Browsing by Subject "esikoulu"

My Master's thesis is a qualitative study, the purpose of which is to find out how teachers working in pre-primary and in the early stages of basic education the importance of self-esteem and how they recognise the differences between healthy and weak self-esteem in children. I will also try to find out what methods are they using to support the development of children's healthy self-esteem and what they perceive as potentially damaging factors for children's self-esteem in the learning environment in both pre-primary and early- elementary education. I want answers to these questions because self-esteem has a significant impact on a child's development and life. I collected research data from seven teachers who work in different preschools and early-elementary schools. By Early-elementary school I mean the first and second grade of elementary school. The research material was collected using thematic interviews. The interviews were conducted during October and November 2022. I analysed my research data using the phenomenographic method of analysis. The research shows that all interviewed teachers were aware of the basics of self-esteem formation. They were able to distinguish between healthy and poor self-esteem based on children's behaviour and felt that supporting healthy self-esteem was an important part of their daily work. According to the interviewed teachers, healthy self-esteem promotes among other things a better future for children and affects learning and motivation. The teachers felt that strength-based teaching, positive interaction and creating a safe environment are the best ways to promote children's self-esteem. They also emphasized the importance of professional support and cooperation because it enables providing the necessary help to children, which also increases the teachers' own competence and well-being at work. Although supporting healthy self-esteem is important, challenges related to working conditions and the teacher's own problems can prevent teachers from supporting each child in a way that would promote the development of children's healthy self-esteem. Every teacher interviewed cited a negative atmosphere as a barrier to children's self-esteem development. In addition, challenges faced by teachers that have a negative impact on professionalism, such as fatigue and teachers' personal problems, were perceived to have a negative impact on children's self-esteem. Lack of resources, time pressure on teachers, and neglecting children's challenges were also identified as significant problems.

Language skills are an important asset in the global world, so it is important to promote language learning. Music and language learning have been shown to be interconnected. However, most of the studies have been conducted with adult language learners and in laboratories. This study is an experimental study carried out in natural learning context with intervention paradigm. The aim of the study is to explore whether using a song as a tool in learning second language vocabulary in a bilingual preschool differs from using a nursery rhyme or prose. The null hypothesis is that children in bilingual preschool learn second language vocabulary as well with song as with nursery rhyme or prose. The alternative hypothesis is that children in bilingual preschool learn second language vocabulary better with song than with nursery rhyme or prose. Seven foreign language children from the preschool took part in the study. In study paradigm children were presented in learning phase a Finnish version of a well-known nursery rhyme Simple Simon as continuous stimuli in the form of a nursery rhyme, a song and prose. In EEG test phase they were presented same stimuli with some changes in vowels and syllables and their EEG was recorded. Event-related potentials to those changes were then compared between a nursery rhyme, a song and prose situation. In behavioral testing, children were presented words from the learning material and pseudowords formed from those words. We compared how well the children recognized words in the nursery rhyme (poem), the song and the prose situation. The data were analyzed in both research methods using Wilcoxon signed rank test. The null hypothesis could not be rejected. So, it cannot be stated that second language vocabulary is learned better with song than with nursery rhyme or prose. We detected a difference between the prose and the nursery rhyme stimuli in favor of the prose option measured with EEG. However, the sample size was too small to generalize the results. In discussion the results and used research methods are primarily examined on theoretical level considering previous studies. In conclusion, based on the previous studies, it is feasible to recommend using music in education especially in language learning but also in every phase of life due to music’s positive effects on motivation and togetherness to name but a few.