The present study applies early field experience theory and developmental stages theory as the basis of teacher training i n a junior college program in Taiwan. Two hundred sixty-six junior college students from two junior colleges were surveyed in order to ascertain what factors had an effect on the concept of teaching concerns. Comparisons were made among the following : with/ without preschool education background in senior high school, grade, school, age, fathers' educational levels, mothers' educational levels, and fathers' yearly income. The results indicate that early field experiences had a direct effect on teaching concerns. The students' year of study (freshmen vs sophomore) in junior college made a difference depending on whether they had been exposed to an early field experience. The groups that had a preschool education background had higher mean developmental-teaching-stage scores, in first (freshmen) study year, but lower mean scores in the second (sophomore) study year. The mean developmentalteaching- stage scores for both study years of junior college students with preschool education background were very close to each other. Junior college students without a preschool education background in senior high had a higher mean developmental-teaching-stage score in the second year than in the first year.

Ankstyvosios vaikystės amžiaus tarpsnio vaikus ugdo šeima ir ikimokyklinių įstaigų pedagogai, todėl svarbu, kad ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigoje dirbtų tinkamiausi šiam darbui pedagogai. Ikimokyklinis ugdymas gali būti analizuojamas ne tik instituciniu, bet ir intrapersonaliniu lygmenimis, todėl vertinant ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigos pedagogų atranką, galima teigti, kad pedagoginėje veikloje atsiranda papildoma dedamoji – veiklos priklausomybė nuo darbuotojo pašaukimo profesijai. Profesinio kryptingumo aspektas vertinant ikimokyklinio ugdymo pedagogą ir įtraukiant šį kriterijų į pedagoginio personalo atranką gali būti vertinamas kaip švietimo vadybos naujovė ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigoje. Tyrimo objektas – ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigos pedagogų atrankos kriterijai. Tyrimo tikslas – išsiaiškinti pagrindinius ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigos pedagoginio personalo atrankos kriterijus, įvertinant formaliuosius kvalifikacinius reikalavimus bei pedagogo profesinį kryptingumą. Uždaviniai: atskleisti ikimokyklinio ugdymo sistemos kaitos bruožus; nustatyti ikimokyklinio ugdymo pedagogo profesinio pašaukimo ir profesionalumo sąsajas; nustatyti ikimokyklinio ugdymo pedagogų profesinį kryptingumo vertinimo kriterijus. Tyrimas atliekamas naudojant šiuos teorinius, empirinius bei statistinius tyrimo metodus: mokslinės literatūros analizė, dokumentų turinio analizė, anketine apklausa, struktūrizuotas interviu, kokybinis vaikų prezentacijų tyrimas, kiekybinė ir kokybinė empirinio tyrimo metu... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Family and preschool educational institutions’ pedagogical staff are responsible for children education and upbringing in infancy period, in childhood. That is reason for selection of really suitable persons and educators. Preschool education might be analyzed by institutional and intrapersonal level. With evaluation of preschool educational institutions in institutional level originate education activity dependence of avocation. Involvement of singleness of profession aspect to the selection criteria of educators of preschool educational institutions is innovation of education management in the preschool education institution. Object of research is criteria of preschool education institutions educators’ selection. Main goal of research is to clarify main criteria of educators’ selection for the preschool educational institutions, with evaluations of formal requirements for qualification and involvement of singleness of profession aspect. Tasks of research are: to educe the changes of the preschool education system; to stand correlation of preschool educators’ avocation and professionalism; to determinate criteria of preschool education institutions educators’ selection. Methods of research: theoretical (analysis of science literature, content analysis of documents), empirical qualitative and quantity (questioning, structural interviewing, presentations research, statistical qualitative data analysis). In the Final Work there are evaluation of preschool education changes... [to full text]

