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Yes / To identify maternal factors that influence physical activity behaviour in 2 year old children.

Children’s utterances have been studied in different languages; however, only a few studies refer to Swedish. The aim of the present study is to describe utterance types, subordinate clauses and utterance length for a group of three and four year old Swedish children without known functional impairments. The study included 29 children, 17 girls and 12 boys, in a larger city in the south-east of Sweden. The children, all native Swedish speakers, were aged 3;0 to 4;11. Sound recordings were made during a playing session with one of the authors in the children’s day care centers.The utterances were divided into the categories elliptical responses, incomplete and partly unintelligible utterances, imitative utterances and independent utterances. Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) was calculated for the 50 first independent utterances. Subordinate clauses were classified and counted and placement of the sentence adverb was studied. Elliptical responses were frequently used. Incomplete or partly unintelligible utterances were relatively common, but imitative utterances were rare. Subordinate clauses were used by 23 of the 29 children. Relative subordinate clauses were the most common type, and were used across the age range. Most of the children placed the sentence adverbial correctly. The children had utterances ranging from one to 23 words, and the most common utterance length was four words. The MLU ranged from 2.36 to 7.04. Frequent use of subordinate clauses resulted in a higher MLU. The older children used subordinate clauses more frequently and had a lower percentage of elliptical responses. The MLU had a tendency to increase with age. The great variety in the results shown in the present study, can be explained by the fact that children aged three and four are in a process of developing their language. Children with a more frequent use of subordinate clauses had higher MLU values, suggesting a relation between language complexity and MLU. The results show that MLU is a reliable measure of children’s language level in the ages three and four years. / Barns yttranden har undersökts i flera studier på olika språk, men det finns endast ett fåtal studier som berör det svenska språket. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att beskriva yttrandetyper, bisatser och yttrandelängd hos en grupp tre- och fyraåriga svenska barn utan kända funktionsnedsättningar. I studien deltog 29 barn, 17 flickor och 12 pojkar, i en större tätort i sydöstra Sverige. Barnen var i åldern 3;0 till 4;11 och hade svenska som modersmål. Ljudupptagning skedde under samtal i en leksituation med en av uppsatsförfattarna på barnens förskola. Yttrandena delades in i kategorierna elliptiska svarsyttranden, ofullständiga eller delvis oförståeliga yttranden, imitativa yttranden och självständiga yttranden. Yttrandemedellängd (eng: Mean Length of Utterance, förkortat MLU) räknades ut för de 50 första självständiga yttrandena. Förekomst av olika bisatstyper och placering av satsadverbial i bisatser undersöktes också. Elliptiska svarsyttranden var vanliga hos barnen. Ofullständiga eller delvis oförståeliga yttranden förekom i viss utsträckning, och imitativa yttranden var ovanliga. Bisatser förekom hos 23 av de 29 barnen. ”Som” var den vanligaste bisatsinledaren och förekom i hela åldersgruppen. De flesta barnen placerade satsadverbialet korrekt i bisatserna. Barnens yttranden var mellan ett och 23 ord långa, och den vanligaste yttrandelängden var fyra ord. MLU varierade från 2,36 till 7,04. Frekvent användning av bisatser gav högre MLU. De äldre barnen använde fler bisatser och hade en mindre andel elliptiska svarsyttranden. MLU hade en viss tendens att öka med ålder. Barn i åldern tre till fyra år befinner sig i en språklig utvecklingsfas, vilket speglas i den stora variationen i resultaten. Att barn som använde många bisatser hade högt MLU tyder på ett samband mellan språklig förmåga och yttrandelängd. Detta visar i sin tur att MLU är ett tillförlitligt mått på barns språkliga nivå i åldern tre till fyra år.

This study was designed to examine how four-year-old children might be able to respond and interpret works of art. Informed by Jean Piaget's and Lev Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development, and building on Micheal Parsons' and Abigail Housen's theories of aesthetic development, the study investigated whether or not four-year-olds are able to expand their initial responses to achieve deeper levels of understanding about works of art.

