Browsing by Author "Alaja, Kati"

Kindergarten teacher is a representative of early childhood education expertise. Based on her education she has a vast theoretical and skill basis. From the start onwards she has to be able to analytically observe her own and her whole work community’s actions. Learning that happens through this reflecting enables the development of her expertise as well as the holistic support of the growth, development and learning for the children in her group in the best possible way. Relevant in all this is to be aware of the ever changing nature of expertise. Change makes the development possible. In this thesis the goal was to thoroughly get to know how kindergarten teacher’s expertise forms and to what extend social interaction and teamwork influence this process. The research was executed as a qualitative case study and the material was gathered by semi- structured interview of a kindergarten teacher with extend experience. The interview was analysed with content analysis and the results were compared to situation learning model developed by Kirsti Karila which she formed based on her research on kindergarten teacher’s expertise development. In that model meaningful learning experiences and teacher’s personal learning path play an essential role The interviewed teacher’s career started by learning teamwork skills and teacher’s responsible role. During the course of time workplaces changed and she got to know new ways to work, faced challenging situations and formed meaningful learning experiences that made her expertise stronger. In the course of time she developed herself an authentic and sensitive attitude to be present in social interaction situations. This also made her teamwork skills better. In the results it’s clear to detect the interviewed teacher’s development from a beginner into a deeply reflecting expert. Key factor in this process in addition to the reflection is an open attitude towards learning. It’s essential to see even challenging situations as learning experiences. I feel my research has served its’ purpose by giving a soon-to-graduate kindergarten teacher plenty of elements to develop her own expertise underlining the importance of social interaction and teamwork skills.