Browsing by Subject "early childhood education"

The purpose of my research was to find out Riihimäkis municipal nurserys kindergarten teacher experience of their mental well-being. My research questions are: What affect about nurserys kindergarten teachers mental well-being? Where did kindergarten teachers get their strength mental wellbeing? What things kindergarten teachers experience challenging or hard for mental well-being now and future? While watching the media and after listening to working in the field, I notice a lot of discussion about kindergarten teachers mental well-being. Because of this I was interested on the subject. I wanted to research what are typical problem areas about kindergarten teachers mental well-being, in other words what things affects mental well-being, give strength or make working hard, and what can be done for things. My research was done by oriented theory, and using a semi-structured questionnaire, which participated 25 kindergarten teachers. My reseach was qualitative and my approaches was phenomenographic. The results showed that mental well-being in job encourage positive atmosphere, ac-ceptance of diversity and appreciation of another work. People hoped open discussion be-cause speechlessness and failure to handle matters affects interaction problems and nega-tive atmosphere. Teachers think that good atmosphere, working interrelationships and struc-tural factors affects mental well-being at job. Good atmosphere is supportive and relaxed. There should be suitably humor. Structural factors are exemple working shift and clear divi-sion of labor. There should be time for interaction, in work community, with childrens parent and with children. Noise and hurry is things that affects hard time. These affects stress and feeling of inadequacy. Teachers told that there is too much work out of group, and that dis-turps working time with group. It is very difficult to carry out high quality early childhood edu-cation in hurry. They try to control stressing situations that they take care of themselves like identify their own resources and being gracious themselves. They try to handle things in main thing first and they try to anticipate and organize again at need. Successful experience, others support, positive feedback, childrens joy and when they see childrens development, gives power and meaning for job.

The purpose of this Bachelor’s Thesis was to examine how distributed pedagogical leadership showed in the interviews of daycare center leaders. In this Thesis, the subject is examined, analyzed and interpreted in the framework of Fonsén’s (2014) broad phenomenon concentrating on the following dimensions: context, organizational culture and management of substance. The governance and legislation of early childhood education has been under amendment procedures during the past years and the process is ongoing. Research has shown that the base for high-quality early childhood education is formed by high-quality pedagogical leadership. The standpoint of distributed pedagogical leadership looks deeper on pedagogical leadership and transfers to examine it on an interactional level. From this point of view, leadership can be seen as a shared responsibility, for which everyone is responsible for basic mission on their positions expanse. This study is a part of an international leadership research ”Discourse of leadership in diverse field of early childhood education” lead by Elina Fonsén. For this thesis I interviewed four daycare center leaders from Helsinki. The method of the interview was a focus group and my role was to be a facilitator in the situation. This research was analyzed with a qualitative content analysis. The study was reported as a dialog with theoretical frame, empirical material and researcher of this study. The results of the study showed that in the leaders’ discourses it is possible to construe features of “pre” distributed pedagogical leadership. For example, this was visible from the discourses when leaders were speaking about kindergarten teacher’s pedagogical leadership being responsible of pedagogy in the group. On the other hand, leaders also simultaneously evaluated the quality the kindergarten teacher’s pedagogy. The results of the study also show that the focus of leadership in early childhood education is shifting from individual management towards distributed leadership. When basic mission was developed only by the leaders in the past, nowadays the whole staff is involved in developing the basic mission.

Tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää, miksi lasten fyysinen aktiivisuus on tärkeää varhaiskasvatuksessa ja mitkä menetelmät lisäävät sitä. Fyysisen aktiivisuuden lisääminen on ensiarvoisen tärkeää varhaiskasvatuksessa. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa on pohdittu fyysisen aktiivisuuden, sekä hyvinvoinnin ja terveyden merkityksellistä yhteyttä. Aiempien tutkimusten mukaan hyvinvointi kulkee vahvasti käsi kädessä liikkumisen kanssa. Varhaiskasvatuksessa lasten ulkoilulla on ollut suuri merkitys sekä lasten fyysiseen aktiivisuuteen että liikkumiseen. Tutkimuksen aineistona on kuusi tieteellistä artikkelia ja se on toteutettu narratiivisena kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Aineiston artikkelit käsittelevät lasten liikuntaa ja fyysistä aktiivisuutta ja sen tärkeyttä sekä menetelmiä, jotka lisäävät fyysistä aktiivisuutta varhaiskasvatuksessa. Jokainen tutkimuksen artikkeli on esitelty erikseen myöhemmin kirjallisuuskatsauksessa. Tutkimuksen tulokset näkyivät fyysisen aktiivisuuden lisäämisen tärkeydessä muun muassa sekä karkea motoristen että hienomotoristen taitojen kehittymisen vuoksi. Fyysisen aktiivisuuden avulla pystyttiin myös vaikuttamaan lasten oppimiseroihin. Lasten kokonaisvaltainen hyvinvointi oli kytköksissä fyysiseen aktiivisuuteen. Lasten kokonaisvaltaiseen hyvinvointiin kuuluu sosiaalinen, psyykkinen ja fyysinen kehitys. Nämä kaikki kolme kehityksen osa-aluetta vaikuttavat sekä lapsen hyvinvointiin että liikkumiseen. Tutkielmani aineiston artikkeleissa toistuivat samat elementit fyysisen aktiivisuuden lisääjinä, kuten ulkoilu ja ympäristötekijät. Ympäristötekijöihin kuuluvat muun muassa päiväkodin henkilökunta ja tilat, sekä päiväkotien resurssit ylipäänsä. Oppimisympäristöllä oli merkittävä vaikutus fyysisen aktiivisuuden lisäämisessä. Erilaiset lelut ja leikit lisäsivät fyysistä aktiivisuutta. Tutkimuksissa osoitettiin myös, että aikuisen tuki voi olla tärkeää lapsen fyysisen aktiivisuuden lisäämisessä.

The main idea of this study was to find out how immigrants understand and define successful co-operation and professional partnership in early childhood education. Another target of this research was to think over how the parents see professional partnership from their viewpoint, and how willing / ready the they are in engaging in the professional partnership with the day care personnel. The theoretical part of this research is based on theories of immigration and theories of it's different forms, theories of cultural varieties and theory of modernizing co-operation through using professional partnership. Also guidelines and policies for day care and early childhood education play a part in the theory section. Theory part is written to support research problems. The research method used in this study is peer interview. The interviewed are both immigrants and customers of day care services. The data collected is comprised of materials from peer interviews and personal background information. The interviewed were of Somalia and Russian ethnic groups. Interview were carried out in each group in the participants own mother tongue. These peer interviews showed that parents were interested and willing to discuss professional partnership. From this research one can conclude that the term professional partnership is seen as a complex term, and as a term difficult to understand. From the results it is seen that quite often the principles of professional partnership are not carried out in practise. According to the material gathered, the parents feel that lack of common language and prejudice against immigrants effectively prevents the professional partnership from being formed. The cultural differences can become challenging in a professional partnership. Based on this research, one can conclude that when different cultures meet, there has to be mutual will to understand and to be understood in order to make sure that the children's development, both educational and physical, is supported in a best possible way.

In recent years, language awareness (LA) has gained prominence as a fundamental concept in education, often intertwined with the complexities of multilingualism in contemporary educational settings. This research presents a systematic literature review aimed at investigating the concept of LA within the context of early foreign language learning. Drawing upon the theoretical framework proposed by James and Garrett (1995), encompassing the performance, cognitive, social, affective, and power domains, the study seeks to assess the current state of LA research within the context of foreign language learning in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Employing a deductive content analysis approach as a structured framework, this research focuses on two primary objectives. Firstly, it conducts an in-depth exploration of the scope and depth of LA research within early foreign language learning. Secondly, it comprehensively explores the pedagogical strategies employed to foster LA in ECEC. The analysis relied on a corpus of seven relevant articles obtained from searches in ERIC and JECER databases. The study's findings reveal the prevalence of affective and social LA domains in ECEC settings, with a strong association to the beliefs and attitudes of ECEC teachers concerning linguistic diversity. Furthermore, the results shed light on the potential for teachers to develop LA pedagogies that cultivate dynamic multilingual learning environments. This potential is intrinsically tied to the pivotal role of fostering collaboration between home and ECEC, acting as a catalyst for the promotion of multilingualism within ECEC settings.