Få studier finns om små barns fonologiska förmåga relaterat till arbetsminne. Det råder också en brist på test av arbetsminne för små barn. Föreliggande studie syftade därför till att studera relationen mellan visuellt arbetsminne, fonologiskt arbetsminne och förmåga att hantera fonologiska representationer hos treåringar. Detta har gjorts genom att samla in jämförelsedata för treåringars resultat på det nyutvecklade surfplatte-testet KUBEN (Kognitiv utveckling hos små barn), som testar förmågorna visuellt och fonologiskt arbetsminne samt fonologisk diskrimination. Dessutom har test för fonologisk produktion, även det testat med hjälp av surfplatta, och nonordsrepetition använts. I studien deltog 91 treåriga svenska barn med typisk utveckling. För framför allt visuellt arbetsminne, fanns ett mycket litet underlag att jämföra med, men resultatet visade att barngruppen presterade som förväntat vad gäller samtliga testade förmågor. Förmågorna förbättrades med ökad ålder, däremot var kön och vana av surfplatta inte faktorer som påverkade barnens resultat. I resultatet beskrivs också samband mellan förmågorna. Det fanns samband mellan alla de förmågor som i denna studie mäter fonologiska representationer (fonologisk diskrimination, nonordsrepetition och fonologisk produktion). Däremot korrelerade dessa fonologiska förmågor inte med test för fonologiskt arbetsminne, vilket var ett mindre väntat resultat. En möjlig förklaring kan vara att det är svårt att separat testa fonologiskt arbetsminne hos barn så små som tre år. Inget samband förelåg heller mellan test av fonologiskt och visuellt arbetsminne, vilket dock indikerar att två olika arbetsminnesförmågor har testats. Detta styrker den falang inom forskningen som menar att visuellt och fonologiskt arbetsminne är separerade förmågor redan hos små barn. / There are few studies regarding phonological skills related to working memory in young children. There is also a lack of tests of working memory for children in the younger ages. The aim of the current study was therefore to examine the relationship between visual working memory, phonological working memory and the ability to manage phonological representations, in three-year-olds. This was done by collecting comparison data of threeyear- old children’s results on the newly developed tablet-test ”KUBEN” (Cognitive development in young children), which measures the abilities visual and phonological working memory and phonological discrimination. In addition test for phonological production, also tested with tablet, and nonword repetition were used. A total of 91 Swedish three-year-old children with typical development participated in the study. For especially visual working memory, there was a lack of material with which to compare, but the result showed that children performed as expected regarding all tested abilities. The abilities improved with increasing age. On the contrary, neither gender nor experience of using tablets, affected the results of the children’s performance. The result of this study further describes relations between the tested abilities. There were correlations between all the abilities in this study that measures phonological representations (phonological discrimination, nonword repetition and phonological production). However, these phonological abilities did not correlate with the test of phonological working memory, which is a less expected finding. A possible explanation may be that it is difficult to test phonological working memory separately in children as young as three years old. Neither was there a correlation between tests of phonological and visual working memory, which indicates that two different abilities of working memory were tested. This confirms the faction within research arguing that visual and phonological working memory are separated abilities, already in young children.

The aim of this study was to find out if there were any detectable differences in the language and language use between children who had been at home with an adult, versus children who had been at day care regularly before they started school. Eight six-year-olds, four from each group, were interviewed and their answers compared to each other. The results pointed to a slight difference in word choices and sentence structure and also a greater difference in the past tense verb forms. Children with a day care background tended to discuss and interact more with their peers, though with simpler sentences and several incorrect verb forms, while the stay-at-home children used more complex sentences and had a higher rate of correct past tense verb forms. The conclusion from this study suggests that children need both adult and peer input to develop correct language and the necessary skills for interaction.

