Enhanced classroom interaction: A study of an approach in teaching and learning with pre-school children in Malaysia.

This research is a study of how the present teaching and learning process for children in pre-school classes in Malaysia might be improved by introducing an Enhanced Classroom Interaction approach (ECI). This particular approach was developed by the author, based on Vygotskian ideas. The ECI emphasises the role of the teachers in working intensively with children, to encourage interaction and collaboration in learning tasks. These ideas are relatively recent developments in the West which have not yet been introduced into Malaysian teaching colleges or schools, nor has research been carried out in Malaysia using this socio-cultural paradigm. Six teachers and 60 children (aged 5 to 6 years enrolled in the new pre-school annexe stage) took part in the study, over a period of twelve weeks. A quasi experimental design was set up in which three classes forming a Test Group practised the ECI, after their teachers had attended a workshop led by the researcher. The progress of the teaching and learning process was observed and recorded on videotape and this was compared with the recorded progress of three further classes which made a Control Group. This group practised the normal classroom teaching. Progress was measured by children's performance in two tests, each test comprising two tasks which encapsulate the ECI approach (the 'Car task' and the 'Rod task'). A conversation analysis model was used to examine the transcripts of task performance to discern the interaction of the teacher with pairs of children. Conversational skill was analysed quantitatively and qualitatively in both groups. The quantitative results showed that there were significant differences in favour of the Test Group on a number of measures: the number and proportion of turns and morphemes, the mean length of turn, and the time taken to complete the task. The qualitative results also indicated that there were differences, again in favour of the Test Group, in the management of the tasks, the different patterns of exchanges, the complexity of utterances in exchanges between teacher and children, and also in exchanges between the children themselves. The main conclusions are that pre-school annexe teachers can be trained to use the ECI approach and that this approach does enhance the quality of both teacher-child and child-child interaction. Hence, the main implication is that these approaches to classroom interaction might be tried more widely to enrich children's learning.