Browsing by Author "Ryhänen, Hanna"

This pro gradu study examines learning environment of early childhood education (later ECE) by the aspect to enable the goals of the new Finnish ECE plan. Previous study indicate that the learning environment plays fundamental role in child’s learning. This study represents the project called “Virtaa varhaiskasvatukseen”. Project took place in Lohja 2017. Main point of this project was to develop the physical learning environments of ECE to correspond the goals of the new Finnish ECE plan. Purpose of the study was to examine how well the learning environments of day care center enables the action of the new Finnish ECE plan and what kind of innovative solutions to sustain the goals of ECE were developed during the project. Four day care center groups including personnel, children and their parents participate to design, to execute and to evaluate the physical learning environment. Material of the study consisted of quality measurements done before and after modifications and some graphical and written material collected during the study. The material was analyzed by comparing the measurements taken before and after the modifications and to describe the different phases and effects of the project according to principals of design study. Study indicates that old facility of day care center does not enable the actions of the new Finnish ECE plan as well as the new designed facility. This revealed through quality measurements done before modifications. However, facilities can be upgrade without any major renovation. Some changes were done at the facilities that were part in this study. Differences between the facilities of day care center were decreased because of the changes that were made. Nearly all of the solutions that were developed can be utilized in wherever day care center.