Saudi Kindergarten Teachers’ Perceptions of Teacher-Child Interaction Quality before and after a Professional Development Initiative

Abstract

The interactions children have with those around them are foundational to their learning and development (OECD, 2021). Strong evidence has shown that teacher-child interaction quality is more important for social-emotional and academic development than any other classroom factor (OECD, 2021; Soliday et al., 2019; Tilbe & Gai, 2020). The Vision 2030 national development program seeks to improve early education in Saudi Arabia, but no studies in the country have examined this issue using professional development. In this study, I investigated nine Saudi kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of teacher- child interaction quality before and after a professional development initiative. An Arena Blended Connected Learning Design (ABC LD) was used to create six workshops that provided different types of learning. The workshops focused on five main interaction strategies: questioning, feedback, discussion, problem-solving, and sustained shared thinking. Participants were asked to implement these strategies in their classes. To capture any changes in their perspectives and practices, interviews and focus groups were conducted before and after the 14-week initiative, while participant observations were conducted throughout the initiative. This qualitative case study was guided by sociocultural theory as a framework. A pilot study tested and developed the workshops and data collection tools before the main study. The findings were generated deductively and inductively using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022). Under each theme, data were triangulated from the pre- and post- initiative interviews, focus groups, and classroom observations. Teachers’ perceptions and practices changed after the initiative. Overall, they reported seeing greater importance in their interactions with children and agreed that preparing a rich environment was a key factor in interaction. However, they pointed out factors preventing them from achieving higher-quality interaction, especially the high ratio of children to teachers and administration requirements. Based on the results, this study offers recommendations for improving teacher-child interaction in Saudi Arabia.