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- Alvestad, Torgeir, 1960, et al.
(author)
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Challenges and dilemmas expressed by teachers working in toddler groups in the Nordic countries
- 2014
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In: Early Child Development and Care. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0300-4430 .- 1476-8275. ; 184:5, s. 671-688
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article is based on a collaborativestudy in Iceland, Sweden and Norway of the youngest children in institutional settings, such as preschools. At the present time, preschool curricula and frameworks are changing to include increased learning. However, preschool teacher education lacks sufficient focus on this age group. New preschool organisations depend both on the increased number of very young children in the system and on new versions of pedagogical approaches. This study is based on the voices of preschool staff who work with very young children. The results showed the dilemmas and challenges that these teachers experience in their everyday work.
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- Asplund Carlsson, Maj, 1948, et al.
(author)
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Från görande till lärande och förståelse. En studie av lärares lärande inom estetik
- 2008
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In: Nordisk Barnehageforskning. - 1890-9167. ; 1:1, s. 41-51
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this article is to analyze teachers’ changing ways of talking about children’s aesthetic learning in the early years as a result of a research and development project. With a point of departure in developmental and variation theory, a praxis oriented project was designed with the aim of finding out whether collaborative talk and meta-cognitive dialogues could contribute to children’s learning of music, dance and poetry. The participating teachers were offered in-service training in order to develop a new way of teaching and new ways of thinking about the curriculum and children’s learning. Interviews with the teachers were carried out at the beginning and the end of the project. The teachers’ learning was expressed in changed ways of talking about aesthetics and learning. From an emphasis on personality development and the teacher’s lack of expertise with the aesthetic subjects as an obstacle, the teachers expressed a view of having become more aware of the concept of learning objects in the aesthetics, of their own role as teachers in directing children’s attention and to listen to children. The teachers thus gained a new way of talking about themselves as teachers and about children’s learning within music, dance and poetry.
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- Asplund Carlsson, Maj, 1948, et al.
(author)
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Strukturella faktorer och pedagogisk kvalitet i barnomsorg och skola - kunskapsöversikt
- 2001
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Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- I den här kunskapsöversikten redovisas forskningsläget vad gäller sambandet mellan strukturella faktorer och pedagogisk kvalitet i förskolan och grundskolans första år. De strukturella faktorer som belyses är framförallt barngruppens storlek och sammansättning samt personaltäthet och personalens utbildningsnivå. Även andra strukturella förutsättningar av betydelse för verksamheten belyses, såsom den pedagogiska ledningens utformning och funktion samt förekomst av planering och uppföljning av den pedagogiska verksamheten. I kunskapsöversikten belyses två aspekter på kvalitet, dels hur väl verksamheterna uppfyller de mål som läroplanerna för förskolan och skolan förordnar, dels vilka effekter verksamheten har på lång sikt. Framförallt belyses hur väl barnomsorgen eller skolan tillgodoser barnens behov av utveckling och lärande som personalens behov av en god och tillfredsställande arbetsmiljö.
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5. |
- Asplund Carlsson, Maj, 1948, et al.
(author)
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The Dog's Tale. Chinese, Hungarien and Swedish children's narrative conventions
- 2001
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In: International Journal of Early Years Education. ; 9:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this study was to explore children's (6-7 years) making up of their own stories in different cultures (China, Hungary and Sweden). Ninety-three children were asked individually to tell a story about a dog. They were supposed to invent the story themselves. Qualitative differences in children's life worlds, which could be related to their cultural backgrounds, stood out in the results. The characters used in the children's stories could be summarised in terms of family members, ordinary humans, unusual persons, harmless animals, dangerous creatures, and fantastic characters. The most characteristic events were: play and co-operation, conflicts and fights, death, and exchange of commodities. The Chinese children focused mainly on play and co-operation, while the Hungarian children focused on conflicts and the exchange of commodities. The Swedish children focused on play and death. The results are discussed in relation to traditions and practices of retelling and telling of stories and children's life worlds in different cultures.
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- Asplund Carlsson, Maj, 1948, et al.