The purpose of this research is to find out how children’s participation comes about in local pre-school curriculums. Secondly I want to find out how educators’ role to support children’s participation comes about in the local pre-school curriculums. Children’s participation is important from several points of views – from individual to the whole community’s viewpoint. This is why it’s important to make children’s participation visual also in pre-school, so that children can grow and be supported to become influencing adults. The new local pre-school curriculums and the rising culture of participation makes children’s participation a topical and interesting phenomena to research about. As research material were seven local pre-school curriculums from large Finnish cities. All of these curriculums are based on National Pre-school Curriculum (2014). Material was ana-lized with theoretical content analysis and quantification. Results show that it is clear that in pre-school children’s participation is an important empha-sis. From the material there was found plenty of mentions about children’s participation and the role of an educator to it. Children’s participation was emphasized in the execution of ac-tivity. However, these mentions were really general, and the more specific forms and ways concerning children’s participation were left to be planned by the units where pre-school is organized. When the different roles of educator’s and the phases and qualities of participation are made visible enable its use in daily activities. This supports the progress of the participation’s cul-ture. As a follow-up research it would be worthwhile to research children’s participation through observing.

The aim of the study was to investigate the ways in which teachers of early childhood education use nature as a learning environment to support children's development and how children are able to form a relationship with nature. The objective was to investigate teachers' pedagogical methods in using nature as a learning environment and other factors affecting a child's development in this context. In addition, the aim of the study was to determine the impact of the use of nature as a learning environment on the formation of children’s relationship with nature. The theory section focuses on concepts related to the study and the studied effects of nature as a learning environment on child development. The theory section also discusses the pedagogical possibilities of using nature as a learning environment in the context of early childhood education. In addition, the theory section highlights the factors that enable or prevent the development of a child's relationship with nature, and the effects of this relationship on a child’s development. The research questions are: 1. How do teachers use nature as a learning environment to support child development? 2. What have teachers discovered about the impact of using nature as a learning environment on the formation of children’s relationship with nature? The research method was qualitative and the material was gathered using semi-structured interviews. The material was gathered by interviewing three early childhood education teachers working in Helsinki in the municipal sector. The interviews were conducted individually. The analysis of the material was carried out using a theoretical content analysis method. The basis for classification was a theory-based analysis frame with its upper and lower classes. The study found that teachers use nature as a learning environment in diverse ways to support children’s development. Pedagogical activities in nature focus mainly on mathematics, physical activity, mother tongue and literature and environmental education. The teachers agreed that the use of nature as a learning environment benefits children in many ways. Particular benefits were observed in children’s motor skills and socio-emotional development. Children who previously had a weak connection with nature were able to form a stronger relationship with nature. It can be concluded from the research results that the use of nature as a learning environment in the context of early childhood education contributes to the development of children in many ways. Also, it can be said that the time spent in nature contributes to the relationship that the child forms with nature.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to study multiculturalism in Finnish children´s literature. The study concentrates specially to observe if there are other ethnic- and cultural backgrounds appearing expect what could be perceived as Finnish and how they are represented. The subject for the research surfaced from the information that there is significant amount of people with multiculturalism background in Finland. Through the study was the find if the finish children books reflect the current realities of the population. In the theory section I defined multiculturalism as a term and introduced history of children’s literature and children’s picture books as a device in education of children. The research was carried out by choosing the most popular children’s picture books sold in 2017-2018. The books were chosen if they were written originally in finnish. The reason for this was that the picture books had to portray Finland´s perspective of multiculturalism. The research method used was qualitative. The research was carried out using theory-driven content analysis. The content analysis enabled the analyzing and classification of the data. Theory-driven analysis proceeded with the condition of the data while at the same time bringing terms from the theory. In the study I found out that ethnic- and cultural backgrounds were not apparent in the picture books in any other way than in darker skin color of the character and differing background was not for example referenced in the text. Furthermore, there were no main character of different ethnic and cultural background in the picture books. All the characters with potential multicultural background were minor characters.

