Browsing by department "Institute of Behavioural Sciences"

The aim of this study was to find out how a group of kindergarten pupils and their teacher have experienced their participation in a project on multiliteracies in early childhood education, the MOI project, and to compare these experiences with the expressed aims of the MOI project. The research questions are: 1) In the opinion of the project planner, what are the aims of the MOI project? 2) Does the teacher think that participating in the project has helped the children to learn multiliteracy skills? 3) Which aspects of the project did the children find interesting? To answer the first two questions, two qualitative research interviews were conducted. One with a project planner from the MOI project, and one with the kindergarten teacher whose group took part in the project. To answer the third question, a number of children in this specific group were asked to produce a drawing of some project related activity they had found agreeable. Structured discussions about the drawings were also conducted with the children. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and categorised. The structured discussions with the children were also recorded and coupled with each drawing in question. Also this material was categorised in order to demonstrate the diversity in the children’s different ways of thinking. When the answers given by the teacher and the project planner are examined, it is found that participation in the MOI project has introduced the concept of multiliteracy to the teacher, and also inspired them to work on the matter in the future. This is also in accordance with the expressed aims of the MOI project. As for the children’s learning, the teacher found that they had become better storytellers and they questioned more. They also became more confident at dramatizing, and better at understanding one another in play situations. These are all skills considered by the teacher as relating to multiliteracy, which is also confirmed by the literature. The teacher emphasised, though, that the learning process was individual. The digital aspect of multiliteracy, such as the use of digital equipment, did not become prominent in this group. The majority of children used symbolism in their drawings, even when they were asked to draw concretely. However, thinking and drawing on a symbolic level can be seen as a multiliteracy skill. The theme of the project, “the Feelings of Nature”, was also well represented in the drawings.

The aim of the study was to investigate how reading interest and reading joy is encouraged in preschools. The studies central questions were: Is the literature available to the children; if yes then in what way? How does the preschool work with literature? What are the preschools’ goals with their literature-work? What are the teachers own attitudes towards reading and literature? The data in this study were collected by qualitative interview with an open interview structure. The sample consists of three interviews with preschool teachers in Finnish-Swedish preschools in Helsinki. The results showed a clear lack of knowledge when it comes to reading interest and the importance of it. The term reading interest was in the first hand associated with learning to read and the reading development instead of the experiences and feelings involved in the reading. The teachers were more prone to associate reading joy with the children’s experiences involved in reading and the teachers reading aloud for the kids. Another interesting result was that the teachers prioritized the reading and saw it as an important part of the curriculum. Reading was thus not only an activity during naptime. Even if encouraging activities did occur, the teachers were not able to connect the activities directly to the development of reading interest. This indicates that the encouraging of reading interest does not happen deliberately. It would be important to raise the teacher’s awareness of the advantages of reading interest and teach them how to implant it in their work.

The aim of this study was to find out what role physical education plays for children aged 3 to 5 years in kindergarten environment. In this study I used quantitative research method and my research material consisted of questionnaire results gathered from several Swedish speaking kindergartens in Helsinki. From each kindergarten, responsible person of group for 3 to 5 year olds, either social worker, childminder or kindergarten teacher, was asked to answer the questionnaire. The most important result of the study is that physical education is arranged once a week in most kindergartens I studied. The distribution between different types of physical activities such as sporty play and obstacle course was quite even. Also distribution of toys and equipment used in physical education was fairly constant. As a result, I found out that most popular activity was sporty play and most regularly used toy was beanbag. In conclusion, I can state that children’s pedagogues consider physical education as a very important method in kindergarten education considering how much it affects the development of each child. Also they believe that physical education is a good tool for both children and nursery staff to have fun together. Children’s pedagogues also stated that regular physical education in kindergarten is important so that children learn exercise to be part of daily routines, also later in life.

The purpose of this study is to investigate what role children's books have in kindergartens and in what kind of situations they are being used. I wanted to know if the kindergarten teachers have pedagogical purposes behind the books that they choose to read with the children. The aim of this study is to get a whole picture of how children’s books are being used in kindergartens. The study is done by qualitative interviews with three kindergarten teachers from three different kindergartens. I have recorded, transcribed and analysed the interviews. The study shows, that the most dominating way of using children´s books in kindergartens is by reading aloud. All three kindergarten teachers find children’s books very important for the children, because of the development of language and ability to fantasize. The study also shows that these kindergarten teachers use book discussions in one way or another. They often discuss difficult words and the story itself with the children. One of the biggest challenges, according to the kindergarten teachers, is to be brave enough to choose literature out of your own comfort zone. The kindergarten teachers also highlight the fact that there is not enough time on the side of the routines to process and work with the children’s books in the way they want to. Lastly, only one of these three kindergarten teachers clearly mentions that the use of children’s books is based on the children’s initiative and interests.

