Introduction

The importance of folk tools in young children’s learning is well documented across cultural communities (Agbenyega et al., 2017; Fang, 2016; Gregory, 2017). Traditional resources and practices are noted to benefit children’s learning in various forms (Lisenbee & Ford, 2018; May, 2019) but there is little, if any, research that has looked at the pedagogical underpinnings of folk tool practice in early childhood education. Drawing on rhymes as an example, the current research was conducted in China, where the national early childhood curriculum claims that traditional folk tools are regularly included in classrooms, a perspective that positions the use of these tools in the midst of growing interest in Western educational philosophies (Qi & Melhuish, 2017; Xu et al., 2015). In this study, rhymes are understood as (1) short poetry with a simple melody; including (2) repetition of similar sounding words; (3) transmitted or adapted from previous generations (Li, 2017). The overall purpose of the research was to explore how rhymes are perceived and implemented in early childhood practice.

Rhymes have a long history in China and many children grow up in the country with broad access to various rhymes in their lives (Pan, 2014). Evidence is also apparent that rhymes are widely included in early childhood classrooms (Fang, 2016; Yu, 2016). However, unlike other tools such as digital technologies or purposefully-designed educational resources, the habitual and informal use of rhymes might overshadow their significance in teaching unless their pedagogical value is discerned by early childhood professionals. This research sought to address the following questions:

  • What are the beliefs of Chinese early childhood teachers that underpin their practice with rhymes?

  • In what ways are rhymes implemented in teaching pedagogy?

  • What are the challenges for teachers in their use of rhymes?

Rhymes as a pedagogical tool

Tools in teaching pedagogy

Vygotsky’s (1978) early writing defined two types of tools: externally oriented and internally oriented. Externally oriented tools were understood to facilitate practice while the internally oriented tools were to support thinking. This definition was further developed into physical and symbolic tools (Lantolf, 2004). Language, concepts, signs, music, arts are considered as symbolic tools.

Vygotsky argued that human learning is a sociocultural process affected by tools. Tools are “artificial means with a mediating function” (1978, p. 54). The mediational dimensions of tools in human learning are crucial components of their capacity to eventually “alter the entire flow and structure of mental functions, and thereby to develop “the structure of a new instrumental act” (Vygotsky, 1981, p. 137). Wertsch (2007) clarified at a later time that “instead of acting in a direct, unmediated ways in the social and physical world, our contact with the world is indirect or mediated by tools” (p. 178). Veraksa and Veraksa (2018) contended that the key to the use of a tool to develop mental functioning is to make it a habitual construct in a repetitive to-and-fro movement in goal-oriented social interactions. Viewed from this perspective, tool practice is seen as a purposeful process. According to Veraksa and Veraksa (2018), human activities are organised and facilitated through culturally constructed tools in ways that the consequences of tools are gradually consequential to the learners.

The concept of mediation was a useful starting point for our understanding of pedagogical tools. The current research employed this concept to identify how Chinese early childhood teachers understand the pedagogical underpinnings of rhymes and use them in practice. Vygotsky’s perspective that sees tool as an organised and purposeful construct aligns well with the aim of this research to explore the use of rhymes as a pedagogical tool that is underpinned by teachers’ beliefs. While the term pedagogical tool is not consistently defined, there is a consensus amongst researchers within this field that the use of the tools in teaching is tied to the purpose of education and expectations and needs of the teachers and learners (Colliver & Veraksa, 2019; Kröger & Nupponen, 2019). This view was expressed by Roman and Racek (2019) as an alignment between culture, context, pedagogical beliefs and pedagogical tools.

By taking the view that rhymes are a pedagogical tool, we perceive them as have a mediational role in teaching. However, it is recognized that “pedagogy is a contested and dynamic space, defined and experienced in different ways” (Murray, 2015, p. 1719), so the use of rhymes could mediate teaching in various ways. In early childhood education, this is particularly so because the idea of reconciling spontaneous moments and outcome-based learning has commonly underpinned pedagogical practices (Nxumalo et al., 2018).

