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..

This study deals with play and the importance of meaning of play in the learning process. The aim is to look in to and analyze four preschool teacher´s beliefs and views about the importance of play for children´s learning and development. The study looks at two different preschools, one based on Reggio Emilia- and the other on Montessori- pedagogy, and the aim is to compare the different views and ways of working that the preschool educators have.The theoretical basis for this study is both rooted in a socio-cultural and constructivist perspective, and deals with the relationships between theoretical concepts mean as play, learning, way of working and pedagogy.The study is based on qualitative research methods that consist of interviews and participant observations. The person?s participants in the study consisted of four active preschool educators, who work in two different preschools.The results of the investigation show that the educators have similar views on the importance of play for the children´s learning process, and this also applies to their way of working.

The aim of this study is to observe Swedish preschool children in their natural habitat and without any intervention. Four different observations are made and thereafter analyzed. Throughout the whole study the subject of interest is the children's communication in their play. Children can communicate with each other in various ways, for instance with speech and without speech, i.e. with their physical language, aesthetic and multi language.

The aim of the study was to investigate peer interaction among toddlers 12 to 30 months of age and the teachers? ways to direct the children?s play in outdoor free play situations in a Swedish preschool. Data was gathered through direct observation, and the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty in combination with the assumption of children as social actors built the theoretical framework of the study. The results showed that the toddlers used different strategies to invite peers to interaction and made use of strategies in entering ongoing play that previously have been observed among older preschoolers. These strategies, bodily and therefore in accordance with the phenomenological approach, support the assumption of toddlers as social actors that actively engage in and make sense of their life worlds in the preschool.

Aniara is a versified epos written by Harry Martinson in 1956. The story is about a large group of people who are being evacuated from earth to Mars because the earth is radiated. However something goes wrong. They fall out of course and end up on a never ending journey in space.This essay examines the relations between the eposAniara and Lars Rudolfssons dramatization for Stockholm City Theater, played during the fall/winter of 2010. Through performativity and narrative theories I analyze narrations and characterization in the text and in the play.

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.

Jag har utfört en studie där jag granskat vilka strategier och lekregler förskollärare använder sig av i verksamheten för att inkludera barn i lek. För att få svar på detta har jag använt mig av tidigare forskning och litteratur som jag anser vara relevant för min undersökning. Den innefattar främst vad lek är och vilka förutsättningar ett barn behöver behärska för att kunna leka samt lekteorier och strategier för att inkludera barn i lek. Metoden jag använt mig av för att besvara mina fråge-ställningar är kvalitativ intervju och jag har intervjuat fem verksamma förskollärare som arbetar med barn i åldern 1-5 år. I resultatet framkom att det är förskollärarnas ansvar att inkludera alla barnen i leken och att det är förskollärarnas deltagande i leken som främjar ett inkluderande.

By means of text creation I approach, reflect upon and try a number of aspects of my own professional existence as a joker in forum theatre and as a forum play pedagogue.This essay is structured like the days of a week and it specifically relates three problematic situations: first, a Monday containing a case of discrimination during the performance, then, a glimpse from a Wednesday when I failed to use the time with enough consideration of our common work and, finally, a Thursday when I was professionally questioned.These three situations are described thoroughly and then they are tried by me. This is carried out partly by reasoning, partly by using for example sociological, pedagogical and above all philosophical texts in order to widen my understanding of my existence as joker and forum play pedagogue. When writing this essay I really realized the importance of taking the reactions of the spec-tators into consideration. I have had the opportunity to develop thoughts about the way in which reflection is created and thoughts about different layers of reflection. I have also pondered over the way in which I distinguish between forum play and therapy as a forum play pedagogue.

The research in this thesis attempts to understand what happens when children (3-6 years of age) interact with each other in the context of free play in two pre-school settings when adults are not involved. The aim of the study was to get a closer look at how children create relationships and how they protect and defend their interactional spaces. Data was gathered through ethnographically inspired methodology, using video observation to capture the everyday interactions of the children. Results were analyzed using a phenomenological approach to peer cultures. Previous research suggests that it is very important for children to maintain their interactions with peers and gaining access to play.

Uppsatsen handlar om cineliteracy; att öka sin kompetens att tillgodogöra sig rörliga bilder. Jag undersöker huruvida brittiska filminstitutets femstegsmetod är en fungerande modell för att stimulera elevernas lärandeprocess av komplex film. Som exempel använder jag mig av Jacques Tatis film Play Time..

In my degree project I have chosen to write about the social interactions in children?s play. Iwanted to study their free play and the time when their teachers tell them what to play to seewhat their social interactions look like. The purpose with my research is to study whathappens in the social interactions in their different playing situations.I performed three observations of the free play and three observations of the guided play at apreschool to study what social interactions that takes place in the different playing situations.What happens and what patterns can I find in their play.In my research I had some questions that this project rests upon:What happens in the social interactions in the different playing situations?How do the children?s different social interactions look?The children that I have observed showed me that when they are interacting they especiallyuse their cognitive abilities, because an interaction needs a certain mental development.

This study started with my interest in drama pedagogy practices. The aim is to investigate the teacher's conceptions of children's play and learning activities in drama pedagogy practices. Basically drama pedagogy means children and teachers creating play worlds together, usually based on various literary works, where they portray and play. Previous research shows that drama pedagogy as a method can enrich and develop children's play. Also, drama can be important for children's linguistic, social and aesthetic development.In this study, overall three interviews and two observations at different occasions was carried out.

This study aims was to examine if working recreation instructors and the technical literature have the same or different outlook on when the grown ups should attend in children?s play, and what it is that separate them. The work method has been qualitative interviews. The number of interviewed recreation instructors is four. The study shows that the working recreation instructors that I have interviewed consider that it´s important to protect children´s freedom in there play without the grown up´s interference.

The outdoor environment is the first thing you notices when you come to a pre-school and it also plays an important part in the development of children, their play and meeting their large motor needs. It is important that the outdoor playground is stimulating and inviting.My goal is to examine if the outdoor environment plays any role in the development of children and their interest in nature. What kind of thoughts do teachers and parents have about outdoor play, and is there a developmental goal for the children as well as what role do the teachers play in reaching these goals. In my work I want to show how an outdoor environment should be formed to help educationally as well as be safe and not least of all fun to be in..