Circle time in preschools
Analysis of an everyday educational setting
The morning circle is now a fixed part of the daily routine in preschools (Collins 2013; Emilson & Johansson, 2013; Lown 2002; Zaghlawan & Ostrosky 2011). It is also a daily opportunity for preschool teachers to interact linguistically with children and encourage them to communicate (Chen & deGroot 2014; Mosley 2005). Consequently, the morning circle is also seen as having the potential to promote development and learning (Dodge & Colker 1992; Mosley 2005; Zaghlawan & Ostrosky 2011) or formulated differently: An unstimulating morning circle can also be seen as a daily but missed opportunity to stimulate and encourage the children. However, to this date there is not a lot of research on circle time. Although there are numerous practical guides and handouts for the design of the morning circle in the practice (Collins & McGaha 2002; Greine 2013; Weyerstall 2013), the research situation is narrow.
A detailed analysis of the setting "circle time" is still pending, especially for the German-speaking context. Furthermore, it is largely open how circle time is set up and structured as a regularly occurring group activity and which topics are discussed there.
Project lead:
Project period:
Start of the project: January 2019
End of the project: October 2020