Browsing by Subject "lapsikeskeisyys"

Early childhood education carries multiple experiences, activities, challenges, disappointments, achievements and encounters. Small children have difficulties to remember, piece together and pass on those experiences and feelings to their teachers or parents. The aim of this study was to examine the context and organization of early childhood education where documentation raises and develops. Furthermore it was examined what the documentation of small children means in practice and how the teachers understood it. In this study the mixed methods have been used to expose different perspectives about the subject. Also the material was collected using several methods and is a part of two other studies. The quantitative study was made with material which included 892 randomly chosen children and their teachers from 313 daycare units in the metropolitan area of Finland. The material is a part of a "Children's agentive perception uncovered" study (2010), which was carried out by the University of Helsinki. The qualitative study was made by using the material of a "VKK-Metro" development project, which was carried out also in the metropolitan area (2009). The analysis and the conclusions were made by using Reunamo's theoretical model of agentive perception and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. The angle is childcentered, constructivistic and sosioconstructivistic education. In this study a remarkable confrontation was found between the visions and the practices of the early childhood educators. The documentation was not a powerful educational tool for them and the pedagogy was not built up in a sosioconstructive way. After all it was noticeable that when the teachers got more resources and pedagogical support to the documentation of the children, they found more child-centered angel in their practices as early educators. It seemed that the teachers usally work under quite a pressure and should get more resources to become able to develop the pedagogy. This study is useful for those who are interested in the child-centered way of working and the documentation as a pedagogical tool. It is also a good basis for further studies and for the attempts to regenerate early childhood education.