Classroom organization: Understanding the context in which children are expected to learn

This paper reports a study on classroom organization, carried out in 2000 in kindergartens in Hong Kong. The findings contribute to understandings of current cross-cultural studies on classroom organization. Half-day session classroom observations of nine kindergarten teachers from three schools in Hong Kong were carried out. Data sources included field notes of nine classroom observations, transcripts of nine videotaped lessons, and lesson plans of those lessons. Findings showed some uniformity in the classrooms. There were a number of sessions on the timetable. Most learning activities were structured. Kindergartens were orderly environments, where routine was central to the daily organization. The research helped to identify some aspects of classroom culture that prompted a re-thinking of culturally appropriate practice and effective teaching. Copyright © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.