Self-Regulation in Play-Based Kindergarten Contexts: A Document Analysis of Kindergarten Curriculum Frameworks in Canada and China
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Self-regulation is a known early predictor of academic and life success, and its development during kindergarten is crucial (Calkins, 2007; McCain et al., 2011; Montroy et al., 2016; Solomon et al., 2018). Although policy and curriculum documents worldwide now focus on self-regulation, how self-regulation is discussed in kindergarten contexts remains to be explored. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine how self-regulation is operationalized in kindergarten curriculum frameworks in Ontario, Canada and Jiangsu, China through within- and cross-case analyses. This study employed a qualitative document analysis approach. A total of four kindergarten curriculum documents were selected from Ontario, Canada and Jiangsu, China and analyzed using a combination of deductive and inductive approaches. The results of the research question1 indicate that the cognitive, social, emotional, and prosocial domains of self-regulation are meaningfully addressed and discussed in both the Ontario and Jiangsu contexts. The results of research question 2 in terms of learning expectations were that 1) both contexts’ curriculum documents focused on developing emotional regulation, 2) both contexts’ curriculum documents focused on developing social regulation, 3) the Ontario curriculum had a particular focus on developing cognitive regulation, and 4) the Jiangsu curriculum documents had a particular focus on developing behavioral regulation. In terms of pedagogical approaches, three main findings were also identified. First, both contexts’ curriculum documents highlighted the importance of a) setting up appropriate environments, b) guiding, c) encouraging and inspiring, d) using observation and documentation, and e) modeling to support children’s self-regulation. Second, the Ontario curriculum document stressed the importance of teachers encouraging children to make choices. Third, the Jiangsu curriculum documents suggested that teachers should a) design play activities that closely relate to children's daily life and b) establish daily routines. With these findings, Ontario and Jiangsu policymakers can gain insights for further optimizing their respective kindergarten curriculum frameworks. These findings can also help kindergarten teachers in both contexts better operationalize self-regulation and effectively foster self-regulation in play-based learning classrooms. This study builds on the existing self-regulation literature and provides a cross-cultural comparison of kindergarten curriculum frameworks in Canada and China.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.006 | 0.012 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".