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- Broström, Stig, et al.
(author)
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Preschool teachers' views on children's learning : an international perspective
- 2015
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In: Early Child Development and Care. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0300-4430 .- 1476-8275. ; 185:5, s. 824-847
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This comparative study investigated the perspectives of preschool teachers in Australia, Denmark, Estonia, German, Greece and Sweden about learning and participation in preschool. A structured survey questionnaire investigated four main questions: What situations can be characterised as learning? What activities are important for learning? What are the best conditions for children's learning? How do preschool teachers understand participation in relation to children's learning in preschool? Results suggest that play, interactions with other children and adults, the provision of different activities and teacher support are important for children's learning. While similarities were noted, results indicate some disparity between countries and a further in-depth interview-style study is recommended to provide a deeper understanding of teachers' perspectives and practices around children's learning.
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| 3. |
- Karlsson, J., et al.
(author)
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An Error Estimate for Symplectic Euler Approximation of Optimal Control Problems
- 2015
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In: SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing. - : Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics (SIAM). - 1064-8275 .- 1095-7197. ; 37:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This work focuses on numerical solutions of optimal control problems. A time discretization error representation is derived for the approximation of the associated value function. It concerns symplectic Euler solutions of the Hamiltonian system connected with the optimal control problem. The error representation has a leading-order term consisting of an error density that is computable from symplectic Euler solutions. Under an assumption of the pathwise convergence of the approximate dual function as the maximum time step goes to zero, we prove that the remainder is of higher order than the leading-error density part in the error representation. With the error representation, it is possible to perform adaptive time stepping. We apply an adaptive algorithm originally developed for ordinary differential equations. The performance is illustrated by numerical tests.
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| 5. |
- Norling, Martina
(author)
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Förskolan - en arena för social språkmiljö och språkliga processer
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Title: Preschool – a social language environment and an arena for emergent literacy processes.Author: Martina NorlingBy focusing on preschool, as an arena for emergent literacy and language learning processes, this thesis put the lens on preschool staff´s approaches and strategies in the social language environment in Swedish preschools. Taking its point of departure in real preschool settings, the overall purpose of this thesis is to develop a greater understanding of this social language environment, with particular emphasis on the quality dimensions of strategies, such as the preschool staff´s sensitivity and approaches in the preschool environment. Two didactic issues are of special importance to the thesis: preschool staff´s descriptions of what kind of strategies and approaches they use in the social language environment as well as how preschool staff support children’s language learning processes in literacy-related activities.The thesis consists of four articles aimed at capturing, variations of dimensions of preschool staff strategies as well as approaches that contribute to highlighting essential strategies for supporting children in the social language environment. The theoretical framework in this thesis consists of social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1997) and bioecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2005).The four empirical studies in this thesis have made possible a mixed method design. The data production consists of questionnaires with questions regarding background information of the participants, observation instruments (scoring the quality of the social language environment), focus group interviews, video observations as well as a systematic literature review.In this thesis, three dimensions of preschool staff strategies in social language environment emerged: play strategies, emotional strategies and communicative strategies. The social language environment in Swedish preschool can be described in terms of those three strategy dimensions and continuous interplay processes among children, peers and preschool staff, over time. The quality dimensions of strategies focus, on preschool staff efforts and children’s prerequisites of learning processes, rather than focusing on children’s individual performance.Keywords: Preschool, social constructivism, bioecological theory, preschool staff, emergent literacy, social language environment, language learning processes
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| 6. |
- Sandberg, Anette, et al.
(author)
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Children's Perspective on Learning : An International Study in Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Sweden
- 2017
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In: Early Childhood Education Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1082-3301 .- 1573-1707. ; 45:1, s. 71-81
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article explores how some children in Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Sweden describe their perspective on learning. The aim of the international study is to gain knowledge of how preschool children in Sweden, Denmark, Estonia and Germany reflect and perceive their learning in preschool and other surrounding social contexts. The results are based on 51 focus group interviews from 181 children. The results indicate that, in general, children from all four countries seem to be aware of their own learning. One can conclude that encouraging children to think about what they are doing and why they are doing it makes the activities more goal-oriented from the children's perspective and thus more conscious. Children are able to describe their own perspectives on learning.
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