Exploring Educational and Emotional Difficulties in Early Years Education

Abstract

This research study explores the affective domain of educational and emotional difficulties using a structured interview design. This interview design will produce a synthesis of information to understand the predictors of emotional and educational difficulties. The resulting analysis and interpretation will provide a description of major themes that will develop student and Teacher Relationship (STR) emotional difficulties and attainment levels.

The outcome of the study will be the account of experience and procedure that will guide in order to identify educational and emotional difficulties. Based on the findings, we will represent the framework of the learning environment in Early Years Education.

The qualitative method in this study is originated from a interpretivist viewpoint with a focus on deeply understanding each variable and how it impacts the outcomes in a learning environment. My aim in conducting this study is to provide more specific examples and empirical findings for how certain elements have an impact on educational and emotional difficulties in education. Identifying specific predictors associated with emotional and educational outcomes in children could stipulate valuable information to an educational learning community. Implications to how the findings will impact the learning environment will be discussed.

Introduction

Children with emotional difficulties are usually seen to be hyperactive, remain isolated from the family, and show challenging behavior (Van derKolk, 2017). The emotional difficulties in children are initially raised as result of hindered parental care such as abuse of children by parents, divorce between parents, neglect of care (Bernardi and Radl, 2014); poverty issues (Hair et al. 2015), separation between parents, physical abuse in the early years and others (Horan and Widom, 2015). As mentioned by Crum et al. (2016), effective teacher-pupil relationship resolves emotional difficulties, in turn, creating effective interaction and communication with the teacher that helps them to delivery education with efficiency. The fact is that pupils spend most of the time with the teachers at school after their parents at home. Thus, if the children in case, face difficulty in learning or experiences abuse at home, they may inform the teachers about the incidence in case the teacher maintains a personal relationship. Therefore, a personal relationship with the teachers makes the children feel guarded in the society along with making them feel their needs are understood by someone which would somehow help them to fulfil it.

The teacher-pupil relationship shows influence on managing emotional difficulty also based on gender. This is because a positive teacher-pupil relationship creates lower emotional difficulty among boys but has no influence on the girls (McCormick and O'Connor, 2015). This is because boys mature more slowly in comparison to girls regarding physical (Singh et al. 2017), emotional (Mileva-Seitz et al. 2015) and linguistic factors as they suffer more environmental stress (James, 2015). Therefore, in order to understand the relationships and their impact on development, the proposed study will explore teacher’s perception of how their relationship with pupil’s affects academic, emotional and behavioral outcomes.

Studies about emotional difficulties in children are important because this difficulty hinders their normal mental growth, in turn, making them to become depressed and show psychologically misbalanced behavior creating unsuccessful education in children (Porche et al. 2016). As asserted by Mash and Barkley (2014), the way body language of a teacher is accepted psychologically by children can have both a positive or negative impact on their education outcome. This is because if the children psychologically interpret the teacher’s languages to be abusive or unfamiliar then they avoid learning from them, in turn, creating unsuccessful educational outcomes. Such an incidence occurs because the children feel vulnerable and fear of abuse under the teacher and thus refrain to interact with them creating complication in the learning process.

There are various perspectives in the area of educational and emotional outcomes. There has been research over the past decades to understand the notion; however, they have shared several core principals to explore the interaction between student and teacher relationship, age, gender and attainment levels. What shadows in this literature review is a selection of those perspectives as they relate to the effect of teacher-student interactions, age, gender and attainment levels on the learning environment including findings and implications.

Research Objective

The objective of this study is to explore teacher’s perception of how their relationship with pupil’s affects academic, emotional and behavioral outcomes.

Research questions

1. What are the teacher’s perceptions on how their relationship with pupils affects academic outcomes?

2. What are the teacher’s perceptions on how their relationship with pupils affects emotional outcomes?

3. What are the teacher’s perceptions on how their relationship with pupils affect behavioral outcomes?

Literature Review

Literature in the past has strongly focused on measuring teacher and student relationship primarily using standardized test scores. Also, there is a large body of literature highlighting the influence of teachers’ perspective on teacher-student relationship and how it correlates with student relationships (Brophy, 1974; Baker, 1999; Crosnoe, Johnson, & Elder, 2004; Little, 2012; Leder, 1987).

