Browsing by Subject "pedagoginen dokumentointi"

This study examines early childhood education teachers’ experiences of the participation of 1–3-year-old children in the early childhood education and care plan (known as an ECEC plan) process. The process includes prepara-tion for the discussion of the child’s ECEC plan, discussion and the creation of the plan, and implementing and evaluating the plan. Section 23 of the new Act on Early Childhood Education and Care states that the child’s opinion must be heard at every stage of the ECEC plan process. Previous studies have indicated that the partici-pation of the child has not been implemented in accordance with targets. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how early childhood education teachers define child participation. Another point of interest for the study was to map the methods used by early childhood education teachers to support the child’s participation in the ECEC plan process. The study was carried out using semi-structured interviews, with seven early childhood education teachers chosen for the study. Interviews were carried out individually and data-oriented content analysis was used to analyse the material. According to early childhood education teachers, the participation of 1–3-year-old children in the ECEC plan process involved observing the child and discussing with the child to ascertain their interests, strengths and needs, recording the information in the child’s ECEC plan, team discussions and expanding on the child’s perspective, listening to the child’s parents and making use of their knowledge of their own child, and implementing the ECEC plan in everyday life, as well as the child’s opportunity to influence joint activities. The participation of 1–3-year-olds in the ECEC plan process has also given some teachers pause for thought. One challenge was ascertaining the perspective of a small child if the child was not yet able to speak. According to the results of the study, observing and interviewing the child using a new ECEC form to ascertain the child’s wishes and interests were significant for the participation of the child during the preparation phase. Child participation was also supported by daily discussions with parents, information about the child obtained from the initial discussion meeting held when the child began day-care, and team discussion on observations of the child. The new ECEC form and shared information about the child highlighted the child’s perspective in discussions. Participation was strengthened by child group activities, which were organised based on the targets outlined in the children’s ECEC plans, as well as on an assessment of pedagogical methods. Flexibility in the daily routine, activities initiated by the child, pictures and supportive signs, and voting were all methods of implementing child participation. Photographs, storycrafting, an educational portfolio, naming a star child of the week, and video recording made activities and significant experiences of the child visible. In order to increase child participation in the ECEC plan process, illustrated support for interviews with children and the presence of the child at ECEC plan discussions were proposed.

The goal of this qualitative research is to find out how a child and an adult is positioned in strength-based written texts created by kindergarten teachers. Heiskanen, Alasuutari and Vehkakoski’s research (2018) pointed out that a child is usually positioned as stabile and responsible and an adult free of responsibility. Two research questions were made to help find out the goal of this research: 1) How does a child appear in the written texts created by kindergarten teachers? 2) How does an adult appear in the written texts created by kindergarten teachers?. The sample of the research consisted of nine kindergarten teachers. The data was collected via questionnaires. Each of the nine kindergarten teachers filled four observation questionnaires based on the strengths of the child. The questionnaires were sent to willing kindergarten teachers via mail. The data of the research consisted of 36 strength based questionnaires, which were collected during autumn 2017 from one of Helsinki’s early childhood areas. The data was analysed via discursive analysis. In this research a child was positioned as stabile, responsible and difficultly interpreted. An adult was positioned as stabile, difficultly interpreted and free of responsibility. With the help of this research kindergarten teachers can think about their ways of thinking according to their ways of creating written texts. It is also very important to evaluate how the strengths of the children will be written and how the child is positioned in the written texts in the future.

The purpose of this research was to find out the experiences of pre-school teachers in the use of digital service related to positive pedagogy in pre-school education. The theoretical framework of the study consisted of description of pre-school education and positive pedagogy. In addition, it examined what similarities can be found in the contents of the pre-school education curriculum and positive pedagogy. Character strengths and strength pedagogy, as well as positive feedback, were presented as more specific concepts. The framework was further specified by defining the concepts of well-being, pedagogical documentation, and digital services. The research is a qualitative interview survey based on phenomenological analysis. The interviews were executed as individual interviews remotely using Microsoft Teams. A total of three early childhood education teachers were interviewed. Interviewees participated in the City of Espoo Early Childhood Education and Positive Learning Oy joint development project. Among other things, the project aimed to teach children strengths in character through a digital service, as well as help them identify them. According to the research results, the teachers had mainly positive experiences to Huomaa hyvä! tool in pre-school education. They thought it worked well in supporting children's identification of strengths. Teachers themselves felt that they had learned to identify children's strengths differently than before and understood that something in children's activities that they had previously experienced as negative could be the child's strength in the right situation. In addition, they found that when they set a goal for some strength, it increased significantly in the group. According to the teachers, the tool also worked well as a tool for positive feedback. They felt that the positive feedback encouraged the children to reflect on their own strengths and thus they also learned to recognize them. According to teachers Huomaa hyvä! the tool served well as a tool for pedagogical documentation. They felt it was important to be able to return to the moments of success they experienced later and deal with them together with the children. The tool also supported their work and various pre-teaching processes such as action planning, implementation and evaluation. They felt that the introduction of the digital service affected their way of working as a whole.