According to international and national literacy studies (PISA, PIRLS) Swedish boys are inferior to Swedish girls when it comes to reading. There can be numerous reasons to that statement. One is that Swedish teachers require more knowledge about communication as an important component in literacy. In spite of this shortcoming, Swedish girls manage to gain sufficient literacy. Why is that? The aim of this survey was to examine if there were any differences between girls and boys regarding communication skills when they begin in school.The main questions taken in account were:Which differences and/or similarities in communication skills are discernible between boys and girls this particular preschool?How do boys and girls communicate with each other in different room contexts on this particular preschool?           To be able to answer the questions, I adopted observations and audio recordings from children aged five.

The aim with this thesis is to highlight components regarding small children?s reading environment in preschool and see how these affect their meeting with literature. The study is based on J. A. Appleyard?s theory on man?s development as a reader.

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to investigate teachers´attitudes to and work with outdoor education in preschool. The aim is also to identify the opportunities and barriers that exist to conduct outdoor education. In my research I have interviewed six preschool teachers in a medium sized municipality, where five of the teachers worked in the suburbs to the Big City and one teacher worked in the downtown Big City. All respondents in the study were in favor of conducting outdoor education. The respondents claimed that it promoted children´s health and motor skills. The result also shows that the teachers saw a great opportunity for learning related to outdoor education, by using the resources of nature.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the importance of the school library in a selected junior high school. My investigation is based on both theoretical and empirical studies. The aim of the theoretical part is to create a platform and refer to thoughts, roles and laws concerning the activity of the school library. The empirical investigation consists of two parts: questionnaires among students and teachers, plus interviews with students, teachers, headmaster, school librarian and the management of education. Everybody shows a positive attitude towards the school library and considers it important for the students exams.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are constantly evolving in today's information society. The school uses ICT as a teaching tool and it begins to be included at the leisure-time in school by the educators.Aim of this study is to examine how educators describe their perceptions and experiences of using ICT in the leisure activities. The questions is about how the educators use ICT, what they believe children learn of ICT, and which advantages and disadvantages they see with ICT at leisure-time in school.Through a qualitative approach, I have had my questions answered by six trained educators, five of whom are recreational educators and one who is a preschool teacher. These have individually answered my interview questions as an interview took place over a phone call, while the others answered the same questions by e-mail. The interview questions were open-ended questions that were formulated so the educators could respond so freely and fulfilling as possible.The survey shows that teachers use ICT in multimodal approach at leisure-time in school, both in informing parents and in activities with the children.

This essay is about how basic democratic values are formed in preschool. I have focused on children´s abilities to take on responsibility and also, on the importance of relationships in the development of democratic values in preschool.This essay starts in self-perceived dilemmas, based on my own feeling that the children should have more rights and that the preschool often has too many unreflected rules and routines. The dilemma has been reflected on and has been discussed in relation to other theories. I have also reflected on my own behavior as a teacher and to what extent this behavior has influence on the outcome.The relationship between the governing documents and the work in preschool has been reviewed with the conclusion that they are not synchronized with each other.The investigation shows several examples of the meaning of a good working relationship between teacher and child and that children´s own sense of responsibility should be taken seriously and be recognized as a resource.In the discussion with the theories a connection between democracy, relationships and children´s responsibility was detected. The meaning of a good working communication and the teacher?s significance for the development is central and is made visible and problematized.The concluding words show how the approach to democratic and fundamental values must come to a change in preschools, a change that the teacher partly is responsible for.

The purpose of this study is to find out how teachers in preschool interact with children.By unstructured observations of teachers in preschool I intend to find out how they interact with children. Is it possible to see that the operation is built on guided interaction speciality?Positive interaction between adults and children is of importance to a good childhood and a child?s learning. I have asked myself how teachers interact with children in preschool. There are different ways of interaction.

The aim of the study was to examine the impact of the use ofTalking Mats in group conversations with preschool children. Two preschoolteachers and eight preschool children, aged 4-5, took part in one of twoconversational groups with one teacher and four children in each group. Thegroups were video-taped during four group conversations on two topics, withand without the use of Talking Mats. The amount of time for each child inthe conversation was calculated, the child?s communicative contributionswere coded and thereafter the extent to which their views were noticed wasanalyzed.