Marzano (2003) studied the practices of effective teacher and student relationship and determined that “an effective teacher-student relationship may be the grounding that allows the other traits to work well”. Therefore, relationships that teachers develop with their students have a significant role in a student’s academic development. Hallinan (2008, pp. 45) composes that “Learning is a process that involves cognitive and social psychological scopes, and both processes should be considered if academic achievement is observed”. On the other hand, Downey (2008) claims that learning can only be exceptionally processed if teachers know how their daily work in classrooms can be infused with interactions and instructional strategies because it will show a positive difference in the lives of students who are at risk of academic failure.

Arguing on that notion, Hamre & Pianta (2006) supported that the interactions teachers have with their students and the observations they make within the classroom can facilitate the development of effective teaching strategies and interventions. They concluded that when teachers form strong relationships with their students, the students feel a sense of security and safety within the school setting and this enhances their academic performance. They also suggested that having a positive teacher and student relationship allows students to work on their own because they know they can count on their teacher if problems arise. Therefore, a positive relationship provides the foundation for successful adaptation to the social and academic environment.

However, Ravitch (2010) argued that “the objective of education is not to generate high test scores, but to educate children to become responsible people with well-developed minds and good character”. The importance of determining effective teachers and teaching practices is a component that the current teacher evaluation system does not accept (Ravitch, 2010). She concluded that overemphasis on academic achievement to the exclusion of other important goals of education may weaken the affection of learning and the desire to gain knowledge (Ravitch, 2010). This implies that teachers and students need to have a bonding in education in order to have a significant impact on student learning, bearing in mind that overemphasis on academic performance can affect the general classroom learning process.

Therefore, as agreed by Duncan & Magnuson (2013), this causes debate about differentiated teaching, learning styles and continuous formative assessment - with a greater focus on the teachers’ interaction with students and how they influence the children’s educational, emotional and social outcomes. However, according to Schady (2011), the debate can be settled if teachers identify better ways of forming relationships, engaging the child and encouraging children to listen and focus on their studies. Likewise, as proposed by Brebner et al (2016), there is a need for better policy formulation and implementation in the UK to promote the EYF curriculum to a level that children can be adequately prepared by their teachers for future studies by strengthening their social, emotional and educational capabilities. However, arguments by Carlson et al (2008) highlight that such policies cannot be successfully formulated if the relationship between teacher-child interaction and the development of a child’s emotional, social and educational capabilities is not broadly understood.

For a child to succeed and enjoy school, the early years are crucial - implying that it is essential for them to have some sort of bond at school. However, various scholars have presented both concurring and conflicting ideas on the relationship between teacher-student interaction and child development. For instance, research by Duncan & Magnuson (2013) reflects on the idea that a good teacher-child relationship promotes the teacher’s responsibility for responsible for the child’s development. Likewise, Schady (2011) stated that a teacher-student relationship is linked to a variety of children's outcomes such as reading and writing capabilities. Contrariwise, Carlson et al (2008) argued that negative teacher-child relationships lead to poor behavioral and academic outcomes, as well as negative attitudes about the school environment among students.

Moving on, Brebner et al (2016) observe that age not only plays a major role in the social development of a child but also has a bearing on the emotional and educational outcomes of children. Such observations are also supported by Schady (2011) who argues that whether a child begins school early or not, they are likely to emerge with equal social, emotional and educational performance.

According to Duncan & Magnuson (2013), the advancement of EYF in the UK has revolutionized the education system – making it possible for educational content which used to be taught in stage 1 of the curriculum be taught in the reception stage. While some scholars applaud such a trend, others oppose it with an argument that it leads to poor foundational preparation of a child, escalating to a poor performance of children in their future education endeavors (Carlson et al 2008). Thus, it triggers the question of how teachers can interact with children during their EYF stages to promote good social, emotional and educational development in them regardless of the age at which they started school.

In reference to the influence of gender on emotional outcomes among children, many studies have shown that girls are more attentive. For instance, the study by Casey (1993) revealed that girls gave more accurate reports on their emotions than boys. Specifically, the study found that while only 31% of boys gave an accurate description of their facial expressions, 65% of girls did the same. Similarly, Strayer and Roberts (1997) revealed that girls of age 5-13 years were more accurate than boys in expressing and reporting their emotions. However, there are exceptional studies that had contrary results. For instance, Warren and Stifter (2008) found that gender had no influence on children’s ability to express or report emotions. This could imply that gender may not be a contributing factor of emotional and educational difficulties in children.

