Experiences of teachers, parents and children concerning children transition from kindergarten to primary school

This study investigates the experiences of the teachers, parents and children concerning children’s transition from kindergarten to primary school. Emphases are given to the performance of the children in different areas of development, the transitional activities participated by the stakeholders and the effectiveness of such activities. These experiences would serve as the context of children’s transition to school which could inform further research for the design of effective transition programmes in local context. The means of investigations of this study includes: questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations. Questionnaires with Likert rating were completed by 36 and 382 of teachers and parents respectively of the three participated kindergartens and three primary schools. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with 20 teachers and 24 parents to obtain more in-depth information for the study. To examine children’s perceptions and their learning experiences in the two different settings, 24 and 14 hours of observations of the same target subjects were undertaken at one of the participated kindergartens and primary schools respectively. Results from the questionnaires show that teachers and parents generally thought that the children performed quite well academically, but the primary teachers reported that the children performed average in discipline. Findings from both questionnaires and interviews show that most of the respondents agreed that strong connections between the kindergarten, primary school and parents could facilitate smooth transition to school. However, in reality, teachers from the kindergartens and primary schools both showed ignorance about each other’s teaching practices and curriculum.