Browsing by study line "Early Education Teacher"
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Att alltid vara steget före : Pedagogers upplevelse av arbetet med utagerande beteende i ett daghem (2022)The purpose of this studie was to research what kind of practical tools the pedagogic staff in one unit of early childhood education feel they have to meet the needs of children with externalizing behaviors. The study also looked at what kind of tools the ECE-staff used in daily interaction with these children and how the children's needs were taken into consideration in the daily activities. Recent studies have shown that externalizing behaviors has become more common among children in early childhood education, and therefore the subject is current. According to Ahonen (2017) the children who show externalizing behaviors are at risk of later challenges in life and it would therefore be important to support these children at an early age. To adequately support the children the ECE-staff needs to have a good understanding of the background factors to the behaviors and also awareness of the central tools to support the children. The data in this studie consist of five individual interviews, two group interviews and 17 hours of observations of the ECE-staff in the groups. The studie was conducted in two ECE-groups in one Swedish speaking Finnish ECE-unit during the fall of 2021. The data were analyzed with the method qualitative content analysis. The result of the study shows that the ECE-staff experience the children's externalizing behavior difficult when they do not know the cause of the behavior or when the behavior is unexpected. They felt it was easier once they had found methods and tools that worked for the child. Another challenging factor was if there were many children with externalizing behavior or if there were shortages of staff. The ECE-staff in this study all met the children with warm interaction and were all aware of the importance of warm interaction. They also divided the children into smaller groups and used visual aids to support the children's executive functions. The ECE-staff mainly worked by handling the situation after it occurred and by forming the activities and environment so that the behavior decreased. In the data there was little that indicated that the personnel actively worked to strengthen the children's skills and competencies to give the children a chance to learn to handle the situations. The ECE-staff mentioned that they felt that the teaching material they had to support socioemotional development was not adequate to their needs. The ECE-staff in this study did not feel they had gotten enough information about the subject or tools in their own education programs. The main source of information about tools and methods had been collegially support and mentorship between colleagues.
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(2022)The staff and resource shortage of ECE is affecting the everyday life in kindergartens across Finland. This master´s thesis examines the chaos of ECE. The aim was to find out which factors in the learning environment are associated with the high levels of chaos. The learning environment was approached from the perspective of process quality, focusing on the themes of interaction, pedagogical activities, and leadership. This study examined the actions of ECE staff and children in the situations of high chaos. The interaction between the ECE staff and children was examined through social orientations. The study was conducted by using the nationwide Progressive Feedback method. The data was collected in 2017-2021 by random sampling using two independent metrics, including observations (201 851) and learning environment evaluations (9485). 2653 ECE units from 18 different municipalities participated in the study. This study indicates that the chaos of ECE is connected to decreased resources and lack of pedagogical leadership and professional competence. In addition, the chaos links to cold social atmosphere and insensitivity between ECE staff and children. The chaos was estimated higher in routine situations and free play. The results also show that children were more likely to break the rules. In these chaotic situations, withdrawn and dominant orientations were found to be more common, showing that there was a lack of cooperation in the interaction between ECE staff and children.
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(2022)Objectives. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of early childhood education staff in accessible communication intervention. The aim was to sort out the views of the early childhood education teachers and caregivers involved in the intervention on the implementation of the intervention and its possible effects on individual children and groups of children through interviews. In the light of previous research, various methods of accessible communication (AAC) have been found to support and enhance the opportunities for interaction and inclusion of children struggling with language and communication challenges. This study provides important first-hand information on the content and implementation of a communication intervention and its effects on individual children and groups of children from the perspective of the adults working with children. Methods. This study was qualitative research and research perspective was phenomenology. The research interviews were conducted with six people working in early childhood education in Turku, five of whom worked as early childhood education teachers and one as early childhood caregiver. The interviews were conducted as thematic interviews through Teams in December 2020 and in April-May 2021. The individual interviews were videotaped and transcribed. The obtained material was analyzed using the methods of material-based content analysis and interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Results and conclusions. The results of the study showed that in the implemented intervention, the children's perspective emerged in a positive light in the experiences of the early childhood education staff through motivation, enthusiasm, involvement, and experiences of concreteness and one's own thing. Intervention-related information and resources became the biggest challenges in the study to the experience of a successful intervention. The interviewees most often felt that the information was either incomplete or contradictory, but in some of the interviews it was also found that the information was sufficient. In terms of resources, ratios in particular seemed challenging from a staff perspective: their own presence in the intervention was even perceived as unnecessary and there was concern about the success of the rest of the group during the interventions. Although the intervention as an experience seemed positive, especially from the children's point of view, its application as an everyday small group activity seemed challenging in the light of the ratios. With regard to the intervention, several positive effects in children were identified: openness, courage, mental growth, listening, increasing self-esteem, creating new friendships, and bolder use of language. On the other hand, the analysis of the effects caused by the intervention was challenging due to everyday development and the overlaps between speech and occupational therapy.
