Browsing by Subject "havainnointi"
Now showing items 1-8 of 8
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(2016)Aim. Several study claim that the childhood eating habits have effect until adultery. Increasing the knowledge of nutrition information in Finland has not provided wanted results. To address this problem new methods to implement food education is under development. Recent study evaluating food education method called "taste lessons" (org. "clases du gout") has showed results that show positive effects on children eating habits. The method focuses mainly on inquiry learning and sensory education. During fall 2015 Ruukku ry. implemented a tour called "Makumestarikiertue" that offered knowledge about nutrition in positive fashion by using taste lessons. The basis of this study was to obtain information from Makumestarikiertue. One central aspect of the tour was a track called "aistirata". (transl. sensory track) This track included various food oriented tasks. The study focused on reviewing children and their parent's experiences, interaction created during various tasks, reception of the event and practical functionality of the track itself. Methods. Target audience of the study was event participants (n=1574, in which k=367 were observed). Study material was obtained by observing group k. The material consisted of observational material and notes created during the events. Overall material was acquired from six different events that took place between August and November. Method used for content analysis was qualitative. Grounded method approach was also used during the analysis. Results and conclusions. The results of the study show that the event described in the thesis is capable of inspire participants to express and interpret their experience of senses and create positive experiences with food. The participants were interested of laying thought to their experience towards food and express and describe their reactions. However, this requires that the participants are guided and encouraged enough during the event as the track can otherwise be passed without much reasoning. In addition, the participants require information and tools to connect "aistirata" tasks to their personal behavior towards nutrition. Connection helps the participants to utilize newly acquired information at their own surroundings after the event has taken place.
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(2016)According to the newest Finnish curriculum (2014) home economics can be taught in the lower classes (1–6) of comprehensive school as one of the elective subjects or as an integrated club activity. In this research redesigning of home economics will be limited into inquiry-based learning which is applied in phenomenon driven teaching. This research aims to develop the use of inquiry based learning in regular classroom environment. The design will also integrate the use of mobile devices to analyse the results of phenomena and digital appliances to collect data on the situational interest of the students. This Master's thesis redesigns a new way of teaching home economics in primary school using the inquiry based learning and finding a way to wake interest into studying natural scientific phenomena in everyday life. This research was inspired by the University of Helsinki LUMA centre's Pikku-Jippo science club activities. The methodological approach applied was design research and it was conducted in two cycles. During the first cycle the data collected consisted of videos captured by students. In the second cycle the data were collected by using digital polling appliance. Both cycles followed the same kind of inquiry based learning method which is also applicable both in home economics education and natural sciences. The data were collected from one primary school class in Helsinki. The students were aged 7–8 years. The analysis of the video data was started by watching the videos extensively. The research results were analyzed using theory-based content analysis. The results indicate that mobile devices guided students to make observations of the phenomena, and to discuss both reactions and used instruments with their peers. The data from the second cycle were analyzed using qualitative observation methods. The re-designed teaching methods increased enthusiasm in the observed classroom. The students experienced them as an innovative way to learn and observe natural phenomena of everyday life.
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Lapsen ja aikuisen rooli lastentarhanopettajien tuottamissa teksteissä : vahvuuslähtöinen näkökulma (2018)The goal of this qualitative research is to find out how a child and an adult is positioned in strength-based written texts created by kindergarten teachers. Heiskanen, Alasuutari and Vehkakoski’s research (2018) pointed out that a child is usually positioned as stabile and responsible and an adult free of responsibility. Two research questions were made to help find out the goal of this research: 1) How does a child appear in the written texts created by kindergarten teachers? 2) How does an adult appear in the written texts created by kindergarten teachers?. The sample of the research consisted of nine kindergarten teachers. The data was collected via questionnaires. Each of the nine kindergarten teachers filled four observation questionnaires based on the strengths of the child. The questionnaires were sent to willing kindergarten teachers via mail. The data of the research consisted of 36 strength based questionnaires, which were collected during autumn 2017 from one of Helsinki’s early childhood areas. The data was analysed via discursive analysis. In this research a child was positioned as stabile, responsible and difficultly interpreted. An adult was positioned as stabile, difficultly interpreted and free of responsibility. With the help of this research kindergarten teachers can think about their ways of thinking according to their ways of creating written texts. It is also very important to evaluate how the strengths of the children will be written and how the child is positioned in the written texts in the future.