The use of rhymes in early childhood pedagogy: the Anglophone context

While there has not been a consensus of what constitutes rhymes perhaps because they are culturally situated and interpreted, rhymes have been widely used among children and adults for centuries in many, if not all communities and regarded as one of the most important tools in popular culture (Marsh & Millard, 2000). In Anglophone countries, nursery rhyme literature emerged in the beginning of the eighteenth century, initially for “adult delectation” (Opie, 2004, p. 276). A large number of works composed for children date to the late eighteenth century in the form of songs, poetry, and childlore written mainly by adults for children (Arleo, 2004).

In general, discussions of rhymes in teaching and learning have been dedicated to specific areas, in particular, music and language. According to May (2019) the characteristics of rhymes, such as beat, rhythm and melody substantially contribute to children’s musical experience. Furthermore, the poetic texts of rhymes function in ways that through the repetition of similar sounding words and common texts, children’s playfulness with language is created and their imagination, concentration and a shared sense of identity and community are facilitated (Arleo, 2004). As a familiar and fun tool, rhymes that include multi-forms of literacy have also constituted the curriculum content in contemporary early childhood classrooms (Marsh, 2012; Parlakian & Lerner, 2010). Parlakian and Lerner (2010) discussed how they used ‘the wheels on the bus’ and ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ with infants and toddlers and they found that these simple rhymes showed children how words and phrases were put together and they were early building blocks for literacy. Kenny (2005) noted nursery rhymes as a very important resource in children’s learning and development, stating that “these bouncy, often nonsensical rhymes stimulate the social, emotional, physical, intellectual and musical development of children in ways we may not realize” (p. 28).

Several other authors have suggested the ways in which rhymes could be made a general teaching method. As far back as 1927, Preston wrote in a report entitled “the kindly rhyme as a teaching method” that the most important thing about the use of rhymes in teaching was to develop learners’ added interests in what was being taught. This idea was presented again at a much later time in Marsh’s (2012) study, where it was reported that children played a very rich variety of rhymes in their playground activities. Children used rhymes to extend their play. Nursery rhymes have been found to reflect “the day-to-day creative intelligence and activities of children” (Opie & Opie, 1959, p. 2). Shelby et al. (2018) explained that learners’ natural play and their interests in socialisation are of great importance regarding the use of rhymes in learning.

Given that forms and functions of rhymes are both persistent and ever-changing, recent research has paid attention to the growing influence of information technology on children’s use of rhymes (Arleo, 2004; Marsh, 2012). In Marsh’s research, media sources such as video and computer games were identified as facilitators of children’s rhyme activities. According to Opie (2004), like many other traditional tools, rhyme practice is subject to change, due to the exposure to modern resources.

The use of rhymes in early childhood pedagogy: the Chinese context

Rhyme activities in early childhood education have persisted for well over a century in Chinese society. Rhymes are commonly understood as a form of poem characterised by the chanting of words with similar sounds. Created for communication and emotional expression, they are passed on from generation to generation and are continuously refined in daily practice (Li, 2017; Pan, 2014). As early as 1903, rhymes, nursery rhymes in particular, were formally incorporated in the classroom environments when the public early childhood service was initially established (Pan, 2014). It was also the first time that Western educational ideas were introduced to China. Within this context, reforms took place to modify the traditionally rigid and dull style of teaching. Five-word rhymes were included in children’s education in order to make learning playful (Li, 2017). In 1932, when the Chinese Ministry of Education published Early Childhood Curriculum Standards (幼稚园课程标准), rhymes were included into the curriculum to strengthen children’s physical and emotional health and develop happy and moral Chinese citizens (Yu, 2016). Until recent decades, very little change has happened in early childhood education. This shifted in the second half of the twentieth century due to a series of social and cultural changes, especially the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 (Li & Chen, 2017).

