THE ORGANIZATION OF DAY-CARE ENVIRONMENTS: "ZONE" VERSUS "MAN-TO-MAN" STAFF ASSIGNMENTS'
KATHRYN LELAURIN AND TODD R. RISLEY
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
In a large day-care center, measures of group participation were used to compare how
much of a child's time is lost from planned activities during the daily transition from
lunch, through the bathroom and dressing areas, to the nap area. Participation measures
were taken using the "Zone" and "Man-to-Man" staffing procedures, two typical methods
for dividing responsibility among teaching staff. In the "Zone" procedure, each teacher
was assigned responsibility for a particular area, and for all children who passed
through that area. In the "Man-to-Man" procedure, each teacher was assigned responsibility for shepherding a group of designated children through all activity areas during
each transition. The Lunch-to-Nap transition using the Zone staffing assignment was
accomplished with a smaller decrease in child participation in planned activities than the
transition utilizing the Man-to-Man procedure. Thus, other things being equal, it is
recommended that the Zone procedure be used in group-care programs with more than
one staff member, with each teacher being responsible for specific activity areas, rather
than specific children.
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