The organization of day-care environments: "zone" versus "man-to-man" staff assignments

In a large day-care center, measures of group participation were used to compare how much of a child's time is lost from planned activities during the daily transition from lunch, through the bathroom and dressing areas, to the nap area. Participation measures were taken using the "Zone" and "Man-to-Man" staffing procedures, two typical methods for dividing responsibility among teaching staff. In the "Zone" procedure, each teacher was assigned responsibility for a particular area, and for all children who passed through that area. In the "Man-to-Man" procedure, each teacher was assigned responsibility for shepherding a group of designated children through all activity areas during each transition. The Lunch-to-Nap transition using the Zone staffing assignment was accomplished with a smaller decrease in child participation in planned activities than the transition utilizing the Man-to-Man procedure. Thus, other things being equal, it is recommended that the Zone procedure be used in group-care programs with more than one staff member, with each teacher being responsible for specific activity areas, rather than specific children.