Browsing by Author "Tuovinen, Senni"

Aims. The aim of the thesis was to find out kindergarten teachers' views about early childhood education learning environment and how the learning environment interlinks with the realization of the early childhood visual arts education. It was surveyed what kind of visual arts education methods the interviewees use and how they take advantage of the kindergarten's learning environment in their teaching. The aim was also to find out benefits and challenges the learning environments bring for the visual arts education and what kind of views the kindergarten teachers have about the design of the learning environments. The topic of the thesis connects essentially with the field of research that encompasses the Finnish early childhood education learning environments and how visual arts education is realized in them. This thesis got under way inspired by my bachelor's thesis (Tuovinen, 2013) in which it was studied how the kindergarten teachers realize the visual arts education in practice. In this pro gradu – thesis the learning environment's possible effect on the visual arts education is incorporated. Methods. The research strategy was qualitative and as a research setting a phenomenographic approach was used. The main material consists of themed interviews of four (4) kindergarten teachers. The interviewees who took part in the research worked in the Helsinki metropolitan area in municipal kindergartens with 3- to 5-year-old children. In the process of analyzing and breaking down the gathered results Manninen et al's (2007) classification of the learning environments and Rusanen's (2009) classification of early childhood visual arts education was used. As a method of analysis a theory-driven content analysis based on half-structured theme interviews was used. The results are presented both with tables and with various transcribed passages. Results and conclusions. The results of the thesis show that kindergarten teachers experienced the visual arts education possibilities in early childhood education learning environments mainly positively. The factors that were considered meaningful for visual arts education in early childhood learning environments were atelier, separate rooms, working in small groups and ensuring enough time, kindergarten staff members and high-class mediums for the visual arts education. Visual arts education in the learning environments was realized mainly through artwork expression and aesthetic experience of the environment. The children's personal experiences and trips to local outdoor environments thus formed the body of the visual arts education. Comparing research results to different aspects of learning environment depicts how successful visual arts education needs physical, but also social, local and technical aspects of the learning environment to be successful. Kindergarten teachers viewed their role as learning environment builders in two different ways - as modifiers and as preservers.