Browsing by Subject "yhteistoiminta"

The aim of this study is to investigate emerging leadership in children's collaborative group work. Previous studies have shown that leadership pivotally affects the group process and its outcomes; however, the study of children's leadership has been limited. This study uses a theoretical framework based on Barron's (2003) model wherein problem solving is divided into content space and relational space. The research questions are: What kinds of leadership moves appear in children's work? What forms of collaboration are associated with these leadership moves? Data was gathered by videotaping children's work in a new collaborative learning environment. The analysis consisted of five collaborative groups working on a problem solving task. Four students worked in each group. Leadership was analyzed by identifying leadership moves in the children's work. The analysis continued by examining forms of collaboration and their relationship to leadership moves. The results indicate that most of the observed leadership moves concerned planning and organizing the group's work. The way in which these leadership moves were presented either advanced or inhibited the regulation of problem solving relational space. Successful regulation of relational space seemed to advance success in problem solving content space. Additionally, leadership moves that concerned the control and development of ideas could be detected in the children's work. These leadership moves advanced the development of problem solving content space. The appearance of these moves seemed to be connected to reciprocity of interaction and equal relationships between participants in the group. Reciprocity of interaction and symmetrical roles in the children's work were regulated by various leadership moves. In some groups, more than one leader emerged. Reciprocity of parallel leadership moves seemed to advance collaboration and the construction of shared meaning. Leadership is a pivotal part of children's collaborative work. Effective leadership sometimes requires support from a teacher. Carefully considered teacher interventions should be used to provide support for children's leadership.

Objectives. According to the socio-constructivist understanding of learning, the child is seen as an active participant in his group, who learns by building knowledge based on his previous experiences in different social contexts and interactions (Kauppila 2007, 47). Finnish early childhood education is based on a learning concept, according to which children’s active and social activity in group-based institutional education is recognized as a significant factor in a child’s learning, growth, and development (Core curriculum of ECEC 2022, 21–22). The purpose of this thesis was to deepen the understanding of the sense of community built in kindergarten groups in Finnish early childhood education, which requires an understanding of the interactive and social dimensions of learning. Methods. The research data for this thesis was collected using a narrative literature review as the method of data acquisition. The research data consisted of a total of eight dissertations and two research articles, in which the research had been carried out in the context of Finnish early childhood education. The data included studies that touched on the sense of community, solidarity, cooperation, agency built in peer relationships and interaction between children in early childhood education. The search was targeted at research on Finnish early childhood education. The data was analyzed using the six analysis steps of Braun & Clarke’s (2022) thematic analysis. Results and conclusions. Based on the research data, a three-level structure could be created about the sense of community built up in the early childhood education group. According to the three-level structure a sense of community is built at the level of the framework of early childhood education, operating culture, and the child’s activities. At the level of the framework of early childhood education, the guiding documents of ECEC, the rules imposed by the structures and the physical learning environment affected the sense of community. At the operational culture level, especially the role of the early education teacher, the everyday routines and the atmosphere influenced the formation of the group’s sense of community. At level of the child’s activity, on the other hand, significant factors were peer relationships, and children’s cooperation. The teacher’s role as a key factor in the sense of community and cooperation of a group of children should be studied more in the future. At the same time, this thesis opened reflections about the importance of high-quality teacher training and the economic pressure on the cooperation of the group of children.