Browsing by Author "Tuovinen, Merja"

Objectives. The purpose of this study was gather information on organised Play group activities arranged by the municipality of Helsinki for 2-5 year old children and how well educational objectives are achieved in these Play group activities. Even though Play group activities are a part of open early childhood education and care, not very much research has been conducted on them. This study examines how well early childhood education objectives were achieved in the Play group activities of Helsinki. Furthermore the implementation frequency of different early childhood education orientations and other contents was studied. The research problem and questions were formed through the researcher’s interest in charting out what the children are actually doing and learning in the Play group activities. Previous studies on preschool education have suggested that preschools' general and content area goals are well achieved. Teachers' own evaluations show that on average goals are best achieved in physical and motor development and in environmental and nature studies and the weakest in ethics, religion and music. Methods. The study was conducted as a survey research and data was collected through an internet survey questionnaire. This survey involved 47 Play group instructors, who assessed children's actualised development and learning in their groups at the end of the season year. The collected data was analysed by using basic marking, frequencies and percentage numbers. Results and conclusions. Play group instructors evaluated that on average their groups had well achieved the early childhood educational goals set by the National Curriculum. Targets were best met in general education, physical and motor development, environmental and nature studies, social interaction as well as art. On average content areas related to these goals were often realized. Educational aims in ethics and religion however were either rarely or never fulfilled. Gathered data from this study can be utilised and used towards the evaluation and development of Play group goal orientated activities. The study questionnaire can benefit the evaluation practices in Play group activities as well as it can be modified to support the needs of future studies.