Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2007, Page 134

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Tímarit um menntarannsóknir, 4. árgangur 2007
The study covered the following question:
How the pedagogical ideas of preschool
teachers and assistants were implemented
and developed during the communication
project do pedagogical ideas of preschool
teachers and assistants appear during the
communication project?
While organizing the learning environ-
ment?
While discussing the analysis of the video-
tapes?
In teaching strategies?
In communications with the children?
Methods
The research covered two years, from 2002
to 2004. There were 130 children, one to six
years of age, in the setting, 25 assistants and
7 preschool teachers. In the project the staff
recorded various pedagogical situations on 125
videotapes, each one 10 – 15 minutes long.
Every videotape was analyzed by the authors
and four to five videotapes were discussed at
a time in 30 meetings with the staff during the
project. Field notes were written during the
meetings, including the staff’s explanations
of how they chose situations for recording. In
addition to the videotapes 23 group interviews
were conducted with the staff, and a survey
was carried out in the beginning and at the end
of the research process.
The analysis of the video tapes included
documentation of communications by
teachers and assistants with the children and
how they chose and organized the learning
environment recorded. The communications
factors observed included how the teachers
and assistants reacted to children’s initiatives
and how they verbalized actions, feelings,
experience and behavior.
The analysis of the interviews focused on
the factors studied and was supported by
field notes. The questionnaire used in the
beginning and the end of the research was
meant to provide information about the staffs’
pedagogical ideas and observing if, and how,
these ideas had changed during the course of
the project.
Findings
The findings indicate that preschool teachers
and assistants differed in their pedagogical ideas
in the beginning but at the end the differences
were reduced. Because of these different
viewpoints between the groups they made
dissimilar use of the project. The assistants
developed their pedagogical ideas, including
their view on children and the preschool’s
daily routine, towards more professionalism.
The preschool teachers, on the other hand,
made use of the project methods to develop
their professionalism and skills in working
with children who needed special support.
During the project, formality and adult control
over the children’s work were reduced. At
the end of the project more emphasis was
put on confirming the children’s initiative,
actions, and agency, together with the adults’
responsibility for democratic communications
in the preschool.
The quantitative results indicated rather
small changes on 30 of 37 questions. But
Cohen’s d showed high and medium changes
on the following variables: Verbalize children’s
actions changed from the beginning to the
end (d=0.84, N=14); Use video recording
to improve the staff’s communication skills
while communicating with the children (d
= 0.83, N =14); Decrease staff control of
the children’s activities decreased from the
beginning to the end (d=0.78, N=14); Less
emphasis on courtliness in the end than in the
beginning (d=0.78, N=14); The importance of
free play increased from the beginning to the
end (d = 0.64, N = 14); Following children’s
initiative rose from the beginning to the end (d
= 0.64, N = 14); The importance of children’s
obedience decreased from the beginning to the
end (d=0.60, N=14).
These statistical results support the
qualitative part of the research.

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