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(2014)Children's physical activity has a very important role for their safe growth, development and learning overall. According to Finland's national early childhood recommendation children need two daily hours of vigorous physical activity to achieve all positive effects of physical activity. However latest research in this area shows that children are inactive most of the time in day care and none of the children achieve the daily two hours of vigorous physical activity. According to the latest research outdoor activities are the most important factor for children's physical activity. In addition boys are more physically active than girls. The purpose of this study was to find out the amount of children's vigorous physical activity in day care and find the factors which affect on children's vigorous physical activity in day care. There were two research problems: (1) What factors increase children's vigorous physical activity in day care. (2) In what situations are there differences in vigorous physical activity between boys and girls. The method of this research was quantitative. The data used in this study was a part of Jyrki Reunamo's Orientation project (2010). The data of physical activity of this study (n = 19576) was observed in day care centers (n = 18335) and at childminder's (n = 1241). Physical activity was classified in three categories in this study: moderate, moderate to vigorous and vigorous. There were 1890 observations of children's vigorous physical activity in this study. 1134 (60 %) of them were observed for boys and 756 (40 %) were observed for girls. Children in this study were 1 to 7 years old. The data was analyzed using cross tabulation and the chi-square test. Children were mostly moderately physically active in day care (56,1 %). They achieved vigorous physical activity 10 % of the time. The factors that increased children's vigorous physical activity were for example: playing outdoors, higher age and children's own activity. Boys were more vigorously physically active than girls. The amount of vigorous physical activity was 11,6 % on boys and 8,3 % on girls. If the intensity of vigorous physical activity was the same through the whole day, boys were vigorously physically active a little less than an hour during a day in day care. Girls were vigorously physically active about 40 minutes during a day in day care. According to these findings children need more than an hour of vigorous physical activity after a day in day care to achieve the national recommendations.
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(2011)Children's involvement is a key quality factor in Early Years Education. As a process variable it concentrates on children's actions and experiences. The involved children are operating in their zone of proximal development. The aim of this study was to find out how the children involved themselves in the Finnish day care centres. The problems of the study were: (1) how the children are involved in different situations between the hours 8.00 and 12.00, (2) how do the skills of children whose involvement level is high differ from the skills of children whose involvement level is low and (3) how do the learning environments of the children whose involvement level is high differ from the learning environments of the children whose involvement level is low? The research method was observation and children's involvement levels were assessed using LIS-YC Scale. In addition, the kindergarten teachers evaluated the children's skills and the team workers did the evaluations of the educational settings. The data used in this study was a part of the 'Orientaation lähteillä' research. The 802 children, who took part in the study, were from 48 different groups of eight different municipalities in Central Uusimaa. There were 18358 observations of children's involvement and the quantitative data was analyzed using correlation, cross tabulation and t-test. Children's involvement was an average at a moderate level. The involvement levels were the highest during playing time and adult guided tasks and lowest during eating and basic care situations. The level of involvement was higher if the children were adaptable, proactive, self-motivated and good players. The involvement lever was lower if the children needed some special care. The children's involvement is supported if the educators had at least once a week a meeting and if children's confidence and identity construction was frequently considered in educational discussions. Furthermore, the appreciation of the ethical issues and positive atmosphere appeared to confirm the involvement. The children's involvement is decreased if the educators had been perpetually short of time or resources or there has been lack of joy and humour in the group.
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(2015)Targets. The purpose of this Master's Thesis is to clarify how the tasks of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) educators are shared during the first half of the day when their work is focused on a group of children. In this study, it was examined how the activities of the ECEC educators at daycare are related to the activities of the children in, among other things, basic care situations, eating and different play situations. The theoretic basis of the study consists of documents guiding the ECEC education, the child's growth and development, the ECEC pedagogy and the communication skills of the educators. The adults, who are close to the child, must create a safe environment which supports the child's growth and development, and where the child can grow and develop, play and learn with confidence. In the theory section, the child's involvement and small group activities at the daycare were examined, too. Methods. The research material is based on the observation material of daycare collected from the municipalities, which were involved in the Orientation Project (Reunamo, 2014). The material was collected in spring 2010 in Uusimaa and Hämeenlinna. The total of 892 children, aged 1–7 year, from 65 different day care, ECEC or family care groups participated in this study. The observations were systematically made in spring 2010, and they were made by the kindergarten teachers who participated in the study. This study focuses on the ECEC educator, who is closest to the child during the observation period. By observing the activity of the educators we learn about their behaviour in different situations. This study represents a quantitative study of the activities of ECEC educators of daycare. Results and conclusions. This study showed that the educators are the closest to the children of age 1-3 years. As the children grow, the time of interaction with one or more children reduces. The study found that the educators very seldom play an interactive role in the children's games. 36.5% of the educators leave the children to play by themselves or other children inside. The children received most of the attention of the adults in different teaching situations. Indoors, the play activities directed by the educators represented 2% of the daily activities. The main part of the play was directed and selected by the children by themselves, the part of the guided outdoors play was 3%.