As an institution, the preschool shall contribute to an active education of democracy andequality. Preschool educators are important intermediaries within the educational system andtheir work shall contribute to a democratic environment. The methods that preschooleducators use has a big impact on children’s education and application of democraticprinciples and how children get affected by this is based on the values that the preschool hasin their environment. The preschool supports different principles of equality, which meansthat they work actively to strengthen the child’s knowledge and values for equality in livingconditions. The preschool also teaches the children that everyone is equal regardless thegender. Research shows that children at the age of 2.5 begin to make use of their genderidentity, girls begin to show stereotypically female tendencies while boys showstereotypically male tendencies. The children’s identity is formed and created throughinteraction with other people, for example preschool educators at the preschool. Therefore, itis interesting to see how preschool educators affect children’s gender socialization in thepreschool by focusing on the roles that preschool educators take in the making of gender. Thepurpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of how preschool educators relate toboys and girls at the preschool. Are the children treated equally within the preschoolenvironment or is there a difference between what gender they have and further on howgender is created in practice. Our qualitative study was conducted at a preschool in middleSweden where we studied preschool educators’ interactions with the children. To answer thepurpose of the study, we made participant observations and interviews with preschooleducators at the preschool. The results of the study show us that preschool educators behavedifferently to boys and girls despite having conscious thoughts about gender. Howapproaching the gender happens unconscious in preschool educators’ interactions with thechildren. / Förskolan som institution ska medverka till en aktiv fostran av demokrati och jämställdhet.Inom skolväsendet är förskolepedagoger betydelsefulla förmedlare, förskolepedagoger skasåledes bidra till en demokratisk miljö. Förskolepedagogers arbete, vilka förhållningssätt menäven vilka värderingar de har på förskolan påverkar barnens fostran och tillägnandet av dedemokratiska principerna. Förskolan stödjer olika principer för jämställdhet vilket innebär attde aktivt stärker barnets kunskaper och värderingar för jämlikhet i levnadsvillkor. Påförskolan ska barnen lära sig att alla människor är lika mycket värda oavsettkönstillhörighet. Forskning visar att barn vid en ålder av 2,5 år börjar att använda sig av sinkönsidentitet, flickor börjar visa stereotypiskt kvinnliga tendenser medans pojkar visarstereotypiskt manliga tendenser. Barnens identitet formas och skapas genom interaktion medandra människor exempelvis förskolepedagoger på förskolan. Därför är det intressant attstudera hur förskolepedagoger påverkar barnens könssocialisation i förskolan genom attfokusera på förskolepedagogers roller i görandet av kön. Syftet med studien var att få endjupare förståelse om hur förskolepedagoger förhåller sig till pojkar och flickor på förskolan.Behandlas barnen lika inom förskolans miljö eller det skiljer sig åt på grund av barnens olikakönstillhörigheter, det vill säga hur genus skapas i praktiken. Vår kvalitativa studiegenomfördes på en förskola i mellansverige där vi studerade förskolepedagogers interaktionermed barnen. För att besvara studiens syfte gjorde vi deltagande observationer och intervjuermed förskolepedagoger på förskolan. Resultatet av studien visar att förskolepedagogerförhåller sig olika till pojkar och flickor trots att de har medvetna tankar om genus. Ettgörande av kön sker omedvetet i förskolepedagogers interaktioner med barnen.

Research shows that physical touch is essential to human well-being. At the same time there is a fear in society about the subject. The preschool curriculum, Lpfö 18, emphasizes that children's integrity must be taken into consideration in parallel with the fact that children should be treated based on their individual needs. Our study is based on examining how educators navigate based on this. The purpose of our research is to investigate how educators talk about physical touch. How do educators reason about which children it is offered to and for what purpose physical touch is given? The study consists of qualitative interviews with five educators. The empirical analysis is analyzed from a care-ethical perspective as well as an intersectional perspective in order to document similarities and differences from the educators' stories. The result shows that the concept of physical touch creates a fear among educators of violating the child's integrity, which can result in a taboo perspective. Despite this, educators use physical touch as a tool to increase the child's well-being. They find the benefits to be greater than their fear. The educators state that the purpose of physical touch is to treat the child well, give love and to guide the child. It is mainly children who give clear signals of being in need of physical touch who are given access to the educator's closeness. Based on the results and from an intersectional perspective, our conclusion is that younger girls are the category that get the most physical touch. Although physical touch is seen as a natural element in the profession, the meaning of physical touch is rarely discussed among educators.

