Tactile behaviour of Greek preschool teachers

Abstract

Introduction. The sense of touching is positively related to a number of environmental stimu-li and forms an effective way of non verbal communication. More specifically, it can produce and transmit various personal experiences in the context of what we call 'beneficial touching behaviours', which characterise the ongoing pedagogical process. The investigation of touch-ing behaviour of preschool teachers, namely of their perceptions and their practical applica-tions in the context of preschool classrooms, can generate numerous and pedagogically useful conclusions which elicit the main aspects between perceptions and proceedings as well as the constructive contribution of touching behaviour in the child's developmental communication process. Method. Gathering data by a questionnaire which focused on preschool teacher's perceptions about pedagogical dimensions of touch is the main technique of the present research in paral-lel with classroom observation and video-analysis. Results. The descriptive statistics provide interesting elements in a quantitative level previ-ously about the characteristics of children and preschool teacher's touching behavior and sec-ondly about the reasons of between them interactions. Conclusión. In spite of preschool teacher's strong beliefs that touch improves interpersonal communication skills and contributes to creation of a strong relationship between children and teachers, they unconsciously seem to avoid touch or to be touched by children.