Browsing by Subject "observointi"
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(2022)The purpose of this master’s thesis is to produce information on the appearance of children’s fear and anxiety in the context of early childhood education and care (ECEC). By drawing attention to the daily actions and situations where fear and anxiety typically take place, it is possible to gather valuable information about children’s wellbeing in the various situations of ECEC. This study examines the situations in which children experience fear and anxiety and how these emotions reflect the children’s behavior. In addition, the study aims to find out how the ECEC personnel relates to the fear or anxiousness of the child. The study was conducted using the Finnish nationwide Progressive Feedback method. The research data was gathered during 2017–2021. A total of 2653 ECEC groups from 18 municipalities participated in the study. The research method used was systematic random sample observation, which included all activities in ECEC between 8 AM to 4 PM. Quantitative methods were used to analyse the data. The observations of fear and anxiety were cross-tabulated with the observations of the general frame of activity, the child’s social orientation, and the actions of the nearest adult. It was found that children show highlighted levels of fear and anxiety when being outdoors or participating in indoor guided activities. Withdrawn and independent social orientations were highlighted among children experiencing fear and anxiety. When examining adults’ reactions to children’s fear and anxiety receptive and negative attitudes were overrepresented. However, negative attitudes should be considered with caution due to the limitations of the data. A closer inspection into the matter revealed that both children’s and personnel’s attitude towards fear and anxiety was context-related. Article manuscript “Children’s observed fear and anxiety in early childhood education” is to be published in the Finnish journal of Psychology.
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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.
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(2021)The purpose of this article-type master's thesis is to produce scientifically researched information on the relationship between the process indicators of early childhood education quality assessed by directors’ and children’s involvement. Previous studies have shown that pedagogical leadership is associated with children’s involvement in activities (e.g., Cheung, et. al., 2019; Fonsén, et. al., 2020). For the development of early childhood education research data that refines previous research on the connection between leadership and the key objectives of early childhood and is based on national criteria for the quality of early childhood education (Karvi, 2018), is needed. This study examines how early childhood education unit directors’ assessments of process factors in early childhood education quality relate to findings about children’s involvement. Two independent indicators were used as the study material: directors’ evaluation of the implementation of process factors in the quality of early childhood education in their own kindergarten, and children’s observed involvement. Both indicators were based on the Developing Feedback method. The data were collected in 2019 and 2020. A total of 258 kindergarten directors in 15 municipalities participated in the study, and there was a total of 14 306 observations that could be linked to the directors’ evaluations. The results showed that staff commitment to early childhood education plans, quality of teaching, pedagogical leadership, co-operation with children’s guardians and the well-being of the work community correlated with children's involvement to activities. The research results bring to the current scientific discussion information that has been researched using statistical methods, refines previous research results and is based on national criteria for assessing the quality of early childhood education (Karvi, 2018). The results open an opportunity for experts, educators, decision-makers, directors, and teachers to look at early childhood education and their own work from the perspective of children’s observed learning. Article manuscript The Quality Indicators of Early Childhood Education and Children’s Involvement is to be published in the Journal of Early Childhood Education Research.
Now showing items 1-3 of 3