Revisiting Heqin Chen’s five-finger activity (五指活动) in the 1990s was seen as particularly significant in re-claiming an important role in teaching for rhymes (Shi, 2014). Heqin Chen was a famous educator in China in the 1920s. He used the metaphor of five fingers to talk about ways in which real-life activities, such as stories, music and rhymes could connect different curriculum areas thereby facilitating children’s holistic learning. In recent years, this idea regained attention and was adopted in children’s rhyme practice to encourage the use of rhymes with other learning activities. However, despite the goal to support integrated learning, the role of rhymes in these activities was still towards the development of children’s music and language (Shi, 2014). According to Shi, rhyme are music and language by nature and should be used in these areas.

It is important to note that while rhyme is a prominent feature in Chinese early childhood classrooms and the merits of these familiar tools are widely noted in regulating children’s behaviours, teaching music or language and supporting physical exercises, rhyme practice has not been given much attention in teaching pedagogy (Li, 2017; Pan, 2021). For many years, teacher directed pedagogy was the predominant approach in Chinese early childhood education, and children’s learning in kindergartens strikingly resembled their counterparts in schools (Qi & Melhuish, 2017). The situation has changed in the last three decades, as a consequence of policy reforms in teaching innovation, creativity, and child-focussed pedagogy, inspired by Western educational philosophies. However, in seeking to moderate learning from the West and prevent the loss of Chinese traditions, the government promoted opportunities for folk activities in teaching to support children’s wellbeing, cultural knowledge, and their sense of Chinese identity (Chinese Ministry of Education, 2012). Following this, folk practice is growing in popularity nationwide (Li, 2017; Pan, 2021), but challenges and problems have been anticipated (Li & Chen, 2017; Qi & Melhuish, 2017).

It is recognised that in the midst of teachers’ shift to a child-centred pedagogy, the inclusion of folk tools could add a significant layer of complexity to existing challenges. It is also recognised that pedagogical practices are rooted in teachers’ own beliefs and conventional behaviours so despite the good intentions of policy documents that encourage teacher innovation and creativity some teachers might not feel prepared for, or comfortable to make the change (Li & Chen, 2017). Therefore, while the enactment of rhymes is not new, nor is it restricted only to history, little is known about whether teachers’ use of rhymes has remained the same in their pursuit of a child-centred pedagogy or in what ways it may differ from previous times.

These questions provided the impetus for the ideas underpinning the current study. Pedagogy is a complex construct that draws on educational aspiration, teachers’ beliefs and learning contexts. Given the Western influence on Chinese early childhood education, a key question is how far pedagogy has been influenced by Western philosophy that emphasises children’s interests and spontaneous teachable moments. A consideration of rhyme as a pedagogical tool in Chinese early childhood education therefore offers potential to understand teachers’ pedagogical choices within the early childhood environment in which rhyme practice is embedded and to explore teachers’ negotiation between policy requirements and their beliefs that underpin the practice.

The current research

The empirical data presented here derive from qualitative case studies conducted with 10 early childhood teachers in two provincial demonstration kindergartens in the Northeast of China. As the purpose of the research was to describe and analyse the rich nature of rhyme practices in the kindergartens, it was important to employ a design that would allow the researchers to become familiar with the teachers’ beliefs and their rhyme practices. The case study approach adopted in this research enabled us to explore these questions within real life contexts (Yin, 2002).

Both kindergartens served children from three to seven years of age. Based on their official profiles and in consultation with local early childhood experts, these two demonstration kindergartens, which were highly rated on teaching and curriculum, were included in the study. While it is acknowledged that the inclusion of participants from a wider range of settings would have provided the research with greater nuance, for example in terms of the differences in the use of pedagogical tools, it was expected that the teachers in these settings were more likely to provide useful insights into the study, given the government directive on this and their roles within the demonstration kindergartens. Ethical consent was obtained for the project in both researchers’ affiliated institutions.

Participants were all female teachers and aged from 32 to 48. They were lead teachers in the 4–5 year old classes, with an early childhood degree and over ten years of working experience. Pseudonyms have been provided to maintain their anonymity. The teachers will be referred to as Hong, Han, Su, Zhu, Wei, Liang, Xiao, Mei, Meng and Dong.

