Browsing by Subject "Early Childhood Education"

The aim of this research is to find out the leaderships connection to learning environments and children's play in Early Childhood Education (ECE) by the next problems of the study: (1) What kind of leadership types there are in ECE? (2) What kind of connections there are between the types of leadership and learning environments? (3) What kind of connection there are between the types of leadership and children's play? There is no previous research about this topic so I will try to fulfill the gap on my account. The research was carried out by using the quantitative research methods: The Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient (Rho), Principal Components Analysis, (PCA) and the frequency analysis. The theory of this paper based on research material by using the earlier theories about leadership, learning environments and children's play. The data used in this study was a part of the "Orientation project" -research by Jyrki Reunamo. There was 2889 children, 156 teams and their leaders, who took part in the study from thirteen different municipalities in Southern Finland. The response rate among leaders was 80 %. According to this research the leadership of ECE consists of five categories: The Pedagogical leadership, the Leadership of development, the Leadership of economy, troublesome leadership and weak leadership. To clarify comparison, five types of leadership were compressed to two types: The Quality leadership and the Demanding leadership. According to the results there are some connections between leadership, learning environments and children's play. From the results it can be deduced that if the leader thinks that she/he is "The Quality leader" learning environments are more versatile, more high-quality and children have more opportunities for rich and versatile play. Children have also many opportunities for free play. If the leader thinks that it is demanding to lead personnel, the play of children is more physical. There are also fewer opportunities for supported play or controlled play. It is very important to develop and improve the quality of leadership so that the play of children can be of highest quality.

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.

Compassion in early childhood education settings is a phenomenon that hasn´t been researched a lot despite its appearance in everyday interactions in early childhood education. In this study I examined how the acts of compassion were constituted in a Finnish 2-5-year olds kindergarten class. I conducted this research by using an observation method resembling ethnography and analysing the data using Grounded Theory -method. I answer to three research questions which were: 1) How the need for compassion is noticed in kindergarten? 2) What kind of characteristics can be found on situations where there are compassionate acts in kindergarten? and 3) What kind of compassionate acts are done in a kindergarten setting? This survey was conducted in one Finnish metropolitan area kindergarten class where there were 27 children, aged 2¬–5, two early childhood education teachers, two nurses and one nursing student doing her practical training. The research material consisted of observation notes of situations where there was suffering or compassionate acts during 10 days of observation. In this research construction of compassion included different ways of noticing the need for compassion, situational factors and assessments and acts of compassion. The child´s need for compassion could be noticed by the child’s emotional reactions, the way the child acted, hearing about the need for compassion or anticipating a situation likely to cause the need for compassion. In this kindergarten class the acts of compassion consisted of the acts of comforting, helping, influencing the person or matter that produced the need for compassion, flexibility, including, sharing and humour. Compassionate acts were not automatic. There were situational elements and assessments that could have had an effect on whether compassionate acts were conducted. Conduction of compassionate acts seemed to be influenced by who noticed the suffering, in what kind of situation suffering was noticed and what kind of assessments were made in the situation. This research is a qualitative research and it has limitations to its generalization, but it can shed a light to the phenomenon of compassion and construction of compassion in early childhood education settings.

Objectives. Compassion is a fundamental motivational system in the human being (Gilbert 2015). Its function is to alleviate suffering (Goetz, Keltner & Simon-Thomas 2010). Compassion is one of the key skills needed in a global world (OECD 2016). Supporting the development of compassion and the skills of taking others into account is an obligation imposed on professionals by the National Curriculum Guidelines on Early Childhood (EDUFI 2016; Lipponen, Hilppö, Rajala 2018). Compassion has not been studied as an independent feeling in children’s natural environment. Previously research has been done about prosociality from individual psychological point of view (Warneken & Tomasello, 2006; Dunfield, et al. 2011). The research assignment of my thesis is to examine the every-day practices of spontaneous compassion in an early childhood group. The thesis is part of the CoCuCo research project. My goal was to generate new information about the compassion from practice perspective. The research problems were how sensemaking is occurs during the compassionate process and how compassion relates to the flow of action. Methods. I compiled the material I used in my thesis in an early childhood education group of Helsinki city. The group consisted of 23 children, an early childhood education teacher, a part-time special education teacher, and 2 nannies. I observed group members' who participated in the study for 2 weeks. I performed observation and material analysis with an exploratory and ethnographic approach. The data consisted of 32 observations I recorded on the observation form. The observation form served as a heuristic tool that guided me to discover acts of helping, comforting, sharing, and including others. In the data analysis, I used data-driven and theory supported methods. Results and conclusions. Sensemaking continued throughout the compassionate process. Joint understanding was formed through negotiations and non-verbal reaction to one another's actions. Sensegiving and sensebreaking occurred during negotiations of meanings. Verbalizing feelings and others’ points of view supported the compassionate process. During the compassionate process, emotions were regulated, conflicts were resolved, others were involved, and care was taken of oneself, others, and the environment. Through the compassionate process, interrupted action was able to continue, new action emerged, and previous action took new course. Compassion acts as a social tool that directs the flow of action. It supports children’s participation in activities, role in the kindergarten group and the development of positive peer relationships. By modelling compassionate interaction, early childhood teachers and caregivers can support compassionate processes between children.