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(2022)The aim of this study is to examine parents' beliefs on what impact Covid-19 has had on our young children's physical activity. With the term young children, I refer to children aged from one to six years old. The research questions for this study are the following: 1. How do parents view the impact Covid-19 has had on children's physical activity? 2. What kind of change in the child’s physical activity can be seen? 3. Is there a change in the child’s attitude towards physical activity? In the chapter physical activity some background on how children master physical movements will be presented. The chapter contains children’s physical development, as well as benefits and the needs for physical activity. Physical development and physical activity go hand in hand, developing physically often leads to the child becoming more physically active. In the chapter Covid-19 and everyday life, viewpoints on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected young children’s everyday life and especially physical activity are examined. The Covid-19 pandemic led to activities organized for families with children, such as story-time in library, music-play at the library/church and family café etc. stopped to decrease the spreading of the Covid-19 virus. A short complete lockdown took place in the beginning of spring 2020, where early childhood centers closed, and only parents/guardians who could not stay at home with their children had the right to bring their child to early childhood education. The parents that had the opportunity to stay home with their child were offered online early childhood education via the early childhood education center that they normally attend to. How much activities were sent out depended on the early childhood centers approach and beliefs (Hilppö, et al. 2020; Nurhonen et al. 2021). However, it was decided later that early childhood education centers remained open during the pandemic, and children were offered everyday life as normal as possible. Even though, early childhood education centers opened, the Covid-19 restrictions still existed (Nurhonen et al. 2021). How these restrictions were followed depended on the family. With the use of questionnaire, that were sent out to early childhood education centers and parent-child activities I have tried to get a view on how parents view the impact Covid-19 has had on young children’s physical activity. Has the pandemic affected young children’s physical activity? What are the parents’ beliefs? and how well with Covid-19 going on can children be physically active? I collected 103 answers from the questionnaire. Looking at the collected data I have also tried to see how and what attitudes towards physical activity children have. Do they enjoy being outdoors, physically active and has this changed during the pandemic? What can be concluded from this study is that even though the Covid-19 pandemic has been going on for 2 years it has not, according to the parents of the children, affected young children's physical activity that markedly. The children of this study seem to be as physically active as before the Covid-19 pandemic. This study is only a sample of a specific number of people, trying to explain how Covid-19 has affected the daily lives of children. Further study is needed to fully understand the changes made by Covid-19.
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(2021)The purpose of this study is to find out what experiences and ideas primary school teachers have about handcrafts as a subject in the 2020s and in the future. The research is a continuation of my bachelor's thesis done in 2018, the topic of which was handcrafts as a subject in primary school education in the 1980s and 2010s. The latest curriculum, which entered into force in August 2014, has been implemented at least since August 2016, i.e. for less than five years. Curricula are updated about every ten years, so it is important to consider what handcrafts teaching in primary school could look like in the future. The position of handcrafts as a subject has been strong in Finland since the 19th century, but with the 2020s, its position has begun to weaken. Handcrafts as a subject has changed its form from practical proximity to a diverse subject. The information obtained from this research can be used to map ways to have a better future in terms of teaching and to gain appreciation for handcrafts as an important elementary school subject. The study was conducted by interviewing eight elementary school teachers. Five of the teachers were interviewed in the fall of 2018. Interviews with four teachers were conducted at their teaching school at the time and an interview with one teacher was conducted at my home. Two of the teachers were interviewed at the end of 2020 and one at the beginning of 2021. Interviews with these latter three teachers were conducted remotely face-to-face at video meetings. The 2018 interviews were recorded as audio recordings and the 2020 and 2021 interviews were recorded as video recordings. All interviews were transcribed after the interviews. The research method used was material-based content analysis. The method for analysis was thematic. Handcrafts as a subject in basic education is not just about making handcrafts and practicing handcrafting skills, but at the same time you can learn, among other things, emotional and interaction skills, problem-solving skills, creativity, planning, environmental awareness, and the contents of various subjects. Handcrafts will still have a place in the future as a primary school subject, as they will teach basic skills and create general well-being. In addition, the skills that are important for society and that will be needed in working life in the future are learned in the teaching of handcrafts. In the future, the teaching of handcrafts should be applied and deepened more with different subjects, and the training of teachers in the teaching of handcrafts should be increased. It would also be important to consider changing the operating culture of the whole school by increasing the implementation of phenomenon-based and multidisciplinary projects in teaching.
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(2021)The subject of this article-formatted Master’s Thesis is the meaning of wordless connection in early childhood education. The study examined the meaning of wordless connection and asked what kind of meanings wordless connection could have. The theoretical-philosophical approach was based on the ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Buber on the undifferentiated nature of human and world. Wordless connection in early childhood education was approached from a multi-species perspective in the light of solitude, being alongside and autotelic practices. Wordless connection as experience was approached from a phenomenological perspective. There has been little previous research on wordless connection from an early childhood education perspective. The research was carried out in collaboration between two researchers. The working methods were theoretical-philosophical reflection and thinking with theory. Due to the theoretical-philosophical approach of the research, no data was collected for the research, but the phenomenon under study was examined and described using research theory. The synthesis part of the thesis delved into the implementation of the research. The social and ethical relevance of the research was also examined. In this study, the meanings of wordless connection in early childhood education lie in the appreciation of ways of being and in the approach to the world that transcends anthropocentric ways of think and act. Recognizing the wordless connection in the context of early childhood education can, at best, create new, ecologically and socially more sustainable ways of interacting with others – both humans and more-than-humans.
Now showing items 1-6 of 6