Browsing by Subject "Utomhuspedagogik"

The purpose of this study is to visualize how the outdoor environment is used as a learning and development environment in the field of early childhood education. From the pedagogues` point of view, the study will find out how the pedagogues are using outdoor environments and look into what kind of educational thoughts and beliefs pedagogues have with outdoor activities and how it made visible in practice. The study was qualitative traits and was conducted in the form of questionnaires and diary sheets. In the survey participated 11 pedagogues from 11 different daycare centers from medium bilingual municipality in southern Finland. The results of the study are based on the compiled questionnaire responses and diary sheet notes and these are reported in relation to literature and previous research. The results of the study show that outdoor time in daycare center is important for the child's physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. All pedagogues, who participated in the survey, have a positive attitude concerning the outdoor time at daycare centers and most of them believe that the outdoor environment is a good learning environment. The study shows that the outside environment is used mostly for free play and physical training, but also to the exploration of the local environment. The pedagogues describe that outdoor activities that takes place on their own yard is rarely planned. The biggest advantages´ with the outdoor is children´s access to the larger playground and that they get fresh air. Once in the while the pedagogues experience the outdoor time yet challenging, because of the large groups of children, for some staff or variable weather conditions, especially in the winter. By the results of the study can I conclude that the pedagogues approach to children's outdoors is a prerequisite to learning and development can occur during the outdoor time.