We concentrate on the organizing of the conference in Taiwan 2013, teacher exchange and article writing. We plan to make rich and approachable contents in the conferences at the National Academy of Educational Research and Tzu-Chi University.
217 development models have been prepared based on the research results. One kindergarten is responsible for one model. The models can be studied here. Unfortunately only the Taiwanese models are in English. We hope to translate at least some of the Finnish models in English.
30000 0bservations of children’s physical activity in day care was made in 2010. Now the three first articles on the results have been published. The articles are:
Jyrki Reunamo visited Hong Kong Institute of Education 25th May – 3rd June to share research initiatives and to present development tasks. Concrete research initiatives and development projects were started, mutual interests found and the future collaboration looks fruitful, to say the least. There are things we can learn from each other and there are interesting things that we can compare and get perspective on. In a blog it is not possible to elaborate on the possibilities. The project will reveal itself bit by bit as the process advances. In the picture below you can see a gym in a day care center in Hong Kong.
The research results concerning children’s physical education are presented in the Design Learning conference 10th May 2012. The presentations:
Jyrki Reunamo, Satu Lehto & Heikki Ruismäki: Children’s peer relations and children’s physical activity
Anna-Liisa Kyhälä & Jyrki Reunamo: Learning environment for physical activities in Finnish day care
Jyrki Reunamo & Leila Saros: The amount of physical activity in Finnish day care
The Early Childhood Education quality was evaluated by parents, educators and children themselves. All three types of evaluations have been merged. The merging makes it possible to study e.g. how children’s personal evaluations are connected with the staff’ evaluations of learning environment. The cities and municipalities of Hyvinkää, Hämeenlinna, Järvenpää, Kerava, Kirkkonumme, Mäntsälä, Nurmijärvi, Pornainen, Tuusula and Vihti. The quality was evaluated by 3764 children, 3564 parents and 925 pedagogical teams.
Dr. Chi and Dr. Lee will be arriving in Finland in August to discuss research development cooperation in Orientation project. They represent Tzu-Chi University in Taiwan, see http://eng.tcu.edu.tw/
The first Journal article about the project results has been produced: see Reunamo, J., Sajaniemi, N., Suhonen, E & Kontu, E. (2012). Cortisol Levels and Children’s Orientation in Day Care. Early Child Development and Care, 182, 363-382.
In the project more than 200 development tasks have been produced. They will be presented for the first time in the Orientation conference at 23rd May 2012 12:00-17:00. The development tasks will be represented as posters. There will be also 30 paper presentations concerning different research and developmental topics of the project.
The Finnish National Board of Education has granted the project 56711 euros for years 2012-2014. The work with the development tasks will start immediately in Kerava and later disseminated.