Creativity is highly valued in the world of education and developing children's creative skills is considered important. This is reflected, for an example, in the early learning plan (finnish “varhaiskasvatussuunnitelman perusteet”) and in the national core curriculum (finnish “perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet”). The purpose of this study is to find out how teachers (early education teachers and primary school teachers) perceive creative children and creative process. The research is carried out as a qualitative theory-based content analysis and the research material is based on three Finnish master's theses. One master's thesis examines the views of early childhood educators on creativity, the second on the perceptions of early childhood educators and primary school teachers, and the third is solely about the perceptions of primary school teachers. Early childhood education teachers perceptions and primary school teachers perceptions on creativity have been considered separately and as a whole. The study revealed that both early education teachers and primary school teachers think that a creative child is insightful, enthusiastic, interested, determined, distinctive, free and brave. Creative children have the courage to think outside the box and do things their own way, even against the rules. Creative children are intelligent, have a good imagination, come up with solutions to problems, know how to identify problems and give new meanings to things. Creative children have knowledge and skills of the field that they are creative in, they are gifted, artistically talented and rich in ideas. Teachers recognized the stages of the creative process and other factors related to the process. They think that creative process can be the result of a brainstorm or a new idea, and that the beginning of the creative process can be preceded by a chaotic state. The communal aspect of a creative process was particularly present in the primary school teachers comments and the early education teachers comments included clear stages of the creative process. Teachers believe that an adult plays a significant role in the generation of children's flow experiences. Teachers play a key role in the development of children's creativity and through their perceptions, one can increase understanding of how well the early education or school environment supports children's creativity. Finding out the teacher's perceptions provides a good starting point for further research to find out, for example, how well teachers' daily activities with children support the development of children's creativity.

Targets. Lately more emphasis than ever before has been given to bringing forth and taking into account children’s perspective in matters that concern them. It is also purpose of this study to give the voice to children and shed light on their perspective. This study is a part of extensive early childhood education development and research project, Orientaatioprojekti, operated by Helsinki University (Department of Teacher Education), ten municipalities in Keski-Uusimaa area and Hämeenlinna. The research is related to the day care quality evaluation (spring 2012). The main interest of the study was to examine things and situations children told they found unpleasant in day care center, also in relation to child’s gender and age. To better understand the results, the narrations and the consistency of the answers as well as children’s general satisfaction towards the day care were also examined. Methods. The research participants were 573 children, ages ranging from 1 to 8. Parents collected the data by interviewing. Two closed and one open-ended questions were analysed in this research and those questions dealt with children’s general satisfaction in day care center and what do they found unpleasant there. Parents recorded the answers to the web form and the data was then transferred to Excel software. Answers of the closed questions were examined through basic descriptive statistics. The unpleasant things and situations in the open-ended question were analysed through qualitative content analysis. Additionally, the appearance of the answers was also analysed. Used methods there were mostly outlined by researcher herself but some features of discourse analyse were also utilized. Results and conclusions. Most of the children stated that they feel mainly comfortable in day care center. The children mentioned different types of unpleasant things and situations and those were explained in various ways. Above all the challenges in peer relationships were on children’s mind. The peer group pointed out significant but the interaction was not always trouble-free. It seems to be important for children to practice and develop their social skills. Besides of these answers many children found the nap time as a single daily routine to be unpleasant. The number of nap time mentions varied a lot between different sexes and ages. There were also some other differences between the answers of children of different sexes and ages. For example, relatively many of the youngest ones did not answer to the open question at all.