Browsing by Author "Ohraluoma, Outi"

The focus of this research is to view kindergarten teachers’ opinions of MiniVerso-programme which is a peer mediaton programme made for children in kindergartens for age 3-6 years. The purpose of this research is to find experiental information of a method how to deal with children’s conflicts in kindergartens. The research questions are: 1) How kindergarten teachers feel about using MiniVerso programme? 2) How is MiniVerso programme shown in everyday life in kindergarten? 3) How kindergarten teachers feel that children experience the use of MiniVerso programme? This qualitative research data was collected by themed interview. There is a phenomenologial perspective in the research. The data was collected by interviewing three kindergarten teachers who worked in kindergartens in Helsinki. The staff in the three kindergartens were trained for the use of MiniVerso programme. The interviews were recorded and transcribed and after that the results were analyzed through content analysis of qualitative research and by the themes that refer to the research questions. The research results pointed out that two of the three kindergartenteachers thought that MiniVerso-programme is a good method in dealing with children’s conflicts. They used the method regurarly and also in challenging conditions applied. One of the kindergarten teachers on the other hand felt that MiniVerso is not a viable method for everyday use in kindergartens. However, she also uses some modes of operation for handling conflict situations with children. Two kindergarten teachers felt that children experience MiniVerso programme as a positive method that purifies air after a conflict and after mediation the fun can continue as before. One of the kindergarten teachers had no experience of how children could experience MiniVerso because the method was not fully used in her group of children. Based on the results of this study it can be concluded that MiniVerso programme is a functional method for dealing with conflicts between children. The method develops children’s communication skills and inclusion because the child can be part of their own solution to a conflict situation.