The purpose of this thesis is to get an insight in kindergarten teachers’ thoughts about children’s participation and how children can influence in kindergartens and pre-schools. The focus on this study is kindergarten teachers’ thoughts and experiences on children’s participation. The theoretical background discusses children’s participation and what it means to take a child’s perspective. National regulatory documents and previous research is also discussed. This study is a qualitative study with interviews as method. Five kindergarten teachers were interviewed, three of which work with 3 to 5-year-olds and two at pre-schools. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The results indicate that the kindergarten teachers consider children’s participation to be important and are encouraging children to influence in kindergarten and pre-school. The age of a child is not an obstacle for them to influence, but the age affects on how they can influence. All interviewed kindergarten teachers work with projects where the theme is decided by the children. Furthermore, children’s participation can be seen in daily routines and spontaneous situations. The kindergarten teachers experience difficulties within both the child group and amongst staff when it comes to children’s participation.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide an introduction to the subject of children’s stress in child care settings. The paper discusses the neuropsychological foundation to stress, as well as what this implicates for the educator’s work on reducing stress in child care settings. The research questions were as following. 1. How does the stress system work in a child? 2. How can the educator use current research on stress to help children improve their stress management skills and reduce stress in child care settings? The method that has been used in this thesis is a narrative literature review. The thesis arrives at the conclusion that educators need to broaden their knowledge on how the stress system works in a child. The thesis also identifies which aspects of the child care setting and the educator’s working method that are importiant in reducing children’s stress. The thesis argues that there is need for a working method that is more conciously focused on reucing stress.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore children´s perception of their possibilities to participate in and influence the daily activities and their learning in preschool. This study emphasizes the children´s perception by exploring the phenomenon from the children´s perspective. The theoretical background focuses on influence and participation as concepts, democratic rights and factors that have an impact on children’s possibilities to be able to affect the daily activities and their own learning. The study´s empirical part was executed as a qualitative interview with preschool children. Ten preschool children participated in the interview and the interviews were conducted in pairs at the preschool. The research approach for this study is phenomenographical, because I wanted to research children´s perceptions of their influence and participation at preschool. The study shows that children perceive limited possibilities to affect the daily activities of the preschool. An interesting result is that children perceive that it is mainly the educators who decide at preschool and that free play is the only activity in which the children feel that they can decide freely what to do. In the results differences in perceptions of the possibilities in the free play emerge since some children consider that they can decide independently while other children consider that they can decide almost independently. It is found that the children have a possibility to affect the planned daily activities to some degree. Though it is entirely depending on if the educators offers the children the opportunity. The results show that most of the children perceive that they can affect their own learning, with help from their own dedication the children can get assistance in learning.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate how kindergarten teachers experience daycare start. Within the Swedish speaking daycare in Helsinki, the work is based on the "With the eyes of children" approach. This working model addresses following questions; how do kindergarten teachers perceive home visits, how do they experience the soft landing period in daycare and what thoughts do they have about the self-care model. The theoretical part focus on theories associated with the self-care model, previous research and hence emphasize national governing documents. A qualitative research method was used in this study and data was collected by using a semi-structured interview. Three kindergarten teachers participated in the study and the interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The results reveals that kindergarten teachers perceive the self-care model as one of the most important tools in the field. Home visits are seen as an important trust building link between families and teachers and therefore are home visits perceived to deepen the relationship between the teacher, parent and child. Soft landing as a method creates a safe foundation for a child to start daycare as the child and teacher already have a connection with each other. Some improvement suggestions concerning the soft landing method are addressed. One improvement suggestion could be to clarify parents’ participation in the self-care model. Additionally was pointed out, that a self-caregiver at the daycare start, is quite tied up and that the self-care model does not always work out in the best possible way. This means that as a self-caregiver you have to be flexible and be able to adapt the self-care model in a neat way.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out what kind of experiences recently graduated kindergarten teachers have about developmental pedagogy and how they can practice it in activities with children. The study brings up kindergarten teachers attitudes to developmental pedagogy, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as how they use it in practice, if they do. The theoretical frame concentrates on where the developmental pedagogy theory has arisen from, what it involves and also discusses developmental psychology’s association to developmental pedagogy. It also emphasizes what the national regulatory documents consider about children’s development and learning, as well as previous research about developmental pedagogy. The study was qualitative and based on interviews. Four recently graduated kindergarten teachers participated in the study, which work both in municipal and private kindergartens in the metropolitan area of Helsinki. The interviews were executed individually at the respective teachers work places. My research approach is phenomenological. The results show that the teachers have a positive attitude towards developmental pedagogy and they find it to be a good tool for successful activities in the kindergarten. Developmental pedagogy enriches the child’s learning and the child constitutes understanding for its surrounding world. However, developmental pedagogy is very time-consuming and it assumes that all the colleagues share the same perspective on children and work similarly.

The aim of this thesis is to find out how early childhood teachers experience well-being in the working community in the field of early childhood education and care, and how well-being can be promoted. This thesis helps to increase understanding of what early childhood teachers experience as a healthy working community. In addition, the thesis contributes to knowledge about how well-being can be promoted within a work team. The background to this thesis is changes in society, the new legislation that implies changes in daily activities of early childhood education and care, which bring new challenges to early childhood teachers. In this thesis, the following research questions are central: How would early childhood teachers define a well-functioning work community in early childhood education? In what ways can well-being be promoted? The theoretical point of departure in this study is psychosocial work environment, work culture and leadership. The methodology used in this thesis is qualitative research methods with a phenomenological approach to describe four respondents’ perceptions of well-being in the working community, in two different day-care centres. This, to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon this study focuses on and to gain an idea of how early childhood teachers perceive their everyday work life. The result of this study shows that communication has a central role in a healthy working community. Other important factors are social support, cooperation, evenly allocated work, sufficient human resources and leadership.