2001-01-16

Appendix 2. DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH IN THE FIELDS OF EARLY

CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND AND PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

 Since 1992, the Stakes has been collating information on Finnish development and research projects in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The most recent report, published in 1999, contains information on about a thousand projects, which has been received from 250 local authorities as well as from universities and research institutes.

The Stakes is to introduce an Internet-based collection of information in the year 2000. The network-based information will involve an opportunity for discussion and consultation with peer groups, but also with experts in different fields.

The central thematic sectors in the most recent list of ECEC and pre-school development projects are as follows:

• For the good of the child together with the family

The development projects are related to co-operation, not only with parents, but also with grandparents. The theme involves development of sibling group activities and day care as part of child welfare.

• A common world

This theme deals with projects of natural and environmental education and sustainable development. Projects dealing with community and value education include native place projects and work education. The theme involves implementation of projects related to self-esteem and group activities, as well as projects concentrating on education for international understanding and the problems of immigrant families.

• Worlds of play and channels of learning

These development projects emphasise play as providing a world of learning for children. This section involves projects related to physical education, dance and adventure, as well as art education projects. Collaborative learning and active learning together with a child-focused philosophy underline the child’s right to participation and self-expression. The projects also deal with learning projects in mathematics and their native tongue. The use of computers in early childhood education and care presents a new pedagogical dimension. There are also development projects in municipalities, which explore the Montessori and Reggio Emilia pedagogical systems. In recent years, Finnish day care has developed Growth Portfolios to describe and record individual children’s lives and growth. Based on the Growth Portfolios, it is possible to evaluate day-care work and the achievement of its objectives. For children, the portfolio gives them something of their own, including their own memories, a story about themselves. Children can take their portfolios to a new day-care place or, later, to school. At best, the Growth Portfolio also provides contact between home and day care.

• Special day care

Need for special day care has increased in recent years, which is also evident from the growth in development work. Identification of a need for special day care as early as possible is one of the areas of development work. In addition, new means of working are also being sought in municipalities by developing operating models, for example, where a special care provider will co-operate with children, families, day-care staff and other partners. The local authorities are developing co-operation between different administrations in many ways and are promoting regional networking of different parties in special day care. The flexible transition to school of children in need of special care and education is one of the targets of development work. Some of the projects focus on certain areas of special support, such as children’s linguistic and speech disorders or hearing defects and also provide for children with autism and motion disorders.

 

• Pre-school and initial education

This theme deals with co-operation projects between day care and school in terms of planning, activities and facilities. The projects also concern those of pre-school and initial education not tied to year classes, as well as those developing the pre-school curriculum and content.

• Quality of day care

The quality of day care is seen as early childhood education and care stemming from the needs of the child and the family. Content-related quality plays a central role in the activities, but their productivity has also been taken into account. Sets of quality indicators have been prepared on the basis of client surveys directed at parents and children. Quality is also being enhanced by means of training.

• The various services of day care

This theme deals with the various child-care alternatives provided for families by day care besides day-care centre activities, as well as their development, including family day care, playgroup and play activities and experiments in evening care. The projects also present the service projects of sparsely populated areas, shift, evening and part-time care, as well as the service voucher experiment.

• A developing working community

The maintenance and development of vocational competence, work motivation and interaction in the working community are emphasised in this theme, together with staff training and occupational guidance. The nature of leadership in day care is becoming increasingly administrative and extensive, which means that responsibilities are distributed to teams of employees. New information and enthusiasm to develop one’s own work are being sought from co-operation networks. There are also experiments on results-based payment.

• Finlandssvenska utvecklingsproject (Swedish-speaking development project)

The development work in Swedish-language day care in Finland focuses on the quality of day care. The content areas emphasised include the environment, nature and mathematics. Co-operation between home and day care is also being developed.

The following list presents the ongoing research and development projects as reported by universities and research institutes. Education for kindergarten teachers was transferred to the control of universities in 1995, which has stimulated research in the field.

University of Helsinki, Department of Teacher Education

• A Child-focused Theory of Education
• Didactics in Pre-school and Initial Education

University of Helsinki, Kindergarten Teacher Education

• Cultures of Pre-school Education for Six-year-olds
• Views of Educational Staff on Problematic Behaviour among Children at Day-care Centres, Problematic Situations in Education and How to Influence Them
• You Are Always Somewhere – Where Are You at a Day-care Centre?
• Literacy in a Rucksack
• Educational Thinking and Argumentation Skills Reflected in the Educational Views of Teachers Specialising in Initial Education
• Teacher Teams in Kindergarten Teacher Education
• A Child as a Changing Participant in Day-care Centre Situations
• Art in Early Childhood Education and Care – Visual Art Education and Its Inter-artistic Connections in the Context of Education and Culture
• From Kindergarten to Day Care – the Path of Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care into a Part of Nordic Welfare in 1945–1973
• Integration of Environmental and Natural Studies and Mathematics in Pre-school and Initial Education

