The aim of our graduate work is to study the importance of image and shape?s in children's development and learning and also the preschool teacher?s views on image and shapes. Our research aims to explore the value of image and shapes creation and how it is expressed among children and in classroom activities. We are also interested in finding out how it differs from adults' views and what materials teachers use to promote the image and shapes creation in the curriculum. In our own experience, image and shapes activities are often structured differently in different curriculum activities.

Preschool is a place that is continually undergoing change at a rapid pace and developing the skills of our educators is essential for their ability to keep up with these changes. Guidance conversations can be used as a vital tool for the educators competence development.The purpose of this essay is to investigate how educators, special educators and preschool principals think and reason about the use of guidance conversations in preschool.A qualitative method has been used in the shape of interviews with educators, special educators and preschool principals working within different districts of a medium sized city in the south of Sweden.These interviews revealed that the use of guidance conversations is often controlled by specific needs and is used when a problem arises amongst the children. There are many expectations on the special educators role in these conversations, one of which is the role of conversation leader with the purpose of guiding the conversation amongst involved parties and give them the tools they need to resolve problems by themselves instead of delivering packaged solutions..

In Sweden today, more women are still going on parental leave than men. The number of men and women going on parental leave is more equalized than ever before. At the same time the inequalities are still big and more women than men choose to work part time up till the child is eight years old.The aim of the study is through a gender perspective, to investigate the preschool teacher?s thoughts about the daily meetings with parents and the contact during induction. The study is based on the theoretical concepts: gender, norms and gender equality as well as three questions.

The Swedish preschool combines both education and care from a holistic point of view. This makes it even harder for both parents and the educators to make an objective evaluation on their own preschool. In Sweden we are proud to have one of the world?s best preschools. It is regulated by the government and is obligated to undertake critical evaluation from the state and the parents that are the consumers of these services.

The study is based on Lev Vygotskijs and John Dewey's learning theory. Such is ?the zone for immediate development? and ?learning by doing?.Purpose: The study's purpose was to examine how four teachers´ work with bilingual children's language development in a preschool and in a preschool class. These questions will be answered in my study: 1). which view of bilingualism have been the educators? 2).

The purpose of this study is to increase an understanding of what prevents the mandatory reporting law, based on the preschool staff's approach to mandatory reporting law about child abuse and neglect to social services, and how these barriers affect their decision to report. The study will also understand what preschool staff experience facilitates the mandatory reporting process and what can be done to improve the process even more. The questions of the study were based on the purpose of the study and have been formulated in two questions:What prevents the mandatory reporting law requirements for preschool staff and how can these barriers be removed? What facilitates for preschool staff to be confident in the decision to report child abuse and neglect, to social services?The study used qualitative semi-structured interviews with five people working at the preschool, including two preschool teachers and three childcare workers. An interview guide was designed as a help to answer the questions about what the barriers are and what it is that makes it easier for the preschool staff, regarding the decision to report cases of child abuse and neglect to social services.The results, based on the five interviews , shows preschool staff's thoughts of the knowledge on the mandatory reporting law, the mandatory reporting process, their perspective of the mandatory reporting law and the uncertainty surrounding the mandatory reporting law.The study's analysis consists of the results that have been analyzed using the theory of social representations, in which the analysis shows an understanding of how the preschool staff act and think about the mandatory reporting law requirements based on their everyday knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to, from the preschool teachers? point of view, deepen the knowledge about influential factors regarding a mandatory report from preschools to the Child Protective Agency (CPA) when suspecting child maltreatment and feeling uneasiness regarding the child. The purpose is also to furthermore investigate collaboration between preschools and the CPA in Hagfors municipality. The study has the following questions: How do preschools teachers handle their suspicions and uneasiness about a child being maltreated? Which factors can be influential on whether or not the suspicions are reported to the CPA? Which experiences do preschool teachers have of collaboration with the CPA?The study is based on qualitative methods in the formof individual interviews.

The purpose of my report was to find out how music can benefit the language development of children, whilst getting a glimpse of how the educators in preschools use music as a tool for the language development of children. During the course of the report I?ve used the sociocultural perspective theory as a foundation to stand on, this is most of all visible in my analysis and discussion of the result. In the result we can see that the educators possess insight in the importance of music in childrens development, and that they therefore give music a lot of room in their work. Songs where rhyme and language play are allowed are common elements at the preschool that attracts the children and makes them want to partake. Songs sung with movement is a commonly used combination which also serves to further lift the childrens language development when they, through movement, give meaning to the lyrics. It does however take a devoted educator to make music with the preschool children and to support them and making them want to do it.