The purpose of the study is to contribute to more knowledge about preschool children's knowledge of programming and how they learn to control a robot by programming it. The methods used to investigate the purpose of the study are participatory observations with conversations inspired by open qualitative in- terviews. In the survey, a programming activity with participating children was carried out where a robot in the form of a Blue-Bot is used as a tool in pro- gramming. The children who participated in the study are six five-year-olds, four boys and two girls. The results have shown that the children have an un- derstanding of how to use the Blue-Bot by pressing the buttons. The children use different strategies in the programming depending on how far the Blue-Bot is to be programmed to travel over a grid. For longer and more difficult pro- gramming, the children take support from body parts such as the hand or a finger. Many of the children seek support from the adult in the activity in order to succeed in programming the Blue-Bot to the desired goal. The results of the study show that the children use relevant concepts, but they are not specific to programming. / Syftet med studien är att bidra till mer kunskap om förskolebarns kunskaper kring programmering samt hur de lär sig att styra en robot genom att program- mera den. Metoderna som används för att undersöka studiens syfte är delta- gande observationer med samtal som inspirerades av öppna kvalitativa inter- vjuer. I undersökningen har en programmeringsaktivitet med deltagande barn genomförts där en robot i en form av en Blue-Bot används som verktyg vid programmering. Barnen som deltagit i studien är sex femåringar, varav fyra var pojkar och två var flickor. Resultatet har visat att barnen har förståelse för hur man kan använda Blue-Boten genom att trycka på knapparna. Barnen an- vänder sig av olika strategier vid programmeringen beroende på hur långt Blue-Boten skall programmeras att röra sig över ett rutnät. Vid längre och svå- rare programmering tar barnen stöd av kroppsdelar som handen eller fingret. Många av barnen söker stöttning av den vuxne i aktiviteten för att lyckas pro- grammera Blue-Boten till det önskade målet. Resultatet av studien visar att barnen använder relevanta begrepp, med de är inte specifika för programme- ring.

Syftet med fallstudien är att bidra med didaktisk förståelse för relationerna mellan skrivande och andra former av kommunikation, liksom för sådana faktorer som möjliggör och/eller hindrar yngre elevers gemensamma textskapande i klassrummet. Forskningsfrågorna berör hur dialogiskt parskrivande tar form, när tre elevpar planerar och parskriver en berättelse samt hur de stödstrukturer som erbjuds fungerar för dessa elever. Elevernas samtal om texterna och textkonstruktionerna förstås i studien som beroende av de sammanhang med lärare, elever och aktiviteter i vilka de uppstår. Resultatet visar att berättelseskrivande är en komplex och mödosam process för de unga eleverna. Komplexiteten består i att hantera skrivandet utifrån att beskriva ett händelseförlopp och att samtidigt förhålla sig till sådant som att ljuda och skriva/konstruera en mening, verbalt och på digital skrivplatta. Resultatet belyser att elevernas dialoger innebär ett verbaliserande av textskapandet. Under parskrivandet synliggörs skrivprocessen såväl som berättelseskrivandets kreativa möjligheter. Elevdialogerna visar att eleverna förhandlar om – vad de ska skriva om, och hur detta ska konstrueras/transformeras skriftligt. I förhandlingarna strävar eleverna efter ömsesidighet i beslutsfattandet. Eleverna använder förutom samtal även andra semiotiska resurser, såsom sång och simultant tal, vilket visar på engagemang i textskapandet. Eleverna visar också engagemang genom att fantisera om och agera ut berättelsen muntligt på sätt som liknar barns lek, vilket leder till att den verbala berättelsen blir större än den skriftliga. Övergripande visade sig parskrivandet, inramat av lärarens instruktioner och intervenerande i skrivaktiviteterna, stötta elevernas berättelseskrivande. Eleverna stöttade varandra med sådant som att generera idéer, komma ihåg idéer, behandla berättelsens övergripande struktur samt ljudande, stavning och meningsbyggnad. Elevdialogerna visade även exempel på spänningar och motstånd och då i samtalen om innehåll och textkonstruktioner. Den slutsats som kan dras av detta är att lärare behöver ställa frågor som kan ge dem ledtrådar till hur spänningarna mellan eleverna har uppstått, för att få guidning i hur elevernas samtal och skrivande kan stöttas. / This case study examines eight-year-old students’ talk about storytelling within a Swedish primary school classroom and the subsequent meaning-making that they engage in. The study aims to establish a pedagogical understanding of the relationships between writing and