Studiens syfte är att bidra med kunskap om begreppet mångfald genom förskolepedagogers perspektiv utifrån deras uppfattning av begreppet mångfald, samt att ta reda på hur pedagogerna beskriver arbetet med mångfald. Detta har utförts genom en kvalitativ intervjustudie utifrån teorin fenomenografi. Ett centralt begrepp inom fenomenografin är uppfattningar vilket är fokus i frågeställningarna.  Studiens resultat visar att förskolepedagoger uppfattar begreppet mångfald som svårt att både definiera och arbeta med men att det är mycket viktigt. En viktig slutsats från studiens resultat är att förskolepedagoger ofta definierar mångfald utifrån den barngrupp man arbetar i. Förskolepedagogers uppfattningar av begreppet mångfald har vidgats något i och med den reviderade läroplanen för förskolan 2018 genom diskussioner i arbetslagen. Många förskolepedagoger har också uttryckt att arbetet med mångfald är en utmaning när det inte finns en stor etnisk mångfald bland barnen.  En upptäckt som gjordes var att när vissa pedagoger ska beskriva sin uppfattning av begreppet mångfald, gör de det utifrån en etnisk mångfald. En av pedagogerna uppfattar att mångfald inte bara handlar om en annan nationalitet. Även om en avdelning bara har svenska barn finns det många olika kulturer. / The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge about the concept diversity through preschool educators' perspective based on their perceptions of the concept diversity and to find out how the preschool educators describe the work with diversity. This has been done through a qualitative interview study and the theory phenomenography. A central concept in phenomenography is perceptions which is the focus of the questions presented in the study.  The result from the study shows that preschool educators perceive the concept of diversity as both hard to define and work with but very important. An important conclusion from the result of the study is that preschool educators often define diversity based on the group of children they’re working with. Preschool educators' perceptions on the concept of diversity have been slightly widened since the revised curriculum for preschool in 2018 through discussions in the working teams. Many preschool educators have also expressed that work with diversity is a challenge when there is no great ethnic diversity among the children.  A discovery that emerged was how some preschool educators describe their perception of the concept of diversity, they often do it based on ethnic diversity. One preschool educator perceives that diversity is just not about a different nationality. Even if the preschool only has Swedish children there are still many different cultures.

Sammanfattning Alla barn i förskolan har rätt till en stimulerande språkutveckling, att kunna uttrycka känslor, behov och känna delaktighet i det sociala samspelet. Syften med denna studie är att ge en övergripande bild över hur teckenanvändning i förskolan kan stimulera barns språkutveckling oavsett svårigheter och vad pedagogerna har för inställningen till metoden ur ett sociokulturellt inkluderande perspektiv. Tidigare forskning visar att det finns positiva effekter av att använda sig av tecken som ett komplement för att förstärka talspråket, speciellt för språksvaga barn. Det har framför allt fått konsekvenser för begreppsutvecklingen och ordförståelsen som innefattas i förskolans styrdokument. Tillvägagångssättet i studien var kvantitativ metod i form av en digital enkätundersökning som skickades ut till förskolor runt om i landet. Resultatet visade att majoriteten av pedagogerna hade en positiv inställning till användandet av tecken och att deras uppfattningar stämde överens med det som tidigare forskning påvisat. Avslutningsvis behöver mer forskning inom området utföras för att kunna säkerställa fördelarna i ett längre perspektiv. / Abstract All children in preschool are entitled to a stimulating language development process; to be able to express their feelings, needs and be actively involved in social interaction. The purpose of this study is twofold: Firstly, to deepen the understanding of how signing can stimulate children's language development complementary to speech in preschool regardless of difficulties in speech. Secondly, to investigate teachers’ attitudes to and opinions on the method from a socio-cultural theory and in inclusion perspective. Previous research shows that there are many benefits of using signing as a method to enhance the spoken language, especially for children with special needs. Signing has proved especially significant for improving literacy and language skills, which are important components of the pre-school curriculum. The approach in this study was a quantitative method produced as a digital questionnaire sent to different preschools around Sweden. The results showed that the majority of the educators saw positive effects of using signing as a complement to speech, which is consistent with previous research. In conclusion, further research needs to be conducted on the topic to be able to identify the long-term benefits.