Method

Research Philosophy

Paterson et al, (2007) defined research philosophy as the identification and understanding of research knowledge and its applicability. Also termed as research paradigm, research philosophy underpins how the researcher interprets and applies the collected data (Converse, 2012). In the current study, the researcher adopts interpretivist research philosophy, which entails an assessment of a phenomenon or research topic from the perspective of the people experiencing it (Petty, Thomson, & Stew, 2012). The main aim of this study is to explore teacher’s perception of how their relationship with pupil’s affects academic, emotional and behavioral outcomes. Therefore, the study seeks to understand the true perception of teachers about the behavioral, emotional and academic outcomes in children. Thus, this study argues that understanding the children’s context is to understand their psychological and emotional difficulties. The interpretive research paradigm is deemed as the best approach for this study because the teachers’ main concern are the implications of emotional difficulties experienced by each student; yet interpretative paradigm applies ethical and personal ways of knowing (Jaye, 2002). Thus, this study strongly supports the use of interpretive research philosophy.

Research Approach

A study can take either inductive or deductive approaches. Deductive research approach, or deductive reasoning entails the use of a more general information to predict a specific point, while inductive reasoning entails the use of more specific information to derive a more general theory of conclusion (Palmer, Larkin, Visser, & Fadden, 2010). This study chooses inductive research approach because it coincides with interpretative research philosophy. Particularly, Paterson et al, (2007) argue that inductive research approach is generally qualitative in nature and uses the interpretative paradigm to understand a phenomenon from the perspective of people experiencing it. The interpretive research approach mainly applies to qualitative research methods such as interviews and observation that have a sustained interaction with participants. Through inductive research approaches, the researcher can understand the phenomenon from the perspective of the people experiencing it. The main aim of the current study is to exploring teacher’s perception of how their relationship with pupil’s affects academic, emotional and behavioral outcomes, so that teachers can be better prepared for these difficulties. This justifies the use of inductive research approaches in the current study.

Research Method

This study will use qualitative research methods. Paterson et al, (2007)’s writing on research methods reveal that qualitative research methods are appropriate in examining the subjective human experience through various non-statistical strategies. The main aim of the current study is to explore the subjective human experience of the psychological and demographic causes of emotional difficulties, and educational outcomes in children. According to Paterson et al, (2007), this is comparable to a naturalistic enquiry that involves exploring complex human experience.

There are several theoretical underpinnings for the selection of qualitative research methods for this study. First, according to Porcino & Verhoef (2010), qualitative research methods enable the development of theories through a holistic and subjective pathway, whereby assumptions over the subject matter can be made based on the participants’ true experiences. Furthermore, Paterson et al, (2007) argue that qualitative research is based on scientific approaches that are useful in social behavioral sciences because they enable researchers to understand the unique human nature. With the use of qualitative research methods, there is no oversimplification of the reality and actual experiences of the participants.

Participants

For this research study, the participants are school 8 Teachers or Teaching assistants- one from each year group, from 2 different schools and from 4 different year groups- nursery (2-3 years of age), reception (4-5 years of age) year1 and year2 (7-10 years of age). The year groups are chosen to understand the way the children gradually develop emotional difficulties and is influenced by behavior and academic outcomes in early years. The researcher will first seek to recruit teachers from kindergarten and primary schools and in case they are not available, teaching assistants will be sought.

The sample population will be selected based on purposive sampling techniques. Porcino & Verhoef (2010) define purposive sampling as a non-probability sampling technique that entails a selection of study participants based on the researcher’s judgment. Purposive sampling is particularly selected for the study because the researcher has a better understanding of the study purpose and can select the most appropriate sample population to achieve the research objectives. Furthermore, purposive sampling is selected for this study because the researcher only wants a certain set of population (i.e. teachers and pupils) from a mainstream school that fits the study profile.

Data Collection

Data collection is an important part of any piece of research. Paterson et al, (2007) argue that the accuracy and validity of any research depends on whether there is an accurate data collection, otherwise the researcher may end up with invalid results. The study will rely on primary data.

Porcino & Verhoef (2010) observe that in most cases, qualitative studies use interviews, review of documents, and observations as the source of data collection. On the same note, Jaye (2002) writes that there are five major categories of data collection strategies that are used in qualitative research namely observations, interviews and audiovisual materials. However, qualitive studies mostly select interviews as source of data collection. While the most common format of interviews are face-to-face interviews, focus groups are also an option (Palmer, Larkin, Visser, & Fadden, 2010). This study will use interviews as the method of data collection.

Interviews can be conducted in a variety of ways. Porcino & Verhoef (2010) assert that interviews can be open-ended or conversational or they can be structured through predetermined questions. However, Palmer et al (2010) contend that in most cases, interviews are open-ended or semi structured. Most researchers prefer semi-structured or open-ended interviews because they facilitate the collection of comparative data and provide the needed flexibility to explore the phenomenon under investigation in an in-depth manner (Mogalakwe, 2009). This is a significant advantage of qualitative research methods because it reduces the researchers’ potential bias and allows the respondents’ true voice to emerge. Nonetheless, a major disadvantage of open-ended interviews is that they take time to gather relevant data (Palmer, Larkin, Visser, & Fadden, 2010).

