What Personal/Social Skills are Important for Young Children Commencing Kindergarten? Exploring teachers' and parents' insights

Abstract

This article reports on a study that investigated the importance of children possessing personal/social skills when starting kindergarten, from teachers' and parents' perspectives. The study involved a sample of 16 kindergarten teachers and 63 parents of kindergarten children from government schools in one of the six education districts within the Tasmanian Department of Education. Data was collected through mailed questionnaires, which utilised 22 personal/social skills sourced from the Early Social Skills brochure (Department of Education, 2002a) and the Kindergarten Development Check (Department of Education, 2003). Results from the study support the importance of socially preparing children for the kindergarten environment, with emphasis being placed upon children commencing kindergarten with many of the specified personal/social skills. It was revealed that there was a lack of congruence between teachers' and parents' perceptions in respect of some items, in the areas of ‘attitude to learning’ and ‘social communication’. This indicates that there may be inconsistent expectations between home and school which have the potential to impact negatively upon a child's personal/social development.