Data for this study came from two sources: one individual semi-structured interview with each teacher, followed by observations of teaching practice in one kindergarten classroom. Throughout the process, researchers kept reflective journals to record their responses and interpretations. The journals were not used as data but as supporting documents for data analysis.

The interviews took place in the respective kindergartens and the duration ranged from 50 to 65 min. Each interview began by the teacher telling a story about her rhyme practice. This was followed by questions that asked them to explain this practice, how they understood rhymes, how often they incorporated rhyme activities into their teaching, what they saw as the values and challenges of using rhymes, and whether and how they planned curriculum that incorporated the use of rhymes. The interviews were dialogue-based. We encouraged the teachers to give details and elaborate on their points using examples and explanations. They were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and returned to the participants for verification.

Classroom observations were conducted in one participating teacher’s class to explore rhyme practice in context. The class was chosen due to teacher Hong’s willingness to be observed. While it would have been ideal to have observed in all the teachers’ classes, the idea was to gain insight into how rhymes were used in teaching but not to compare teaching practices. The children, two other teachers in teacher Hong’s class and children’s parents also gave their consent to be peripherally observed on condition that their identities were not included in any publications. Five visits were made to the classroom, each visit lasting for a whole day. Twenty-two children, two teachers and one teacher assistant were available during the visits. Researcher One and a trained research assistant conducted the observations. They did not participate in the lessons at all but instead photographed and wrote field notes. In total, 368 min of teaching practices were recorded and transcribed by the researchers and the research assistant.

Data analysis

Thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the data. For each set of data, specific steps were taken as follows.

Interview data

The first step involved the transcription of all the recordings into Chinese and this was followed by the two researchers independently reviewing transcripts to identify important information in the teachers’ accounts. We were trying to make sense of what the teachers said in relation to the research questions. In the words of Hadley, this was “the way of seeing” (2012, p. 40). This step was followed by selecting significant portions of each transcript and developing initial codes. These codes were further reviewed in the search for passages that were related and in this way they were clustered into categories. Categories were subsequently grouped based on recurring patterns.

Observation data

Upon completion of a class visit, field notes and photos were reviewed and a log of the content was made on a computer. The log included a brief summary of the observed rhyme practices and researchers’ reflections on the visit. The log served as a starting point for the subsequent analysis of the observations.

The overall aim of this analysis was to identify predominant patterns of rhymes included in teaching and how teachers used them. Drawing on the literature, researchers’ reflections and teachers’ interview replies, a content-driven analysis of the observational data was undertaken in which relevant evidence and examples were broken down to specific practices of analysis that included (1) introducing a topic, (2) teaching music, (3) teaching language, (4) managing behaviours, (5) seeking attention, (6) following children’s interest, (7) others. After the practices were identified, they were categorised based on the contexts in which they occurred.

Selected data were then analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Frequencies and percentages of the rhyme practices were calculated against the total observation time as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Calculation of rhyme practices
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Qualitatively, field notes and photos were analysed for each rhyme practice as guided by the following plan (Table 2). Data were organised into full events in order to “understand an underlying process, that is, a sequence of events or constructs and how they relate” (Suter, 2012, p. 344).

Table 2 Qualitative analysis of rhyme practices
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During the process of data analysis, the two researchers worked independently for each step but met regularly and negotiated the differences until agreement was reached. The final step of the analysis involved a collaboration between the two sets of data. Categories identified from the field data were matched with those in the interviews for the development of final themes.

Findings

Findings reflected the understandings and practices of the teachers with a focus on the three research questions: defining rhymes; rhymes in teaching and associated issues and problems.

Meanings and features of rhymes

There was a shared understanding among the teachers that rhymes were folk tools that were passed on from previous generations. Many teachers also said that “there are modern rhymes too”. For most of them, rhymes were ‘music’ or ‘language’. The central theme emerging from their accounts was that rhymes were bouncy and musical but there were also languages involved, so “it is hard to say what they are” (Zhu). For instance, Dong stated “rhymes are available for everyone, young and old, and there is not a way to tell what they are”.