other forms of communication and identify enabling and/or hindering factors in writing classes that include younger students. The research questions interrogate how dialogic co-writing develops when three students plan and co-write a story. Furthermore, the study address how the offered scaffolding functioned for these students. In terms of theory, the study draws on New Literacy Studies and dialogical learning. Students’ talk about text and text constructions are taken as situated within a social practice that is constituted by the context of teachers, students, and the enacted activities. The study is informed by action research which, among other things, entails that the lessons that were observed for this study were planned in collaboration with two teachers and the teacher-researcher. The empirical data consists of video recordings, audio recordings, photographs, and field notes. The writing activities were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, primarily with reference to transcriptions of the students’ dialogues which concerned the students’ planning and writing on digital writing pads. The results of this study reveal that story writing is a complex and demanding process for young students. The complexity consists of dealing with the act of writing in terms of describing the plot whilst simultaneously relating language sounds to letters and constructing sentences. Also, results show, that the students’ dialogues implied a verbalization of the students’ text-making. During the co-writing activity, the writing process and the creative possibilities of story writing were made visible. Furthermore, the students’ dialogues demonstrate that their collaboration was carried out through negotiations concerning What? and How? they might write and how the results of these negotiations should be transformed into text. During these negotiations, the students strove to achieve a sense of reciprocity with regards to their decisions. While negotiating, the students also used semiotic resources in addition to talk, including singing and simultaneous speech, thus revealing writing engagement. The students also showed engagement by fantasising and acting the story out verbally similar to children’s play. Consequently, this made the verbal story wider than the written one. Overall, when framed by the teacher’s instruction and intervention during the writing activities, the paired writing activities lent support to the students’ story writing. Moreover, the students supported each other in contexts where they were tasked to generate ideas, remember ideas, develop the story's overall structure, and address issues related to phonics, spelling, and sentence construction. The students’ dialogues also contained examples of tension and resistance in their interactions that dealt with the story content and text construction. One conclusion is that teachers should ask questions that can provide them with clues to the basis for the tensions and thereby guide the teacher in how to scaffold their student’s interaction and writing.

TITLE: Use of Fables in the 5th Grade of Elementary School AUTHOR: Kateřina Týblová DEPARTMENT: Department of Czech Literature SUPERVISOR: doc. PhDr. Ondřej Hník, Ph.D. ABSTRACT: In her diploma thesis Use of Fables in the 5th Grade of Elementary School the author discusses teaching fables in Literary Education lessons during the last year of Elementary School. In the theoretical part, she briefly describes the features and history of fable and specifies the target age group. The main part of the thesis is the practical part. In the practical part, the author presents her suggestions for fable teaching activities as well as three ninety minute lesson plans. Finally, the author reflects on the realization of the lessons. KEYWORDS: Literary Education, children's literature, eleven year olds, creative writing, fables, allegory

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:30:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MARIA ODETE VIEIRA TENREIRO.pdf: 1684015 bytes, checksum: fc8d4d8ff33da890dd2c49c5add4989c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work is dedicated to uncovering the impact of the educational policy of expansion of elementary schooling in the city of Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brazil. The survey was conducted in 2009 in eight city schools. The chosen methodology was qualitative in approach and in terms of data organization we were inspired by the methodological procedure of Collective Subject Discourse (CSD), which made it possible to gather together individual thoughts of a similar nature into collective thought. In terms of data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted in each of the selected schools with the school director, school manager and two classroom teachers who worked in the