Peer Evaluation and Competence Motivation in a Kindergarten Classroom

The article describes a naturalistic study of peer evaluation among children in a kindergarten classroom. Eighty hours of participant observation field notes, formal and informal interview transcripts, and other, unobtrusive data were collected over a six month period. The Spradley Developmental Research Sequence guided data collection and analysis. The findings are a description and analysis of children's evaluative behavior in peer interactions divided into two domains: Ways to Request Evaluation; and Ways to Respond to Evaluation. Children's psychological motivation to feel competent is discussed in relation to peer evaluation. Institutional definitions of competence and their influence on young children's evaluative interactions are explored.