Teacher Hong suggested that “rhymes are a kind of immediate tool that you can grab at any time anywhere. They are natural and easy to use which do not need much thinking and preparation”. During the analysis, we found that it was representative of teachers’ definition of rhymes within all the data.

Rhymes as a multifunctioning teaching tool

Teachers were clearly appreciative of the usefulness of rhymes and regarded them as being a multifunctioning teaching tool. “They can do many things” came out as a unanimous response to the question of “what can rhymes do in teaching?” The point that rhymes were a ready-to-use tool was repeatedly evident, as espoused in statement: “we all know rhymes and they are just there and ready to use”. Observational data confirmed the frequent use of rhymes in the participating classroom. Table 3 presents the number and mean percentage of each rhyme-related teaching activity for the total time of rhyme practices being observed (n = 122).

Table 3 Number and mean percentage of rhyme practices during the observations
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Children’s interest was a remarkable aspect of the teachers’ discourse. During the interviews, they all acknowledged children’s interest as having a fundamental influence on their use of rhymes. The teachers highlighted the importance of following children’s interests and talked about the value of rhymes to attract children, which for them made rhymes a very effective teaching tool. This is consistent with the observational data in Hong’s class. A shown in Table 3, 49% rhyme practices were categorised as ‘following children’s interests’.

Second, the study has also revealed significant occurrences of teachers’ talks about the use of rhymes to manage children’s behaviours, having observed the following example:

When standing in line, teacher Hong started to say the rhymes about standing in order: “standing tall and straight…”. Some children followed. There was a noticeable adjustment of behaviours. Most children tried to stand tall and straight. When seeing a few children who did not follow, the teacher said another rhyme of “little cat goes to school”, one about the importance of listening to teachers. All children looked attentive and they followed.

In their interviews, the teachers provided us a list of the rhymes they used in behaviour management. In both kindergartens, these included, for example, ‘arriving in school’, ‘returning toys’, or ‘listening’. Hong spoke to us about the rhymes of ‘listening’: ‘他人讲，细倾听，不打断，表尊重，小眼睛，看表情，知他意，做 回应’. In English, this means, listen carefully, do not interrupt, show respect, eye contact, and respond when understood. According to Hong, “I use this rhyme whenever a child does not seem to be listening and it always works”.

Third, for all the teachers, rhymes were used for music. While there was the point that “rhyme is just music and this is unplanned” (Xiao), many teachers gave examples of ‘singing rhymes’, or ‘adding beats to rhymes’, saying that they purposefully incorporated rhymes in their music classes, as seen in the following statement, “We purposefully used rhymes in our music classes which also included some musical instruments, such as keyboard, bells or drums” (Meng).

Many musical activities were also observed in Hong’s class. Through rhymes, children and teachers performed finger plays, concert shows and movements. For the teachers in this class, rhyme planning was synonymous with other types of planning, in that teachers worked out the values of rhymes and used them for children’s learning goals. Figure 1 is an illustration of a little concert. Rhymes, songs, musical instruments and movements were integrated in the show.

Fig. 1
figure 1

A little concert

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Fourth, in all the classes, subject knowledge, such as science and language was taught on a daily basis. Rhymes were described to be useful for the introduction of some concepts in these formal lessons. Dong stated:

…rhymes relate to language. Nursery rhymes, prose and tongue twisters are all about language. We use them in language classes. The level of words or length of rhymes are considered for children in different ages. But the main aim to use rhymes is to develop children’s verbal language. In addition, rhymes can describe anything, such as animals, traffic, fruit, or vegetables so they can be used to introduce main concepts or a lesson topic in some subjects, such as art or science. Rhymes are so handy and easy so they are useful to set the scene for a lesson.

Having fun was mentioned in the interviews and we observed some excerpts that illustrated the use of rhymes for fun, to have a joke for example.