first year, totalling 30 individuals. The aims of this study are: to discuss the referrals that the Ponta Grossa Department of Education defined to organize the times and teaching spaces for the first year of elementary school (nine year-old students); and to understand the impact on elementary schooling of the policy of inclusion for six year-old children in public municipal schools. Chapter 1 outlines the existing work found on the subject that is recorded in the CAPES (Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) database as well as pointing out the relevance of this research. Chapter 2 gives a brief history of the 1934 Constitution until the Constitutional Amendment 059/2009. Chapter 3 discusses the foundations of theoretical and methodological research, the paths followed in the search for empirical data, and the personal characteristics and professional training of those participating in the survey. Chapter 4 contains the core of the study and therefore includes the voices of the participants and an analysis of their discourses drawn from a reading of the didactic material. This provides not only the voices of the participants but also an interpretation of their discourses. Finally, the research shows that including children in school at the age of nine requires a political, administrative and pedagogical approach and the absence of these three factors makes it difficult to establish a policy. By ensuring that all children from the age of six have access to compulsory education is undoubtedly an opportunity to safeguard a right of citizenship. The survey also shows that the cut-off age for enrollment of children in the first year of elementary school inhibits the possibility of some children entering school. Among other results, we highlight: the need for a better physical structure to receive the children; pedagogical clarity regarding the work in year 1, the interplay between issues of early childhood education and elementary schooling; investment in training for teachers and all who work in schools, and fewer children in classrooms / O trabalho está voltado para desvelar os impactos pedagógicos da política de ampliação do Ensino Fundamental no município de Ponta Grossa Paraná. A pesquisa foi realizada no ano de 2009, em oito escolas municipais. A opção metodológica foi a da abordagem qualitativa, e para a organização dos dados, inspiramo-nos no procedimento metodológico do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC), que possibilitou reunir os pensamentos individuais semelhantes em um pensamento coletivo. Para a coleta dos dados, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com a diretora da escola, pedagoga e duas professoras que atuavam em cada uma das escolas na turma do 1º ano, totalizando 30 sujeitos. O trabalho teve como objetivos: discutir os encaminhamentos que a Secretaria Municipal de Educação da cidade de Ponta Grossa definiu para organizar os tempos e espaços pedagógicos do 1º ano do Ensino Fundamental de nove anos e compreender os impactos no Ensino Fundamental da política de inclusão das crianças de seis anos nas escolas da rede pública municipal de ensino. No primeiro capítulo, estão explicitados os trabalhos encontrados sobre a temática, que estavam registrados no banco de dados da CAPES, além de apontar a relevância da presente pesquisa. O segundo capítulo traça uma trajetória histórica da Constituição de 1934 até a Emenda Constitucional 059/2009. Os fundamentos teóricos e metodológicos da pesquisa, os caminhos trilhados para a busca dos dados empíricos, quem foram os sujeitos bem como suas características pessoais, profissionais e de formação estão organizados no terceiro capítulo. O quarto capítulo constitui-se como o âmago do estudo, contempla os discursos dos sujeitos, elaborados a partir dos eixos de análise construídos com base na leitura do material empírico. Neles estão contidas as vozes dos sujeitos, bem como a interpretação desses discursos. Por fim, a pesquisa revela que incluir as crianças na escola de nove anos exige um tratamento político, administrativo e pedagógico e que, na ausência desses três fatores, é difícil implantar uma política. Garantir a todas as crianças de seis anos o acesso à educação obrigatória é, sem dúvida, a oportunidade de resgatar um direito de cidadania. A pesquisa também evidenciou que o corte etário para a matrícula da criança no primeiro ano do Ensino Fundamental inibe a possibilidade de ingresso da criança na escola. Entre outros resultados, destacam-se: a necessidade de melhor adequação na estrutura física para receber as crianças; clareza pedagógica para o trabalho no 1º ano; entrosamento entre as questões da Educação Infantil e do Ensino Fundamental; investimentos pontual na formação dos professores e de todos os que trabalham na escola, além de menor número de crianças nas salas de aula