5才時を主とする27名からなる組の幼児の教師との相互交渉関係を観察記録することによってその組の成員相互の結合関係を分析してみた結果次のようなことが明かとなった。(1) 男児は教師と密接な相互交渉関係を結ぶ者が多いが, 女児はほとんど交渉を持たない。ただし女児のみの場面では, 男児と同様教師と密接な交渉関係が成立する。(2)一部の男児達が, 教師との交渉の大半を占めており, 他の者の交渉はごくわずかである。そしてそのような勢力を持つ者同士は一つの強力なグループを形成している。(3)前述のグループの各成員は決して各個別々に教師と密接な交渉を持つのではなく, 教師を媒介として交渉のうちに, 各人の間に共通の関心や木低が生れ, 活発な交渉関係が出来上がって行くのである。従って, こうして形成されてくるグループの構成メンバーは, 教師の影響があまりない以前の構成メンバーとは変ってくる。(4)かくて, 一度このような結合関係が出来上がると, 上述のグループの構成メンバーの一部がいなくても, 教師との交渉関係の度合はそのグループ全体としてはほとんど変化しない。たとえ, そのグループの中の最も強力な者を除いても, 必ず, それに取ってかわる者がグループの中から現われる。(5)組の幼児の数を減らしても, 必ずしも教師の交渉範囲に入ってくる人数は増加しないし, 教師の交渉の対象となる幼児もあまり変化しない。

The aim of this study is to make clear the influence of the social interactions between teacher and children of a Kindergarten class upon the social development of the children by recording and analyzing the interactions. The subjects of this study were a teacher and 27 five year old children-15 boys and 12 girls-of a class of the `Hokudai Yojien' (Hokkaido University Kindergarten). Observational studies carried out repeatedly during the period between April and October in 1953 were divided into 2 main stages. The first stage was to record the above-mentioned interactions for the purpose of making clear the degree of the interdependence between the teacher and each child. Those children who had been proved to be in close interdependent relations with the teacher were excluded temporarily from the class, and the second stage observations were carried. The important facts found out by the analysis of the observation records were as follows : (1) The total interactions between the teacher and the boys were much greater in number than those between the teacher and the girls. When all the boys had been excluded from the class, however, the latter interactions increased considerably. (2) Several boys being on friendly terms with one another and forming a strong subgroup in the class, were in specially close interdependent relations with the teacher. Consequently the interactions between the teacher and the other children were very few in number. (3) Some of the boys forming the subgroup had not been in it at the beginning of the new term, while a few boys who had been members ofthe subgroup and whose interactions with the teacher had been very few, did not remain in the subgroup. This means that the influential subgroup stated above was formed by the agency ofthe teacher, that is, through the frequent interactions between the teacher and each member. (4) Even though some members of the subgroup had been excluded from the class, the total number of the interactions between the teacher and the subgroup members did not show any conspicuous change and therefore the interactions of the other members of the class with the teacher did not increase in number. This shows that the interdependent relations between the teacher and the subgroup members as a whole were very close.