoid or skip eye contact with people they do not know well. Furthermore, eye contact was a significant indication for determining the children's comprehension level, emotional state, and even psychological level. For example, a mild autistic child usually will not make eye contact with others. |
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Teacher Hinthu (Four-year-old class teacher) | The teacher must observe the children's body movement during the lesson and activity. For example, children prefer to sit close to friend they like. However, if the children do not active in the classroom, do not move their bodies, it is possible they are not healthy.
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Teacher’s Interview Responses 1st Teacher | |
Body Movement Posture/ Gesture | Summary of Responses |
Teacher Choon (Three-year-old class teacher) | Children in this group always cannot sit still as their concentration power is about 15 minutes. They always enjoy moving around. Posture and gestures are examples of body movement. As a result, the lesson plan for them was more focused on body movement lessons such as dancing and playing. The way the children move, such as their posture and standing position, can indicate their learning condition whether or not they are tired. If the children are standing but lying down on the table, it means they are tired and need to rest. If they continue to move their bodies, it indicates that they are exciting and happy and that they can continue to learn. |
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Teacher Hinthu (Four-year-old class teacher) | The teacher must observe the children's body movement during the lesson and activity. For example, children prefer to sit close to friend they like. However, if the children do not active in the classroom, do not move their bodies, it is possible they are not healthy.
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Teacher’s Interview Responses 1st Teacher | |
Voice | Summary of Responses |
Teacher Choon (Three-year-old class teacher) | Young children are extremely sensitive to their teachers' and peers' voices. Raising the tone of the teacher's voice, for example, implies that the children should pay attention to what the teacher is saying. The loud voices of peers will have an effect on others and may lead more noises to the classroom. When young children are upset, they like hearing their teachers' soft and sweet voices to care of them. A pleasant voice can imply a happy learning environment, whilst a sobbing voice can indicate a low learning environment. |
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Teacher Hinthu (Four-year-old class teacher) | The teacher must observe the children's body movement during the lesson and activity. For example, children prefer to sit close to friend they like. However, if the children do not active in the classroom, do not move their bodies, it is possible they are not healthy.
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Teacher’s Interview Responses 1st Teacher | |
Touch: | Summary of Responses |
Teacher Choon (Three-year-old class teacher) | Physical touch is the most effective non-verbal communication method, and her children respond incredibly well to it. Hugs, high-fives, and pats are all crucial parts of helping children feel safe and happy in the classroom A gentle hand on their arm, a hug when they're sad, or a pat on the children's head or shoulder can demonstrate the teacher's caring and love, and this will make the children feel warm and build up the sense of care and trust |
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Teacher’s Interview Responses THEME 2 | |
Teacher | Summary of Responses |
All ( 5 teachers) | All 5 teachers interviewed shared their perspectives on the obstacles they faced while using non-verbal communication in their classrooms, as well as the difficulties they encountered when interpreting student communication, particularly for 3- and 4-years old classes and minor session during online classes. They all agreed that obstacles existed because preschool children are still weak in managing verbal communication; hence, non-verbal communication was always used by the children for expressing purposes. Teachers sometimes may misinterpret the children's unclear non-verbal signals. Based on the conversation and discussion, it can be concluded that all of these teachers are 90% experienced in handling nonverbal communication in their classrooms, they were doing their best to "read" all of the nonverbal signals of the young children in the classroom due to the fact that nonverbal communication has a great impact on the language, social, cognitive and emotional development of the young children. |
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Centre Visit Date | Time | Grade Level | Number of Students | Class teacher |
16/11/2023 17/11/2023 | 45min | T4 (3 years old) | 5 | Teacher Choon |
20/11/2023 21/11/2023 | 45min | J2A (4 years old) | 7 | Teacher Hinthu |
21/11/2023 22/11/2023 | 45 min | J2 B (4 years old ) Gopeng | 6 | Teacher Kiong |
20/11/2023 23/11/2023 | 45 min | J3 (5 years old) | 6 | Teacher Kong |
21/11/2023 24/11/2023 | 45 min | J4 (6 years old) Gopeng | 6 | Teacher Sharon |
Table 4.5: Classroom Background
T4 (3 years old class) | ||||
No | Children Nickname | Gender Male(M) /Female(F) | Ability to handle verbal Communication | Ability to handle non- verbal communication |
1 | Kenix | M | In a progress | Yes |
2 | Chan | M | In a progress | Slow Response |
Table 4.6: Students’ backgrounds and language development in verbal and non-verbally & Summary of Student Responses during the lesson/activity conducted by teachers. ( from age 3 – 6 years old )
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Age | Observation Lesson/Activity | Analyze observation and connection to the teacher/researcher |
3 | Outdoor Fun Activity: Sand Play
Lesson Objective: Enhance the sensory skills and focusing with hands-eye coordination | All of the children like playing with the sand, but only 4 of them can follow instructions. For example, if Teacher Choon asks them to pick the cup from the pail, not all of them will do so right away, and they will continue to play the sands while ignoring the instruction. Only one child was able to pick up the cup and show it to Teacher. |
Table 4.7: Analyze observation and connection to the teacher/researcher
Conclude : Summary
5.1 Introduction
This chapter is discussing the overall findings of this study and followed by the implications based on data collected from the interviews conducted and the classroom observations. The results of the findings have already been discussed in Chapter Four. Then it is followed by some recommendations for improving non-verbal communication in preschool. The limitation of this study is also discussed and recommendations for future research are provided. This chapter ends with a conclusion.