In addition, Zhu and Su talked about how rhymes could facilitate a child-centred practice, for example to support children’s creativity by “changing words from a familiar one”, “adding music” or “making new rhymes”. Related evidence, however, was not gathered in the participating class.

Associated issues and problems

Need for professional development

Teachers’ professional development on the use of rhymes was an issue identified in this study. The majority of participants (80%) felt that they were not professionally equipped for rhyme practices. “We rely on our common sense when using rhymes in teaching” (Wei). This point was particularly evident in the discussions over the nature of rhymes as “an easy to use tool”. Su, for instance, explained that further studies on the pedagogical value of rhymes were important for using rhymes more effectively:

I know how to use rhymes because they are easy, but when thinking critically, I realise, that we rely on our experiences and use rhymes spontaneously and unintentionally, mainly as a way to keep things in order. At university and now at work, we never learned anything about rhyme. Thus, we know little about their underlying values for teaching. The lack of professional knowledge leads to our superficial use of rhymes.

Echoing the point from Su, seven other teachers also said that they had limited professional preparation to realise the potential of rhymes in teaching and it would be good if professional opportunities were available for them. Zhu talked about a training of finger exercises but “this is just related to music and movement”.

Interestingly, two teachers were more accepting of the current practice and for them, there was no need for professional development. Han said, “professional development focusses on difficult things, such as children’s behaviours, assessment and the five learning areas. Rhymes are just so easy and they do not warrant professional training”.

Lack of rhymes available for teaching

In addition to their professional development with rhymes, which many teachers saw as an issue, there was consistent evidence of the difficulty of sourcing useful rhymes for teaching. When asked where they found rhymes, most teachers said, “I use what I know”. Liang captured some of the difficulties:

I use Baidu/百度. Quite a few could be found but most of them are made for little children, for entertainment or to tell basic life rules. There are very few rhymes that we can use in teaching. I cannot find suitable rhymes for science, for example.

There was a broad consensus among the teachers that most rhymes they found were not related to teaching, so for them, teaching in the subject areas, rhymes were included loosely and superficially in their classrooms, unless they had time to make their own. Su raised a question: “even if rhymes are useful, how can we include them if there is no such a place that collects rhymes as educational resources?” Dong added the point of heavy workload and stated they struggled to cope with the expectations and requirements in the context of ongoing educational reforms: “we just do not have the time to create our own rhymes”.

Discussion

The current study shows that the teachers were able to articulate rhyme practice and rhymes were frequently utilised in classes. From all the participants came the idea that rhymes are useful and multifunctioning. Despite some variation in how they thought about and used rhymes, teachers shared many understandings of, and an appreciation for rhymes in their practices. This seems to be due to three reasons: the longstanding rhyme practice in Chinese early childhood education; teachers’ own experiences and their familiarity with rhymes; and rhymes as an easy-to-use tool.

Rhymes, as a folk tool, are bound by certain assumptions and practices, which are passed on from generation to generation. Yang and Li (2018) described current teaching pedagogies in some Chinese kindergartens which they saw as being profoundly influenced by long-held beliefs and practices. It is possible to infer that, in this study, teachers’ beliefs that underpinned their rhyme practices were grounded in some traditions. In general, the teachers all relied on rhymes to capture children’s interests, regulate children’s behaviours, teach language or music, or introduce subject topics. Some of these practices have been implemented in Chinese early childhood classrooms for over a century (Pan, 2021; Yu, 2016).

The fact that child-focussed teaching and the importance of children’s interests have been heard for years against a teacher-directed pedagogy has urged for a close attention of Chinese early childhood teachers to children’s needs and interests (Li et al., 2011). This is clearly reflected in the current study. All participants discussed the effectiveness of rhymes in capturing children’s interests. Of the 122 categories identified (Table 3), following children’s interests was 49, being the highest number of all. Rhyme pedagogies have thus brought together traditional and contemporary approaches and reflected the intent of the Chinese government to reconcile traditional teaching with the progressive idea of child-focussed curriculum (Li & Chen, 2017).