The purpose of this study is to increase an understanding of what prevents the mandatory reporting law, based on the preschool staff's approach to mandatory reporting law about child abuse and neglect to social services, and how these barriers affect their decision to report. The study will also understand what preschool staff experience facilitates the mandatory reporting process and what can be done to improve the process even more. The questions of the study were based on the purpose of the study and have been formulated in two questions:What prevents the mandatory reporting law requirements for preschool staff and how can these barriers be removed? What facilitates for preschool staff to be confident in the decision to report child abuse and neglect, to social services?The study used qualitative semi-structured interviews with five people working at the preschool, including two preschool teachers and three childcare workers. An interview guide was designed as a help to answer the questions about what the barriers are and what it is that makes it easier for the preschool staff, regarding the decision to report cases of child abuse and neglect to social services.The results, based on the five interviews , shows preschool staff's thoughts of the knowledge on the mandatory reporting law, the mandatory reporting process, their perspective of the mandatory reporting law and the uncertainty surrounding the mandatory reporting law.The study's analysis consists of the results that have been analyzed using the theory of social representations, in which the analysis shows an understanding of how the preschool staff act and think about the mandatory reporting law requirements based on their everyday knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to investigate what knowledge children in preschool have about recycling, and to examine how teachers work with environmental efforts to increase children's understanding of environment and sustainable development. And if there is differs between the two preschool classes, one of which has a environmental profile. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interview methods of teachers and children, and observation of the children during a sorting exercise with a number of garbage objects. The result shows that teachers in the environment profiled preschool spend more time per week on work related to environmental and natural issues and worked more thematic. Similarity between this preschool classes is that the use of outdoor education to get into environmental awareness.

The topic of this paper is puppets as an educational tool in preschool. The purpose of this paper is to examine the puppets potential as a tool for creating pleasurable learning in preschool. The method of collecting material for the essay has been qualitative research interviews with four informants. The prerequties for writing this essay has been good. There has been some literature on puppets and basis for my investigation, there have been informants with experience of puppets.

A reward cycle for investigating the emotional status in animals has been developed and it requires that animals go through three main phases, i.e. anticipation, consumption and relaxation. The reward cycle has not been tested previously for access to play in pigs. Therefore, the aim of this Master thesis was to investigate if growing pigs showed more behaviours indicative of excitement than pigs that were not allowed to play, performed play in a play arena and showed more behaviours indicative of relaxation after play when they were back to their home pen than pigs that were in their home pen the whole time. Forty undocked piglets (10 litters of Specific Pathogen Free half pure-bred Yorkshire and half hybrids of Yorkshire x Landrace balanced for breed between two treatments were used.

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge and a broader understanding for how pre-school teachers describe the importance of planned play environments including in what manner children are given influence. By qualitative interviews with five pre-school teachers from four different units I was able to gather data that shows how the planning process concerning a specific play environment had worked and why it looked as it did. The results show among other things that the pre-school teachers viewed the play environment as a vital part of the daily operation and pointed out that it was of vital importance that it came from the children?s interests. Depending on how the play environment had been organized and what its purpose was it offered different amounts of affordances..

In this essay, I examine teachers' different approaches, responsibilities and child perspective on preschool. I discuss how important it is that we educators in preschool work together as a team about childcare and learning. Our attitudes affect the children.In the essay, I show examples of different attitude and approach to learning and the significance of the educational awareness that characterize the work of the nursery. We have different approaches and standards that are influenced by our cultural, social and ethnic backgrounds. It plays a major role in how we interpret and understand various situations in preschool.I also discuss preschool teacher's responsibility and teamwork, and how it affects children.

The purpose of my essay is to highlight the various dilemmas that can occur in the preschool during the moments of guided reflection but also the opportunities it can provide. I am using my own practical experience from situations where care for the children can be questioned and needs to be considered in comparison to the further development of the preschool teachers and with them the entire organization. In my research, I have chosen to highlight the importance of guided reflection, the importance of reliable and secure relationships for children and how these can be eradicated, and finally the importance of ethics for the preschool-teacher?s actions in a given situation.Key questions in my text are; What role does the reflection have in the work at the preschool? How are children affected while this is happening? How important is close and secure relationships for young children and how can they be affected? How can one find a balance between care and learning?By writing my essay I reflect on myself and my own actions. This leads me to a greater selfawareness and greater understanding of my own feelings and my role in the dilemmas I face in my profession.The conclusion of my work is that the preschool organization is not given and it can be constructed in many different ways.