Category Archives: Research

Multicultural children and families

|
Reply

The importance of multicultural children and families in early childhood education is growing as the culture is becoming more global. Outi Arvola is making her doctoral thesis on the subject at the University of Turku, Finland. She is using the project data in her thesis. We will also use the project results for improving the conditions for the multicultural children in early childhood.  Outi Arvola is interested in discussing the topic and the possibilities of international cooperation. Outi’ email address is outi.arvola@turkuamk.fi. Do not hesitate to contact her if you wonder about the possible mutual interests.

Children’s fears in Finnish day care and preschool

|
Reply

Heli Soderqvist has just finished her graduate thesis on the Orientation project data about children’s fears. The children were interviewed by their parents. For the question Are you afraid in day care? answered 3434 children. In average the children were not afraid and they liked to be in day care. For the additional open question What are you afraid in day care? answered 1095 children. These descriptions by children themselves open up a unique view on the everyday in day care and preschool. Unfortunately, only the abstract is in English! Fortunately, Google translate seems to work well with the text 🙂 Take a look at Heli’s work here. Discuss children’s answers with the children of your group of with your own children!

And note that there are a lot of interesting graduate thesis presented in here!

The perspectives of the bullied children

|
Reply

We asked 3-7-year-old children: – Think of a situation when another child comes to tease you, what do you do? 761 children answered to  the question and described their strategy in addressing bullying. Often children seeked help from the teacher or tried to negotiate with the bully. However, children had a lot of different strategies, for example, hitting the bully or starting to cry. Children’s interactivity increased as children grew older and the amount of withdrawn strategies decreased with age. Especially interesting was that we were able to trace the connection between children’s interview strategies and their observed activities. Because interview and observation were independent measures, the found connections describe something real.  The reference information is below:

Reunamo, J. T., Kalliomaa, M. Repo, L., Salminen, E., Lee, H-C & Wang, L-C. (In print). Children’s strategies in addressing bullying situations in day care and preschool. Early Child Development and Care.

Obs. training in Singapore

|
Reply

ippThe Singapore observation training lasted for two days. More than 40 observers were trained. The training produced a wealth of interesting discussions and insight. The data will be collected from kindergartens in 5-year-old groups between February and May 2015. After the data collection the kindergartens and observers will get detailed feedback on the activities observed. Thank you for the organization and support for Christine Soo Mee Ling and to the other helpful people at PAP Community Foundation. Now the observers will practice the use of the observation instrument and collect questions about its use. In January, just before the data collection, we will discuss the raised questions to ensure a valid and reliable observation across all four countries and kindergartens. The observation details were also presented in the PAP conference for ECEC teachers: Serving with pride, nurturing with passion.

Obs.training in Hong Kong

|
Reply

ipp

The observation training in Hong Kong was conducted successfully. Doris Cheng and James Ko were the leading actors during the instrument validation. Often the simplest definitions were the hardest. What are eating situations? How to consider emotions in role play? Scaffolded play definition produced a lot of talks.We agreed on a broad definition somewhere between direct education and free play.We could not find one universal definition.  The other observed items will be helping us in defining the more refined aspects of guided or scaffolded play. Hong Kong is a surprisingly versatile and complex place. A good challenge for our refined tools!

Project papers at Earli 14 conference

|
Reply

At the EARLI Conference on SIG 5 Learning and Development in Early Childhood August 25-27, 2014 Jyväskylä, Finland three papers about Orientation project plans and results were presented:

 

Taiwanese colleagues have landed

|
Reply

tw

Our precious colleagues from Taiwan arrived in Helsinki today. Their input is essential in agreeing on the final versions of the 2015 data collection. We need to go through the observation definitions, interview questions, child evaluations and the learning environment evaluations. Furthermore, we also need to agree on the definitions of the observation training videos. A laborious but exciting work ahead! We will use the results in the Finnish, Hong Kong, Singaporean and Taiwanese training.

The 2. phase of Or.project is starting

|
Reply

The second phase of Or.project is starting. Here are some dates for 2014:

  • 16-28 August Taiwanese colleagues professors Hui-Chun Lee, Li-Chen Wang and Shu-Chuan Shih with their colleagues, observers and students, visit Finland to study the observation and interview instruments.
  • 10-12. September in Singapore 30 observers will be trained for observation. Christine Soo coordinates the observation training workshop.
  • 4-8 September in Hong Kong observation training. Doris Cheng coordinates the training.
  • 16-18 September the first three observation training sessions in Finland (Hämeenlinna, Turku, Helsinki). the second and third sessions will be in October and November.