The aim of the study is to investigate preschool educators' perceptions of children's need for sleep and rest in preschool as well as their experiences of cooperating with the home regarding the child's sleeping times, based on the child's needs. Our goal is to investigate how a claim from guardians regarding children's sleep in preschool is met by educators. To do this we search the answers of the following three questions: How do educators view children's need for sleep and rest in preschool and how do they respond to guardians demands for children's sleep? How do educators reason about good communication with guardians? What consequences do the educators think the dialogue with the guardian can have for the child's sleep and rest in preschool? To get the answers of these questions we have done ten qualitative interviews with female preschool educators. The study is based on a phenomenographic perspective, where we want to create an understanding of how educators perceive the phenomenon of sleep and rest in preschool. As children's need for sleep is something that is communicated about in the interpersonal meeting between educators and guardians, the importance of the relationship and the treatment will also be emphasized from an educator's perspective. To analyze the relationship and communication as concepts we use the social constructivist theory. The results we got through this study shows that all educators agree that the preschool should offer an environment where children get the opportunity to rest and sleep for a day full of activity, this to manage a whole day in preschool. Rest and sleep seem to be a routine that is adapted to needs, both after the childrens and guardian needs. Therefore we ask ourselves, whose needs are the most important, the childrens, guardians or both? The results also show that the preschool educators have different opinions about which competencies that are important when it comes to having good communication about sleep with guardians. Every pedagogue says that a certain competens is needed just because the communication is of such importance for a good cooperation between home and preschool.

Die Arbeit begründet durch die Betrachtung empirischer Befunde die Notwendigkeit von naturwissenschaftlicher Vorschulbildung, hinterfragt und analysiert bestehendes Bildungsmaterial und entwickelt einen Umsetzungsvorschlag in Form einer Broschüre für die Bildungspraxis von Erzieher_innen. Dazu werden in dieser Arbeit Qualitätsmerkmale naturwissenschaftlicher Bildungsprozesse und naturwissenschaftlichen Bildungsmaterials herausgearbeitet und auf bestehendes Bildungsmaterial angewendet. Das Fazit diagnostiziert den bestehenden Bildungskonzepten ein naturwissenschaftliches Defizit und ein mangelndes Verständnis dafür, was naturwissenschaftliches Vorgehen ausmacht. Es stellt die Anschlussfähigkeit des erworbenen Wissens in Frage und fordert ein Umdenken in der naturwissenschaftlichen Ausbildung von Erzieher_innen.:1. Einleitung 1.1 Problembeschreibung 1.2 Fragestellung 1.3 Methodische Vorgehensweise 2. Naturwissenschaftliche Vorschulbildung in Studien, Lehr- und Bildungsplänen 2.1 Vorschulbildung in empirischen Studien 2.2 Naturwissenschaften im sächsischen Bildungsplan 2.3 Naturwissenschaft im Lehrplan der sächsischen Fachschule für Sozialwesen 3. Theoretische Betrachtung naturwissenschaftlicher Bildung 3.1 Scientific Literacy 3.2 Nature of Science 3.3 Naturwissenschaftliche Konzepte 3.4 Conceptual Change Theorie 3.5 Situationsansatz 3.6 Ziele naturwissenschaftlicher Vorschulbildung 3.7 Qualitätsdimensionen naturwissenschaftlicher Bildung in der Kita 4. Analyse und Bewertung bestehenden Materials für die Kita 4.1 Experimentierbücher 4.2 Broschüren der Stiftung Haus der kleinen Forscher 4.3 Experimentierkästen 5. Entwicklung eines didaktischen Mediums 5.1 Identifikation physikalischer Konzepte 5.1.1 Basiskonzept Materie 5.1.2 Basiskonzept Energie 5.1.3 Basiskonzept Wellen und Schwingungen 5.1.4 Basiskonzept Kräfte und Wechselwirkungen 5.2 Naturwissenschaftliche Denk- und Arbeitsweisen 5.3 Die physikalische Grundbildung der Fachkraft 5.4 Konzipierung des didaktischen Materials 6. Implementierung einer geeigneten naturwissenschaftlichen Bildungspraxis in der Kita 6.1 Gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz 6.2 Entwicklung professioneller Kompetenz 6.3 Verfügbarkeit geeigneten Materials 7. Zusammenfassung 8. Weiterführende Fragen Literaturverzeichnis Anhänge Anhang 1 – Übersicht der empirischen Studien zur vorschulischen Bildung Anhang 2 – Soziale Disparität in der PISA 2015 Studie Anhang 3 – Das Struktur-Prozessmodell nach Roux und Tietze Anhang 4 – Kriterien zur Bewertung naturwissenschaftlichen Bildungsmaterials Anhang 5 – Mathematische Herleitung des Archimedischen Prinzips Anhang 6 – Schatten in unterschiedlichen Beleuchtungssituationen Anhang 7 – Übersicht der physikalischen Realschulbildung Anhang 8 – Broschüre „Physik in der Kita“