Browsing by Author "Aalto, Jenna"

The aim of this study is to gain insight into how preschool teachers in the field think about the physical activity in preschool; how they plan physical activity, the opportunities and challenges they face in making the child involved and how they organize physical activity from a child's perspective. The study highlights what preschool teachers value in the planning stages and during the actual moment of physical activity. The research questions for this study are "What does the preschool teacher highlight in the planning of physical activity and during the moment of physical education?” and " What opportunities and challenges are there for the preschool teacher to make the child involved in the moment of physical activity? The theoretical part deals with how physical activity looks like at the preschools’, what the child's perspective and participation means, and how the preschool teachers and the preschools approach to physical activity affect the physical education. The research was carried out by using a qualitative research method and the data collection was done by interviewing three preschool teachers. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The results suggest that teachers attach importance to versatility, variety, effectiveness and joy of movement in the planning phase of the physical education. The physical education class structure has to be the same, a clear introduction, a main part and a conclusion. During the physical education, teachers’ value that all children are active, try out new things, get challenged and deal with different equipment. The original plan doesn’t need to hold and the preschool teacher must be flexible, be able to read into the group of children and be also manage to take the child's perspective. In order to make the child involved it is necessary to listen to the children's wishes. The concepts of the child’s perspective and the child’s participation are familiar to the preschool teachers, but there are variations in how they are perceived. The challenge is how to take the child's perspective and how to make the child involved and thus needs to be emphasized in the policy documents, staff meetings and training courses.