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- Magnusson, Maria, 1960-
(författare)
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Skylta med kunskap : en studie av hur barn urskiljer grafiska symboler i hem och förskola.
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The topic of this study is to generate knowledge about children’s understandingof graphical symbols. These forms of knowledge are prevalent in contemporarysocieties, for example, in the form of letters, numbers, road signs, maps, andcomputer icons. More specifically, in this thesis is scrutinized in detail howchildren develop symbolic skills and how this can be supported througheducational activities. The theoretical basis of the study is variation theory(Marton & Tsui, 2004). This theory conceptualizes learning in terms ofdifferentiation and integration. Two empirical studies are reported. The first isabout two children, Olle and Lasse, who both are in the age span four to fiveyears. How these children handle graphical symbols in the form of producingsigns that they put up in their homes are followed over time. Hence, thechildren’s own make and use of symbols in their everyday life are studied. In thesecond empirical study, the findings from the first study and theoretical insightfrom variation theory are orchestrated in a preschool center with two teachersand twelve children, to see if these principles can be functional in supportingchildren’s development of symbolic understanding. Both studies are based onvideo data. The findings are that a particular pattern of variation entitled,‘contrast’ is functional in developing such insight, while another pattern ofvariation entitled, ‘induction’ is not. In addition, meta-communication is arguedto be important not only for the researcher to gain access to the child’sunderstanding but also to the child’s development as such. The theoreticaldistinction made by Vygotsky between ‘pseudo concepts’ and ‘concepts (proper)’is used to discuss the findings.
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| 2. |
- Thulin, Susanne, 1953-
(författare)
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Lärares tal och barns nyfikenhet : kommunikation om naturvetenskapliga innehåll i förskolan
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to generate new knowledge about how children and teachers communicate scientific contents in preschool. The general research question is formulated as: How do the object of learning and the act of learning appear in communication about scientific contents in preschool? This thesis is a collection of three (previously published) empirical studies and takes shape in the encounter between a projected knowledge acquisition task for preschool and the educational tradition of preschool.The research approach is based primarily on phenomenography focussing on developmental pedagogy. The results are discussed in relation to situated learning and the assumptions about the task of preschool characterising the social practice that is brought to light. The thesis is based on the assumption that teachers are bearers of taken-for-granted ideas about what the ‘good preschool’ is, and that these ideas affect the way they interpret new tasks.The empirical basis consists of video observations from two preschools working with different thematic projects: Life in the tree stump and How soil is formed. The analysis is delimited to the verbal communication occurring between children and teachers about the scientific content. The children are aged between three and six years. All observations have been transcribed to text and analysed according to the following research questions: Study I: (i) What is communicated as the object of learning in the theme work about natural scientific phenomena in the preschool studied? (ii) What acts of learning appear in the communication of the object of learning? Study II is a re-analysis of the linguistic usage in the empirical data from Study I. Research questions of Study II are: is there any systematic pattern in the use of anthropomorphic speech regarding (i) who uses this language, (ii) when it is used and (iii) what it is used for? Study III is delimited to children’s perspective, and the research questions are: (i) What do children ask about during theme work with a natural scientific process in preschool? (ii) Can any tendency towards change be discerned with regard to what kind of questions children ask in the course of the theme work?The results have thrown light on what natural science is in these preschools, a questioning teacher, an education ideal as an interpretative framework and children’s meeting with the object of learning. The results are discussed in relation to a feasible didactic perspective based on the educational ideal of preschool and in relation to a critical didactic perspective concerning teachers’ will, courage and competence to make the content visible. Finally, with the implementation of the raised knowledge task for preschool in mind, prominence is given to the need of critical reflection over the role of language as maintaining a discourse and the concepts established.
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