Systematic quality work in preschool ? How preschool teachers thinking and working with systematic quality work The purpose of this study was to investigate how Swedish preschool teachers thinking and working with systematic quality work. All Swedish preschools are required to work systematically with quality. This involves several steps that follow each other in a specific order. It includes following up, documenting and evaluating preschool activities.

Preschool is a place where children, parents and teachers meet. Preschool is for children but also for the parents, they should feel confident about the place where they leave their children. We who made this study have a common interest to examine how teachers´ attitudes to parental contact in preschool works. The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers relate to parental contact.What do the educators think of their professionalism in the profession? Do educators believe that parental contact is important? And how do they work to obtain a good parent contact?The study has three questioners holder: How does teachers relate to parental contact in preschool?What do the educators think of their professionalism in the profession? And how visible educators child development and learning in daily contact with parents?We chose to do qualitative interviews with four preschool teachers at two different preschools in Sweden, to seek answers to our questions.

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.

This work deals with mathematics teaching in preschool classes. The purpose of my study is to investigate the preschool classes? teachers' aspirations for the children learning mathematics in two different preschools. To achieve my goal, I formulated the following questions to be explored and answered through interviews with five teachers.  Does mathematics in preschool classes have a prominent role in educators' planning? What perception do the educators in the field have about the learning and teaching of mathematics in the preschool classes? How do the teachers understand their own work with mathematics in preschool classes in relation to multilingual students?                                A qualitative interview method was applied.

The aim of the thesis was to better understand how second language learners becomes lingual participants in a Swedish preschool. Using the following research questions: In what situations are SLLs lingual participants at the preschool? What does their emerging language look like? Are the participation any different considering children's time in the new L2 context? What kind of support does SLLs receive at the preschool?Two focal children at the same preschool was studied with ethnography of communication as method. The focal children chosen were one girl (Mandarin L1, 4.0 yrs) who arrived to Sweden and started the preschool two months ago at the time of the study, the other a boy (Serbian L1, 3.9 yrs) who started preschool and learning the L2 one year and two months before the study. Situations where the focal children interacted with other children or adults were analyzed. Results showed that the focal children in interaction with each other understands some of the others intentions before being able to speak about them in the L2.

AbstractThis project discusses various aspects of children's way to explore nature with their senses. Therefore I conducted a study in two preschools, one nature-oriented and another preschool. This study was carriedout usien the three metods, interviews, observations and surveys. Interview four children from each preschool, observations of each group outdoors during four different occasions and question forms to teachers. The result of the study showed that both teachers and children have a great interest in being outdoors in nature, but it is not always possible to take out all children's groups. The reason is large groups and inadequate staff.

That all children today receive the opportunity to explore all of their capabilities is not certain at all preschools. Today there are preschools that are not able to work actively to explore the children's abilities because the large number of children and not enough teachers. Therefore I want to find out with my research how the educators would react when there is a crisis with the youngest children, the toddlers. I also want to find out different ways of acting in everyday situations at the preschool and why the teachers act in that way. I have relied on qualitative methods and I have used the critical incident method in my study.

That all children today receive the opportunity to explore all of their capabilities is not certain at all preschools. Today there are preschools that are not able to work actively to explore the children's abilities because the large number of children and not enough teachers. Therefore I want to find out with my research how the educators would react when there is a crisis with the youngest children, the toddlers. I also want to find out different ways of acting in everyday situations at the preschool and why the teachers act in that way. I have relied on qualitative methods and I have used the critical incident method in my study.

In this essay I consider a self-experienced dilemma, and review how I, as a preschool teacher, treat a child with special needs. With the support of literature and theory, I can, with an essay writing approach, reflect and analyze the dilemma. In this way I will examine my practical knowledge and personal experiences of a complex situation. I want to examine whether children with special needs who are included in regular preschool activities, really get the support they need and deserve. Do educators have the conditions and does preschool have sufficient resources to realize this? Do educators have sufficient knowledge of how children with special needs should be responded to? I want to find out how the included children's social development and self-image is shaped by the treatment they receive at the preschool.

In today's preschool teachers should strive for us to have an inclusive preschool regardless of background, knowledge, culture. The conditions that everyone should have the right to education. Therefore the purpose of this study to enhance the understanding of the informants' views and thoughts regarding the inclusion of children with special needs. My study focused generally on children with special needs, but not against any particular diagnosis or a particular area related to children with special needs. To get answers to my questions I used qualitative interviews.

In this essay I have chosen to explore how computers are used in preschools. The study was done as a survey. How does preschool seize the children´s culture? In today´s society ICT and computers are a big part of children´s everyday life and reflects on their upbringing.Since I am using computers as a pedagogical tool in teaching the children at my preschool, I find this topic interesting to explore.Are the teacher´s using computers for an educational purpose with the children at preschools or are they using it in other ways?Do the teachers think they have the required knowledge to computers usage in teaching the children in a pedagogical way?What is the teacher´s attitude towards computers in preschool?The essay starts with a introductorial background section where I talk about my own experiences of using computers with the children in my preschool, and then referring to the society then and now, school law, curriculum, teachers' computer skills, media situation amongst children and young people, computer use in preschools/schools and health effects. I have composed a survey based on the answers of 50 teachers in 30 different preschools and in nine different municipalities.The result of the survey is reported and concludes with a part of discussion, where the results are put up against the introductorial background section.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to present a survey of how Swedish libraries provide information services for children. In this thesis ?information? means non-fiction material and ?children? do not include preschool children. The method used is knowledge overview and the material (mostly Master theses in LIS published January 2001-June 2006) is related to user studies of children as information seekers.

By using the children's own thoughts and stories this theses aim to investigate and illustrate the phenomenon of rough and tumble play and its existence among five year olds in preschool.    The formulations of the questions are:What do children consider as rough and tumble play? - and what characterise that?From without a perspective of rough and tumble play, which kinds of rough and tumble play do the children play in preschool? - and how do those characterise?What makes rough and tumble play possible and accepted for the children to play in preschool?In this thesis I have investigated the questions above by interviewing 11 five years olds about how they consider rough and tumble play in preschool. From without Birgitta Knutsdotter Olofsson's and Torben Hangaard Rasmussen's view about play and rough and tumble play I created a perspective of rough and tumble play, which I used for analyzing the empirics. With rough and tumble play I mean games or plays that includes wrestling, hitting, kicking, pushing, chasing, running or/and the use of weapons against other human beings or other visualized beings or/and human beings.The conclusions are that children has many different opinions of what rough and tumble play is. Depends on who you are asking you will get a different perspective.

The purpose of this essay is to describe how preschool teachers think about language stimulation and how they work with it when it comes to small children in preschool. My research questions were:? What kind of methods do the preschool teachers use? And what kind of work procedure do they have?? Is there any difference in the work procedure when it comes to daily routines and playtime?? How do the preschool teachers describe their work procedure with language stimulation?To be able to reach my purpose and answer my questions, I decided to make a case study. I have made observations of the preschool teachers and how they work and I have made interviews. The material that I have used, beside observations and interviews, is literature that is about earlier research about this matter.The result of the study shows that the preschool teachers considers their work with language stimulation as part of everything they do.

In this empirical study I have investigated how preschool teachers relate to the free play at the preschool. At the same time I have investigated how the free play is adapted into everyday practice in the preschool. Previous research shows that children process what they experienced in the free play. The child retrieves content to play with through things they have experienced, such as family life, preschool and so on. To play, grow and continue, it is important that free play may take place and space in the daily activities at the preschool.