CHAPTER 5
Discussions, Implications and Recommendations
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* In continuation of Chapter Four, the major findings and implications are further elaborated. Findings in this study which were derived from the qualitative analysis of the interviews and the results of pre-test and post-test, gave an insight into teacher’s perspectives of using and interpreting non-verbal communication in their classroom.
* The findings on the obstacles in using and interpreting non-verbal communication in enhancing student’s learning process were elicited from the interviews and with the teachers through the comparison with the pre-test and post-test result.
* Furthermore, the findings also included the classroom observations conducted by the researcher.
5.2 Discussion of Findings
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Throughout this study, non-verbal communication in the preschool classroom was the central concern of analysis. After analysing the acquired data, it was feasible to confirm the two hypotheses established at the beginning.
*The first hypothesis was that the obstacles in using and interpreting non-verbal communication in the classroom have an impact on the learning process of preschoolers. The effectiveness of a teacher's non-verbal communication improves young children's understanding and show their attitude toward the teacher or their learning.
*The second hypothesis was that a preschool teacher must address the various types of non-verbal communication that occur in the classroom. Because non-verbal communication can improve teaching and learning. This is supported by the study's findings, which appear to provide perspectives on how to improve non-verbal communication in enhancing student’s learning process.
5.3. Implications
5.4 From the review of interview
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2. Preschool teachers have encountered obstacles in using and interpreting non-
verbal communication during physical and online class.
3. Non-verbal can assist teachers to understand children better and promote
relationship.
4. Supportive non-verbal communication and actively involved non-verbal
communication in the classroom will able to promote the happy learning
atmosphere.
5. When teachers are unsure about the non-versal signals of their students,
they are advised to pay attention to their attitudes and ask more questions.
5.5 From the results of the classroom observation,� it was found that:
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This study can be valuable for the preschool teachers because, after all, they participated in it actively. The findings may be of relevance to them in 2 ways.
5.6 Implications of the non-verbal communication for the preschool teachers
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A number of limitations have been identified in this study. The first limitation is due to cases of sickness ( flu, influenze, fever, coughing) increasing due to weather changed. Some children temporary take off from school and caused the number of participants decreased and has limited the data collection sources. Hence, this study is only able to focus on a specific preschool, there are not many preschools included. Furthermore, due to a lack of relevant studies concentrating on non-verbal communication in a preschool setting, I was unable to generalize their methods and results. This appears to be a lack of understanding about the impact of non-verbal communication as practiced by preschool teachers
5.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
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Considering the findings of this study, future research should focus on non-verbal communication patterns in the preschool context and their implications on students' learning processes in more depth and specificity. Furthermore, professional educational training programmes and should be conducted for preschool teachers
5.8 Recommendations for Future Research
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Finally, this chapter discusses the primary findings of this study and their implications based on data gathered from the interviews. The findings, which were already covered in Chapter Four, are elaborated on and compared to significant past studies. The types of non-verbal communication in the preschool classroom and obstacles in using and interpreting non-verbal communication. The implications of non-verbal communication for preschool teachers are then elaborated further. The study's limitations are also explored, and recommendations for future research are provided.
5.9 SUMMARY
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