| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立師範學院 === 國民教育研究所 === 92 === The study investigated the process of peer group entry of a preschooler. The participant was a new student joining in a class mixed experienced students (i.e. second year in that class) with new ones. The teacher, as the researcher, documented the participant’s interaction with peers through daily observation for nine months.
The study concluded three periods in the process of Hsiao Ru’s interaction with her peers:
1. The trial period: Hsiao Ru attempted to stir an interaction by initiating greetings but brought jeer and discontent of the other children to herself due to her accented Mandarin. Most of the time she quietly watched other children playing without receiving any of their attention. The children sometimes teased her for no reasons. Hsiao Ru was considered interrupting play by peers and usually got negative responses. In addition, due to her misunderstanding of play theme, Hsiao Ru was not accepted by her peers.
2. The pleading period: After being an onlooker for some time, Hsiao Ru attempted to learn the way other children communicated in order to express her intention of joining their activities. She also imitated the way other children played and brought toys to school in hopes of earning their attention and friendship. However, due to her onlooker status, other children were convinced by her reputation of knowing nothing about play. They were unwilling to exchange or share toys with her because her toys were considered either irrelevant to their games or outdated. Hsiao Ru usually ended up playing alone or watching the others play.
3. The compromising period: When the teachers noticed peers’ rejecting behaviors, they kept reminding children of being friendly and forbade any peer rejection in class. As a result, children began to order Hsiao Ru around answering their call. In exchange for friendship, Hsiao Ru did as told such as stepping aside in a line-up, exchanging the corner card with other children, lending out her toys, and giving away stickers….etc. Hsiao Ru had the taste of being praised upon when she offered her help to carry things for others. As a result, she gradually took on the role of an assistant, who was ordered around by other children in the class.
Hsiao Ru had difficulty being accepted by her peers because of the existing peer culture in the class. In order to join in, a new student must grasp peer culture, understand the interests of his/her peers, and learn the communicative patterns and their norms for behavior and interaction. Other contextual factors that influenced peer relationship were teacher’s intervention and attitude, children’s social skills, class discipline and activity rules. The researcher’s reflections and suggestions for future studies are discussed.
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