The notion that tool application is an organised activity in a cultural process (Veraska & Veraska, 2018) indicates the importance of planning. In this study, while many rhyme experiences appeared ‘unplanned’ and ‘loose’ because they did not go through a formal process of planning, it was evident that the teachers did think about why they used rhymes. At first sight, teachers implemented rhymes in a random way, but as in many of their accounts and through the classroom observations, rhyme practices in their classrooms were richer than how they perceived them. Apart from attracting children’s interests, managing classroom behaviours, and providing music and language experiences, some teachers used rhymes to develop children’s creativity. It is also the case that the teachers explained that they sourced useful rhymes for teaching. It is possible to infer that the teachers did not see the use of rhymes as requiring careful consideration, but merely that their habitual practice with rhymes was so handy that it could ensure an easy accomplishment of a learning purpose. When conceptualising teachers’ practices through a mediational lens and when applying the idea of spontaneous teachable moments (Chesworth, 2019), it is even more evident that the teachers recognised the pedagogical values of rhymes and used them to construct teaching and children’s learning intentionally or spontaneously. Even so, it is suggested that a tool such as rhymes that the teachers all used and found helpful could be made more effective if greater attention is paid to the pedagogical thinking that underpins rhyme practices.

The question regarding the issues of rhyme pedagogies provided an important empirical backdrop to a more focussed understanding about teachers’ practice. Despite few teachers who could not see any problems in their rhyme application, which is understandable, due to the fact that it is inevitable for some teachers to be conservative and want to maintain their current practice (Li & Chen, 2017), most participants in the present study realised the issues of their rhyme experiences. Consistent with many other studies, a lack of professional development was regarded to be an important reason for their current rhyme practices (Loughran, 2014). When professional support was not in place for them to learn about rhymes as a pedagogical tool, it is understandable that teachers used rhymes only in ways that they were comfortable with.

Another significant finding that emerged in the study was a lack of suitable rhymes that the teachers could access. Teachers could not find what they needed so they relied on their own knowledge base. A lack of teaching resources is a weakness of effective teaching in early childhood pedagogies (Hu, 2013; Loughran, 2014; Li & Chen, 2017). This issue is borne out in the current research.

Whereas Chinese early childhood policies have given an important role to folk practices in children’s learning, the findings from this study pinpointed the absence of professional support to teaching practice as an essentially missing element hindering the effective implementation of related policies. Rhymes were perceived as a valuable tool as well as an easy and loose tool by the teachers in this study and this might be the opinion of many other early childhood professionals in China and other countries. Unless policies provide clear guidelines and support teachers with conceptual and practical resources, serious attention might not be given to rhymes as a pedagogical tool.

Conclusion

The study has limitations due to a small number of participants, a fairly homogenous sampling, and the classroom observations in only one class. While it may be helpful to give examples and comparisons of the rhymes used by different participants to aid understanding of the range of types and forms of rhymes in use, we identified some general findings which could inform the existing literature on rhyme practices in early childhood education.

A belief that the teachers hold is that rhymes could do many things and teaching with rhymes is an easy practice. Part of the answer to this finding lies in the fact that rhymes are a familiar cultural tool, which makes their use habitual. Another part of the answer comes from the teachers’ adoption of teachable moments in their everyday teaching. A lack of professional support also contributes to the finding. Practically the research suggests that if the teachers are more conversant with the pedagogical thinking that underpins their rhyme practice, a tool such as rhymes would be made more effective. Our findings raise the potentially important and intriguing possibility that rhymes are multifunctional pedagogical tools but the limits of effective teaching practice are imposed by teachers’ habitual beliefs which have precluded them from being attentive to the pedagogical values of rhyme practice. Theoretically, the research illustrates a way in which commonly used pedagogical tools, such as rhymes, could be placed in a sociocultural conception of mediation, and in so doing contribute to the existing knowledge about how they could better support children’s learning. We would therefore suggest that future research is conducted to provide a grounding in the mediational aspect of rhymes, and expand teachers’ repertoire of understanding beyond their conventional wisdom and habitual experience.