Graduation from high school has become the accepted educational goal for most Americans and stands as the minimum requirement not only for higher education but also competitive positions in the employment market. The general public, the government, business, industry and education have great interest in the plans and decisions of high school graduates.

The aim of this study was to investigate seven in-service preschool teachers’ conception of their competence in physics, needs in further educational training and their perceptions around conditions surrounding physics education in preschool. The study is based on a phenomenographic approach where individual interviews have been conducted.The study shows that most of the preschool teachers feels that physics is difficult and something they are struggling with, both when it comes to teaching and understanding the subject themselves. Everyone in the study does not share these thoughts. The conception that also appears is that they do have good knowledge in the subject but not in teaching it. Most of the teachers are open minded in their needs of professional development. They express that they want education in the form of workshops, that both has a basic theoretical and practical approach. A minority feels that they can seek further development themselves through various types of literature. The study shows that there are many aspects of underlying conditions for why they do not teach preschoolers in physics. Perception that stands out are time-economic circumstances, their lack of knowledge in physics, lack of interest in the subject and arguments that indicate that they also use the preschoolers’ lack of interest as a defending argument. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka sju verksamma förskollärares uppfattningar kring deras egen kompetens, behov av fortbildning och deras uppfattningar kring förutsättningar för fysikundervisning i förskolan. Studien grundar sig på fenomenografisk teori och metodologi och semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts som datainsamlingsmetod.Studien visar att majoriteten av förskollärarna uppfattar sina kunskaper i fysik som mindre bra och upplever fysikämnet som svårt. De få som anser sig ha goda kunskaper i fysik uttrycker trots goda kunskaper i ämnet osäkerhet kring hur de ska undervisa i fysik. Studien visar att förskollärarna i allmänhet känner att de behöver kompetensutveckling framförallt i hur de ska undervisa i fysik i förskolan. Majoriteten av förskollärarna i studien vill ha fortbildning i form av workshops eller föreläsningar som har både teoretiska och praktiska inslag. Förskollärarnas uppfattningar om förutsättningar för fysik i förskolan visar på en mängd hinder för utvecklande av fysikundervisningen. De lyfter speciellt det tidsekonomiska begränsningar som finns, bristande kunskaper i fysik, bristande intresse i fysik och använder också barnens intressen som starkt argument till att de inte arbetar med fysik i förskolan.

Master's thesis deals with newly emerging forms of public preschool education. The research objective was to describe and evaluate the Center for preschool children, to characterize and compare it with the system of education in nursery schools. Evaluate their contribution to society and educational effects. Monitor vision and expectations of parents. To identify the necessary information, I used methods of observation of the educational conditions, observation of the work educator, interview with a educator, interview with the head of the Center and questionnaire for parents.

The thesis deals with educational methods as a central element of the educational process as well as one of the original concepts of work in the Salesian youth centres from the standpoint of leisure studies. It is based on a qualitative research conceived as a content analysis of project documents of eight chosen youth centres. In the introduction, the concepts used are delimited, the problematics of Salesian youth centres in the Czech Republic and of educational methods practised there is theoretically presented. In the second part, the object, methods, process and results of the research are described. The other three parts are a synthesis of the knowledge gained in the analysis of the texts, complemented with information from other documents. These three parts describe thoroughly the concepts of education in Salesian youth centres (subjects, objectives, means, organisation forms and methods of education). In the crucial fifth part, treating educational methods, the lack of due attention to the educational methods in the examined documents is noticed.