(author)
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Understanding a tale in Sweden, Japan and China
- 1996
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In: Early Child Development and Care. ; 120, s. 17-28
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It has previously been shown that interpretations of narratives are culture-specific (Bartlett, 1932; Dundes, 1976; Mandler, 1984). The tale The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, built on the Jewish tradition of tales, has previously been used in research on children and adolescents 8-18 years, in different cultures (Moriya, 1989), mainly focusing differences in interpretation of symbols, and the message in social and interpersonal terms, in relation to gender as well as culture. In our study, 93 Swedish, 30 Chinese and 30 Japanese children, 6 years old, were interviewed about how they understood the tale The Giving Tree. The phenomenographic analysis shows how children in the three countries recall a narrative, how they understand certain aspects of this tale and how they experience the message. The comparison reflects cultural aspects of knowledge, understanding and learning, related to previous studies of preschools in different cultures (Tubin, Wu & Davidson, 1989 and Pramling, 1989).
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Barndom, lärande och ämnesdidaktik
- 2013
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Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Denna bok utgör en antologi med 13 kapitel som alla diskuterar Barndom, lärande och ämnesdidaktik. Förfatarna utgörs av senrioa forskre och studerande associerade till den nationella forskrskolan med samma namn (Barndom, lärande, ämnesdidatik). Barns lärande i estetik, naturvetenskap och teknik och språk och kommunikation är spceillt fokuserade i de olika kapitlen.
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Barns tidiga lärande : en tvärsnittsstudie om förskolan som miljö för barns lärande
- 2009
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Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The main aim of preschool is to promote children’s learning, implying that its quality is an important aspect to study. However, despite a long preschool tradition and a preschool system that is nearing completion, we have limited knowledge of the effect of preschool on children’s learning and knowledge formation. The overall aim of the study, Children’s early learning, is to gain knowledge of the characteristics of preschool as a learning environment by studying various preschool environments and the impact they have on children’s knowledge formation/experiences of different aspects of communication, mathematics and interplay. Questions at issue are: How does children’s knowledge formation emerge in relation to specific content areas in different preschool contexts? What quality aspects emerge as important for children’s learning in different preschool contexts according to the teachers and parents? How are these different quality aspects constituted and related to one another? A case study of bilingual children has also been conducted within the project. It is based on the question: What communicative patterns emerge in interplay among young children who have Swedish as their second language? The complexity of preschool, as a learning context, can only be grasped by adopting several research approaches, and examining it from diverse perspectives and dimensions. Therefore, the study is based on two theoretical perspectives: interactionistic theory (Ball, 2006; Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986; Bruner, 1996) and variation theory (Marton & Booth, 2000). The study is also based on a pedagogical perspective of quality (Sheridan, 2001, 2009). The study was conducted in Gothenburg. A stratified sample of eight districts was chosen in order to represent diverse geographical areas and living conditions as well as ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Within these districts a random sample of 38 preschools was selected. All the children aged 1 and 2 years (230) in these preschools, plus their parents and teachers (120) participated. The study has a cross-sectional design and is divided into eight different parts and content areas. The data production is both quantitative and qualitative. Given the theoretical framework of the study, there are few methods available to observe young children’s learning and development. Therefore, the development of methods to observe children’s knowledge related to mathematics, communication and interplay may be seen as important results of this study. The results highlight a variation in preschool quality and in the ways the teachers communicate with and approach the children. Three different learning environments of low, good and high quality emerged, showing that children do not have equal opportunities for learning in preschool. The learning environments are: Separating and limiting environments, Child-centred negotiating environments and Challenging learning environments. Teachers and parents see preschool mainly as a democratic and social arena, even though learning of mathematics and literacy are becoming important contents in preschool education. The individual child’s learning and development are primary concerns. Play is emphasised and learning is accepted as long as it is based on the initiative of the child and/or is a by-product of play. According to the teacher’s observations, the children seem to be involved in creative and reciprocal interactions, characterised by joy and interest. The preschool context seems to offer children various positions, which may be described as interactive observational, adaptive and driving. The results indicate that a significant change in knowing/learning occurs between the age of 1 and 3 years with regard to children’s ability to approach and handle different tasks related to mathematics and communication. The results show that this is an important time in children’s learning, and that much depends on the quality of the preschool. These findings should benefit research on early childhood education on both a national and international level.
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