Research

01.User Research

Interviews

During our first round of interviews, we interviewed a total of two kindergarten instructors, one middle school instructor, as well as two parents, one of a kindergarten-level child and another of a middle school level child. Because we focused on bullying for the initial round of interviews, we asked many questions regarding bullying, interactions between students, and classroom interactions. Below are the consolidated responses that we received from our interviewees.

Interview Questions for/Consolidated Answers from Teachers:

1. How often do the children fight in the classroom?
Children have disagreements throughout the day and at least two are always in disagreement. Fights usually happen a couple times during the day and someone uses his fist or pushes but typically it is not reciprocated.

2. What do they most often fight over?
Usually the sharing of objects, toy blocks; there are also dispute over rules.

3. How do you detect bullies and deal with this situation?
It is bullying in the case that children pick on each other. Usually the younger boys have less control of their behavior. Depends on the exact situation but students within dispute are brought together, with teacher usually acting as median and trying to have them come up with a solution.

4. What kinds of things cause bullying?  Can you describe some examples in your personal experience?
Lots of different situations - low self-esteem, life situations, there's a combination of factors that could make them unhappy. To stop these behaviors, teachers sometimes gather data and get parents involved.

5. Do the children receive any cultural diversity exposure?
There are a couple of different cultures.

6. Can you describe the demographics of a kindergarten class?
Usually the children belong to families whose parents who are very concerned about education. Also, children usually move around and do not only stay in the classroom. For example, they go outside and play.

7. How do you decide on seating arrangements?
Sometimes the children select, but sometimes the teachers select.

8. How do you group children together for "projects?"
All different ways - ability grouping, interest, sometimes self-selection.

9. What activities do you do in the classroom to foster relationships between students?
Teachers use a curriculum with literature, activities, and questions that fosters principles such as respect, honesty, loyalty, courage, and love.

10. What activities do you do to build relationships with them?
Story time and addressing issues such as wasting paper, etc.

11. How do you measure their improvement in class?
Keep narrative reports with academic and social categories, reporting them to parents. Teachers also communicate daily with parents. Teachers also encourage students by rewarding them for doing good work.

12. How do you keep track of their progress?
Teachers each keep a notebook of anecdotal notes on skills, behavior, etc. They also transcribe many conversations and circle time is transcribed to keep notes.

Interview Questions for/Consolidated Answers from Parents:

1. Have you heard about bullying from your child?
Yes, and parents do not like it. There has to be a way that bullying can be controlled but as we can see from school shootings, etc., probably a majority of these people were bullied themselves. Bullying is done by children who do not care.

2. How do you know how your child is doing in school?
Sometimes use online system to review grades; parents regularly communicate and keep in contact with children's teachers. Parents also sometimes like to ask their children about what is happening in school.

3. What do you think of your child's current school environment?
Believe that group activities help foster social skills and lets their children meet and interact with other students.

4. What actions do you think teachers should and should not take in school?
Teachers should mentor students and watch over them. Sometimes teachers are more interested in students who perform better than those who do not perform as well.

5. What is your child's favorite activity at school?
The children enjoy playing with other children, reading, and other fun activities.