International research has shown that through the involvement of the school library and the school librarian in the daily school work with the pupils, the pupil´s learning can be increased and reading comprehensions significantly improved.One purpose of this master`s thesis is to study the school librarian as a brand, representing the school library as well as the school librarian and whether there is a correlation between different comprehensions of the professional role of the school librarian. This is done by examining whether there is a difference between a specific librarian´s own perception of their professional role, compared to the image of the school librarian among teachers and principals working in the same school district and by comparing the profile the school librarian expresses with the image that is conveyed through communications via webpage, written and oral information given on services and competences provided by the school librarian and work carried out by her.A difference of comprehension of the school librarian´s competence and work, could be part of an explanation as to why the correlation between the involvement of school librarians in the school work and the improved learning achievements of the pupils has not resulted in the expected measures, regardless of the investments in school librarians and school libraries. The school librarians´ school identity could be difficult to establish. Whether or not the profiles and images of the professional role are consistent with each other is a much more manageable purpose which could go a long way of explaining the circumstances of the school libraries.That is the reason why we have examined whether the comprehension the school librarians have of themselves corresponds with the idea/ conception/ image conveyed to their surroundings, and with the idea/conception/image encompassed by people in their immediate surroundings..

The aim of this studyhas been to capture preschool children's strategies, when they include and exclude each other in play. My aim was also to find out how children choose to integrate into an already existing game. My questions were: What strategies are used by the children at the preschool when they want to exclude or include each other? How to integrate the children when they want to be involved in an ongoing game and how they will be received during the time of play? My theoretical starting points are from Vygotsky's theory of proximal development zone, and Michel Foucault's perspective on power, and also research on the subject.The empirical study was conducted using the observations at two preschools. The children I observed were between four to five years old.The results show that children used different strategies, and when the strategy did not work so the child could switch to another.

The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how preschool teachers are doing to train children with concentration difficulties to maintain their concentration. That children with concentration difficulties increases is something that emerged in this study. In order to facilitate and help these children in the best possible way, you have to know the underlying causes and the factors that contribute to lack of concentration.Iam usinga qualitativeinterview method withsemi-structuredquestions to getanswersto my questions.Threeteachers fromtwodifferent preschoolsparticipated in the survey. What emerged in the study was that large groups of children, long days at preschool and today?s society with stress are major causes contributing to the increasing number of children with concentration difficulties according those interviewed. The teachersworkedprimarilyonan individualizedmannerin which theyassumed thatallchildrenare different andreact differently to theimpressions andstimulipresent in the environment.

The purpose of this master-thesis in library and information studies is to investigate how different views on children´s literature show up in pedagogical work in preschool. The aim is also to study methods used in the pedagogical work with literature. Are there any connections between views and methods? Is any view predominant or are they used in combination? The question at issue is: "Are there any connections between different views on childrens literature and pedagogical methods in preschool, and if so, how do they show?" The framework of theory is based on epistemological concepts viewing children´s literature by John Hultberg. In "Om humaniora, litteratur och tradition" he sorts out three strategies: the pragmatic, the traditional, and the emancipating.

Purpose: Reading aloud to children and having a conversation about a book, which is read to them, has attracted much attention as important factors that influence children's language development. Language development for children is one of the most important tasks that the preschool- teachers have, and according to ?Läroplanet?, all children must have the opportunity to develop their language. The aim of this study was to examine how reading aloud, and by letting them speak about a certain book, ?boksamtal? impacts preschool-children`s ability to develop their language according to preschool- teachers.Method: I have used a qualitative method by interviewing four preschool- teachers.

How do special educators work to include children with special needs in preschool? That was the question that our thesis proceeded from, and the purpose was to get an insight in the methods used by the special educators to achieve inclusion. Our questions were: ? Is Swedish preschool a place for inclusion? ? How are special educators work organized and focused? ? Which experiences do special educators have working with children with special needs in preschool, and what role do they mean that inclusion plays in this work? Our procedure in this enquiry was to perform semi-structured interviews with 5 different special educators in two different cities. Interpretation and analyis proceeded from three different theories: Urie Bronfenbrenner?s ecological systems theory, John Bowlby?s theory of attachment and Karsten Hundeide?s sociocultural theory. The result showed support for the idea of the Swedish preeschool as a place with many opportunities for inclusion. We have also seen how both money and political decisions has an impact on which possibilities the preschools receive to work with inclusion. In addition it became apparent that the methods used by special educators differed depending on both cities and districts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine preschool educators conceptions on gender pedagogy. Based on preschool teachers own words, we want to get an insight into the use of gender in the curriculum in preschool classes. We also examine the conditions and setbacks of conducting a gender-sensitive educational way of working the curriculum.In order to examine our research question, we choose the method of qualitative interview, and previous research in the theory of gender pedagogy from a sociocultural perspective, in which social interaction is very important. We have interviewed five educators in preschool classes, all with similar educational backgrounds.In the results and analyses section the educators' definition of gender pedagogy is presented and how they take part in gender educational theories strategies. The result of the survey show that the importance of the educator?s own approach to and further education in, the subject matter, makes it possible to really understand the gender norms.