Aim & research questions

1. PROGRAM OF SWEDISH-RUSSIAN SEMINAR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENTPreschool- an arena for children’s learning of social and cognitive knowledgePia WilliamsMoscow25-29/5 2014

2. Aim & research questions The aim is to study Swedish preschool teachers’ descriptions of children’s learning in relation to the goals in the preschool curriculum Question at issue: • What do Swedish preschool teachers see as fundamental aspects of preschool learning?

3. Project description /Method • Sampling of 15 preschools in the Sweden’s two major cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg and 15 preschools from the rural area of Mälardalen in mid-Sweden. • All together the sample consists of 30 preschools for children between one to five years of age. • From each of the 30 preschools, one preschool teacher were interviewed. • In Sweden preschool teachers have an academic education for 3,5 years). • The focus of the interviews was directed towards children’s learning and development in preschool. The teachers were asked to describe what they consider as fundamental aspects of learning in preschool practice, and the ways in which they gain knowledge of children’s learning and development in relation to curriculum goals: • What do you think it is important for children to learn in your preschool? • What abilities do you want children to develop in your preschool, and how do you work in order to make it possible for the children to develop these abilities? • What is a good preschool environment for children and how do you go about creating this environment in your preschool?

4. Results show two themes Children’s learning of social knowledge This theme focus on the importance of children’s social learning in preschool. For preschool teachers social knowledge seem to be the foundation of children’s learning in preschool. They describe how preschool practice can offer a communicative learning context where children can learn social skills and practise them in collaboration with peers and adults. Children’s learning of social and cognitive knowledge as integrated This theme focus the importance of integration of social and cognitive aspects as fundamental in children’s learning. Learning in preschool embrace a variety of goals and abilities that children need to develop. The teachers highlight how social and cognitive skills are inseparable in children’s collaboration and learning.

5. Children’s learning of social knowledge • Preschool teachers highlight: • The importance of a preschool context where children are given opportunities to collaborate in the development of social knowledge. • The importance of creating a communicative practice where children can express themselves verbally and develop good self-esteem. • The importance of giving children opportunities to practice and involve themselves in social interaction with peers. • The value of teacher’s organizational competencies which include the ability to plan activities where children are given opportunities for interaction, and creating opportunities in which children’s language learning can be developed.

7. One aspect of children’s learning in preschool:To practise and develop a democratic approach Interviewer: What do you think it is important for children to learn in preschool? • PT: I think that they should learn ... a ... happiness, what to say, there are too few nouns, that there is a joy in life, just being together with others, that there will be joy, a friendship, and then you develop all the time ... through…socialisation and being able to take responsibility ... for interaction ... I would like them to learn that but in a joyful way…then that they can see that they have the opportunity to influence…that they dare to influence…that they dare to help themselves and question the interaction… that is very important but [done] with joy and then that they feel that they can…have the possibility to influence.

8. Being part of a group, a community, provides possibilities for children to to learn rules of interaction and sociability I: What would you say is important that children learn during their time in preschool? PT: Well, for example that they learn to develop social interaction with peers, that together they create a community, a team. I think that is important and that together they develop their norms and values and how to treat others. That will be of great use for them when they grow up in the society. Yes, that they develop their… that they pay attention to their own learning in order to get the feeling “wow” I can. Above all, to strengthen their self-confidence so that they dare to speak out loud in a group and dare to express themselves both orally and in a aesthetic practice. Such things. I: Mm PT: Simply that that they feel secure, seen and needed.

9. Children’s learning of social and cognitive knowledge as integrated • The preschool teachers highlight: • The capacity of children’s learning in collaborative situations. • The express that collaboration contributes to the development of children’s social and cognitive knowledge as integrated. • The group itself is a useful tool in the preschool practice. • To stimulate children’s peer learning, teachers say that they make use of organizational competence in arranging situations where children can play and be challenged through tasks and materials that contribute to collaboration, reflection and problem solving. • The analysis also show that • Children’s collaboration appears as something that often happens by itself in encounters between children. • Children’s own actions within the situation are crucial for collaborative learning. • Children’s collaboration is thus largely left to the children themselves.

10. Together with peers children can learn how to solve problems that arise or become inspired to broaden their worlds of play and their own thinking • PT: Yes that they are going to... that he is creating something that makes those boats keep upright. They were going to make a harbour or a bridge, so he started to measure and made…to think wider. So that it not only was 100 little boats that you bring home, and instead making something of it. And they had very many ideas in common and Moritz, he made a bank for his lake or his harbour so that the boats would not get out and the rescue boats were going out. It was very exciting. It could have developed to any length I think. And how Anna on the other side of the table talked about how she was going to make some flags and use them as sails on the boats, how they could help each other and swap and so on.

12. Collaboration and the group potential is shown to contribute to the ways in which children learn social and cognitive knowledge as integrated • PT: They learn a lot from each other and get inspired by each other. It is a very good way of learning ... yes ... you can see when they learn letters and numbers how it is communicated between them. It goes like a wave through the unit when they start.... and then they learn from and help each other and inspire each other. They are amazing when doing that, the children. It’s something we ought to learn from them, I think, this. How do they really do it, but also when they start to draw, how you can see on their drawings, how it changes around the table and develops when someone finds a new way. Like when they did a portrait of big faces. How all the children started to make such portraits and how the details became visible.

14. Conclusion • This study shows the importance of a preschool practice that offers a communicative, learning context, where children learn a variety of social and cognitive competencies. • Learning about, for example, maths, reading and writing, science and technology ought to be integrated with learning abilities such as listening, understanding and dealing with others’ opinions and developing good self-esteem. • In order to create such a context and support children’s learning, preschool teachers need to use a specific form of preschool didactics where care, nurturing and learning, together form a coherent whole. This is connected to the goals in the Swedish preschool curriculum. • Research shows that levels of quality in preschools and positive outcomes for children are related to forms of practice in which teachers combine children’s cognitive and social learning and view them as complementary and of equal importance. • Some preschool teachers see social knowledge as fundamental to children’s learning. Others have a broader learning oriented approach, which is embodied in the Swedish preschool curriculum and in modern theories of learning. This is an integrated learning approach which is assumed to promote children’s learning and development in a long-term perspective.