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(2018)Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Physical activity is very important for the health and development on children. Behavioural habits, such as physical activity and sedentary behaviour are formed in early childhood and although children are widely believed to be continuously active, recent studies show that the levels of physical activity in early childhood are typically low, with many children not reaching the levels of physical activity proposed in guidelines. There is little research on the physical activity of under three- year- old children. Most of the research available has been done on the 3- 5- year olds and may not be directly transferrable to 1- 3- year olds, because the age range of 0 – 5 years encompasses three developmental periods, which all differ from each other. The purpose of this study is to try to find out if the physical activity of 1- 3- year olds differs from that of older age groups and if so, how it differs and what factors are related to the physical activity of children aged 1-3 years. In the data of this study physical activity is divided into three levels: low, moderate and high. This study focuses on high physical activity This study is quantitative. The data of 19606 observations of children’s physical and other activities used in this study is from The Orientation project of Helsinki University and has been collected in 2010. A systematic sampling was conducted in 62 day care centres and childminders in Finland. 892 children took part in this study and 173 of the them were 3 – years old or younger at the time. This study focuses on this age group. The data was analysed using cross- tabulation. The Chi- square test was used for testing statistical significance. 1- 3- year old children in Finnish day care spent the most time, 57,4% of the observation time between 8 and 12 o`clock in activities done on a low level of physical activity like deskwork. High physical activity increases with age: 7,5% for 1- 3- year olds, 10,3% for 4- 5- year olds and 11,2% for 6- 7- year olds. The physical activity of 1-3- year old children differed at least slightly from that of older children in all the categories observed in this study. The ages of 1- 3 years are a unique period and although the physical activity levels and the environmental factors that affect them are somewhat alike in all age groups, there are special qualities to take into consideration when planning and providing for the activities and learning environment of the youngest children. Because of the many interactions between the physical and social environment and child characteristics, the contextual factors should also be acknowledged when considering the influence of the environment on physical activity.
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(2018)Objectives. Progressive Feedback in Early Childhood Education is a project for development of early childhood education in 12 Finnish municipalities. The data in the project is collected through child observation and staff and manager self-evaluation. The objective of this study was to assess the inter-rater agreement of the project’s observation method. Inter-rater agreement is a common way of assessing the reliability and validity of a method that is based on observational data collection. Methods. This study used paired observation data that was collected through the project. The data consisted of observations conducted by 9 different pairs of observers, generating 411 paired observations in total. The data was coded as quantitative data and quantitative methods were used for the reliability analysis. Cohen’s kappa was used to calculate the level of agreement for the rating system scales and for all the paired observers using the rating system. Cohen’s kappa calculates the level of agreement among raters and accounts for agreement based on chance. Cross-tabulation was used to examine the distribution of agreement and disagreement of the observational data on the rating scales. Results. Based on labels assigned by Landis and Koch (1977) the level of agreement for one rating scale was almost perfect, for two rating scales substantial, for three rating scales moderate and for three rating scales fair. The disagreement was notable on certain scales and there were clear differences between scales and raters. Based on the results and sources the reliability of the observational method should be improved in the future. The improvement should focus on increasing the training of the observers, evaluating the objectives of the observation and calibrating the observation rating scales. Using Cohen’s kappa was not problem-free, so in future research multiple methods should be used to ensure balanced results. Further studies include ways to follow up on the reliability of the project’s observation method and the possibilities of generalizability theory and argument based validity as part of the research on reliability and validity of observation based quality assessment methods.
Now showing items 1-8 of 8