Browsing by Author "Saiha, Anssi"

The aim of my Bachelor's thesis is to open up to the reader the concept of self-determination, the importance of self-determination in the child's life, and factors which are affecting the child's self-determination. This study’s frame of reference is based on the theory of self-determination, which gave the starting points and backgrounds for my literary review and the results obtained from it. My research questions were: 1) How does supporting self-determination in early childhood affect a child? 2) How to support child's self-determination? Research of selfdetermination in previous studies is mostly linked to adult education and the development of self-management in organizations. Domestic research on self-determination and its support in early childhood has been made just a little. However, I have managed during my research process, as well as based on my own knowledge to collect and combine information and concepts which have relation to self-determination as an essential part of early childhood education. The empirical method of the thesis was a literature review. The literature review provided information on concepts related to self-determination, the effects of self-determination, and the methods of support. The literature review consisted from selected literature and other studies. The review also described the role of self-determination and supporting parts in contemporary early childhood education. The result of the study was to regard child and child-orientation in education and to see the child as an active handler and recipient of information. The main result was that the importance of the child's own voice and the sense of involvement were emphasized in supporting selfdetermination. It was easy to see the role of the educator, the responsibility and the combined effect of these as a basis for supporting self-determination. Based on the results and the theory, the function of the educator can be said to require more expertise in this area. Child development requires every educator to know and recognize the features of high-quality early childhood education.