Teachers' instructions and children's compliance in preschool classrooms: a descriptive analysis

This study presents a methodology for collecting detailed naturalistic data on preschool teachers' instructions and children's compliance and a descriptive analysis of variables related to instruction rate and compliance probability. In preschools, teachers and children were observed across a variety of classroom activities. Kindergarten and first-grade teachers also were observed to permit a comparison of instructional behavior between preschool and early elementary settings. Among teachers, instructions varied in frequency but displayed consistencies in form. For example, teachers more often phrased instructions as imperatives than as questions or declaratives and directed more instructions to individuals than to groups. Teachers' instructional behavior varied across preschool activities and between preschool and elementary grades. Children's compliance was related to the context of an instruction, but not to its form. In addition to providing information about naturally occurring instructional events, the results illustrate the effects of context on teacher and child behavior and suggest directions for future descriptive and experimental research.