Preschool Teachers’ Views on Relationship and Communication in Classroom Management

The aim of this research is to define views of preschool teachers regarding relationships and communication in classroom management. A qualitative research method was used to investigate in detail the opinions of the teachers about the subject. Thirteen preschool teachers constituted the working group in which the semi-structured interview technique was used. Having a principal teacher and an assistant teacher in the class was taken as a criterion. The main reason is that principal and assistant teachers are able to manage the class together and it is a different situation in terms of staff interaction. In the analysis of the data, a descriptive analysis method was used. As a result of the analysis, a total of seven themes were interpreted. These are definition of classroom management, factors affecting classroom management, factors impeding communication, teacher-child communication, communication among children, conflict situations and classroom rules. Results showed that the teachers are visibly different from each other in terms of the educational situation concerning factors affecting classroom management and the definition of classroom management. Assistant teachers who have associate degree and high school graduation had very limited explanations. At this point, it is important to have a bachelor's degree in terms of the quality of preschool teachers. Also, it is seen that there are some deficiencies in the principles and methods that teachers pay attention to in terms of interaction with children, interaction processes among children and rules. This result shows that the classroom management course in the undergraduate program should be given by the related field experts