The use of qualitative research approaches, and particularly open-ended interviews enhances the repetitiveness of the entire data collection process to an extent that data collection complements data analysis, a phenomenon that generally allows the researcher to alter the questions as and when they need to gather new knowledge about the topic of discussion (Jaye, 2002). This implies that during the interviews, the researcher will attempt to analyze and interpreted the responses such that they can identify whether they need more probing or have enough information over the subject. Consequently, the researcher can make the necessary modifications on the interview questions that do not produce the needed data. Moreover, Ochs (2010) assert that open-ended interviews enable the interviewer to be flexible enough to deviate from the predetermined interview structure while tracking the knowledge and concerns of the interviewee.

In this research study, I aim to exploring teacher’s perception of how their relationship with pupil’s affects academic, emotional and behavioral outcomes, using a semi-structured interview design. This is a qualitative research method, in which the researcher develops series of questions and aims to ensure that each interview is presented with exact the same question and in the same order (Alshenqeeti, H. 2014). This method is also known as the Standardized Open-Ended Interview (Patton, 2002) and uses open-ended questions in the sense that participants have the freedom to respond in their own words

This method will consist of a discussion between researcher and participant, led by an adjustable interview protocol and follow-up questions, probes and interpretations, in order to gather comparable data. This will allow me to collect open-ended data, to explore participant thoughts, feelings and beliefs about educational and emotional difficulties in children.

Data analysis

Normally, data collection and data analysis in qualitative studies occur simultaneously to enable the researcher to develop a comprehensive understanding of the research topic (Yang & Li, 2014). According to Porcino & Verhoef’s (2010), this process of concurrent collection and analysis of data continues until it reaches a point when no fresh or additional data is derived – also called a point of data saturation, which indicates the end of data collection.

Consequently, the researcher may gather a large amount of data that overwhelm during the analysis (Srivastava, 2008). To address this problem, the study adopted a thematic data analysis technique. Particularly, thematic analysis is mostly used when a researcher is interested in other people’s views, opinions and perceptions about a phenomenon, especially when the views are collected through surveys and interviews. The thematic analysis method was specially selected for this study because it allows for the flexibility needed in interpreting data and facilitates an easier analysis of large volumes of data by sorting them out in broader themes (Ochs, 2010). However, a major disadvantage of thematic analysis is that it has the risk of missing data nuances (Grishaev, 2012),

Thematic analysis is known to have trustworthy and insightful findings, as well as offering a more accessible form of analysis, particularly for those early in their research career (Braun and Clark, 2006). It has also been suggested that thematic analysis is a useful method for examining the perspectives of different research participants, highlighting similarities and differences, and generating unanticipated insights (Braun and Clark, 2006; King, 2004).

In summary, the thematic analysis process will begin with familiarization of the data i.e. having an overview of the collected data before beginning the analysis. The second step will involve data coding, which entails identifying the phrases and sentences within the text and describing their content. Afterwards, the process will involve generating and reviewing the themes. However, the following is a stepwise illustration of how I will conduct the thematic analysis based on Braun & Clarke’s (2006) six steps.

Firstly, the data will be transcribed. Once this is done and we have become familiar with the data collected, we will generate codes, in other words what is in the data and what is interesting about them (Braun and Clark, 2006). Coding is a process of reflection and a way of interacting with and thinking about data (Savage, 2000). Therefore, this will allow me to identify vital information and attach labels to index them as they relate to a theme or issue in the data (King, 2004). Braun and Clarke (2006) recommended that researchers work methodically through the entire data, giving full attention so that data is identified effectively.

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After coding the data, themes will be identified; which will involve sorting and collating all the possible relevant coded data extracts into themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Boyaztzis, (1998) highlighted that theme are generated inductively from the raw data or deductively from theory and prior research. Therefore, the themes needed to identify should have a strong link to the data itself and the research question. Following this, I will review the themes as this will allow us to identify those themes do not have enough data to support them or the data are too diverse (Braun & Clarke, 2006). This will imply a good understanding of the different themes, how they fit together, and the overall story they tell about the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Lastly, a report will be produced, and findings will be presented, this is where literature will be used to confirm the research findings as well as challenge and add to the literature (Tuckett, 2005).