What Matters?

Abstract

This chapter uses a case study to explore Chinese primary school teachers' perspectives on students' overall performance in their transition to primary school and what has been and can be done to make the transition experience better for all children. Open-ended questionnaires, documents, and interviews are the major data sources triangulated by observations, photos of the school environment, and displays of activities. Both quantitative and qualitative content analysis are utilized to analyze the collected data. Findings indicate that children's emotional, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and behavioral as well as preschool academic skills matter in transition. Learning habits and self-care abilities are especially identified as what most children lack and the important aspects they need to be equipped with. Besides individual skills, involvement and collaboration of the significant institutions, namely kindergartens, families, and their primary schools, are of great importance. While identifying good practices, the responding teachers also offer suggestions for improvement.