University of Helsinki, Department of Social Psychology

• Development of Interaction Skills among Kindergarten Teacher Students
• Connections between Children’s Temperament and Social Activities at a Day-care Centre
• Multiethnic Education at a Day-care Centre
• Small Children’s Spontaneous Mathematics

University of Joensuu, Faculty of Education

• From Pre-school Education to the Third Form of Comprehensive School (the ESKO Project)
• New Methods of Teaching Children and of Children’s Learning in Pre-school Education
• Physical Education as Support for Learning Difficulties
• Integrating Psychomotor Rehabilitation as Part of Day-care Centre Activities
• The Computer as a Children’s Learning Environment in Early Childhood Learning
• Impact Study of Continuing Training Programmes in Pre-school and Initial Education
• Learning and Teaching Mathematics in Pre-school and Initial Education

University of Jyväskylä, Department of Teacher Education

• From Pre-schoolers to First-formers
• Development and Guidance of Learning Skills in Pre-school and Initial Education

University of Jyväskylä, Department of Early Childhood Education

• Searching for a Common Path – Preparation of the Curricula for Pre-school and Initial Education as an Action Study

University of Jyväskylä, Institute for Educational Research

• Flexibility in the Teaching and Learning of 5–8-year-olds
• Growth Portfolios as a Bridge from Day-care Centre to School
• Bridges from Day-care Centre to School
• Digital Portfolios as Tools for Teacher Discussion and Co-operation

University of Oulu, Early Childhood Education Centre

• Professional Ethics Thinking in Teachers’ Narratives
• Biographies and Narratives as Describers and Tools of Personal and Professional Growth among Students Studying to Become Teachers in Early Childhood Education and Care
• Quality Assessment in Day Care
• Quality of Family Day Care
• Development Project of University Co-operation
• Leadership in a Day-care Centre Community
• Management of a Day-care Centre in Finland
• Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care Work
• Learning in Childhood
• The Role of the Adult in Play Pedagogy
• An Action Analysis of a Child Group on the Conditions and Opportunities of Collaboration
• Trainers of ECEC Teachers as Consultants of Teacher Training Day-care Centres
• Kindergarten Teacher as an Implementer of Early Childhood Education and Care
• Early Childhood Education and Care and ECEC Research in a Changing Societal Orientation
• The India Project

University of Oulu, Kajaani Department of Teacher Education

• Research and Development Project of Children’s Physical and Health Education
• Development of Mastery of the Profession in ECEC Work
• The Fifth Dimension as a Development Factor of Learning Conditions
• Children’s Play and Social Relationships in Day Care
• The Fundamental Questions of Lifelong Learning in the Master’s Education in Early Childhood Education and Care
• Development and Developmental Activities of under Three-year-olds
• Children, Culture and Everyday Life
• Elementary Mathematics through Fairy Tales and Play
• The Joint Perception and Action of Mother and Child in the Cyclic Development Anticipating the Child’s Speech

University of Tampere, Kindergarten Teacher Education

• Drama Play in Early Childhood Education and Care
• Educational Views of Kindergarten Teacher Students and Their Shaping as Interpreted by the Students on the Basis of Their Biographies

• Changes in Children’s Conceptual Models and the Development of Children’s Exploration Strategies in the PICCO Environment
• The Developing Expertise of Kindergarten Teachers
• Leadership in Early Childhood Centres (ILP Project)
• The Day-care Centre as a Multidisciplinary Working Community
• Family, Work and Early Childhood Education and Care
• The Future Perspective in Teacher Education and Teaching
• Music in the Education and Guidance of Children’s Instructors
• ’It Sure is Hard Work Being a Child like That’ – Circumstances of FAS Children Taken into Custody
• Establishment of Tampere Kindergarten Seminary in 1955, Measures Leading to the Establishment and Operations in the Early Years
• Societal and Historical Barriers to Providing Pre-school Education
• Pre-school Education as a Target of Pedagogical Development Work

University of Turku, Department of Education

• Children’s Conceptual Understanding
• Guidance of Learning
• Small Children’s Social Relationships

University of Turku, Department of Teacher Education in Rauma

• Transaction Analysis of Education
• Study of ECEC Networks
• Oppiva – Developing the Learning Conditions of Children in Family Day Care
• Sound Workshop Experiment

University of Turku, Centre for Extension Studies

• Development of Day Care in Small Municipalities

Stakes

• Early Childhood Education and Care, Information Technology, Interaction – A Research and Development Project
• The ’Children Narrate’ Research Group
• The Public Social and Health Service System and Production of Welfare
• Reconciling Work and Family Life
• Families with Children Survey 1998
• Research and Development of Methods and Practices in Child Welfare Work.