Opportunities for self-regulation in preschool

teachers’ perceptions and practices

Abstract

Following a socio-cognitive perspective, preschool children have competencies to selfregulate daily tasks. Considering this, we questioned preschool teachers’ perceptions about the promotion of self-regulation in this context. We also observed educational practices, given children where were opportunities to self-regulate preschool tasks. This was a multiple case study with four schools. We interviewed teachers and observed practices along six months. In the interviews, the most quoted issue was the need to respect children’s individual development, and also the importance of promoting it. In systematic observations, we identified 739 self-regulation indicators categorized in four dimensions: emotional and behavioral control, cognitive control, pro-social attitudes, as well as motivation to self-regulation. The results linked self-regulation dimensions to teachers’ speech and the opportunities children were provided with. The most expressive dimensions were emotional and behavioral control and cognitive control. The motivation to self-regulation dimension was the most emphasized, but only at one school. The discussion reflects how preschool play should have a pedagogical intentionality, but it also highlights that children’s autonomy can be developed in progressively higher degrees of freedom. The pedagogical implications of our study include teachers’ practices so they can promote opportunities for self-regulation. In fact, children should have opportunities to play a central role in their learning process.