How do you see on natural science within preschool? Does education and interest play a role for how the educationalist works with natural science? And is the children?s interest for natural science affected by the educationalist, what does the educationalist think himself? These questions have I under my teachers training and under deputyship in preschool asked myself and these questions lies to behalf for my investigation. I interviewed five educationalists on different preschools for my investigation.My investigation resulted in that I have been able to see a certain conjunction between how you work with Natural science in preschool and the educationalist education or interest. What also plays a role is that you often associate natural science with knowledge of nature. The educationalist seems overall positive to natural science, but depending of a lack of knowledge it feels strange and difficult.

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare what six preschool teachers thought about their opportunities to take advantage of children's interest in natural sciences and technology, across four kindergartens. The following questions were explored in order to achieve the aim of the study: How do the preschool teachers interviewed describe their work with science and technology in the preschool and what these preschool teachers think about the meaning of motivation in the children?s learning of natural sciences and technology in preschool.  The study used a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews and interviewed a total of six trained pre-school teachers from four kindergartens with different profiles. The first kindergarten focuses on mathematics, science and technology.

The purpose of the study was to determine the attitudes of the teachers of Reggio Emilia inspired preschools concerning the science work with children between the ages of one and three, as well as their opinions on how the physical preschool environment and the choice of materials influence their scientific work. The study was conducted in three departments of two different kindergartens. Although both kindergartens called themselves Reggio Emilia inspired, their working methods and their environments differed largely. None of them were originally built as Reggio Emilia inspired preschools. One of the kindergartens strived to design their indoor environment the same way as the preschools of Reggio Emilia are constructed, there for they were setting up different stations where the children themselves have the opportunity to explore various scientific areas.

My main question in this essay has been: why does the preschool advocate being outdoors? How should we respond to parents who have a different view on this? Children's right to participation and influence is also a question that I raise. How should we preschool teachers do when we stand between the child's desire to be out and the parents wish that their child should be indoors? By reading what is written in the preschool curriculum on children's influence, I have come to the conclusion that we preschool teachers must listen to what the children express that they wish to do, otherwise we go against our policy documents.My dilemma is about how to respond to parents who have a different opinion on being outdoors than we have. Many parents express an aversionagainst their children having to be outdoors.

The aim of this study was to investigate how preschool teachers think about preschoolscience, what they consider science to be and how they deal with specific curricular objectivesrelated to science.Science is a part of our everyday life, it is a prerequisite for understanding everydayphenomena and how the world is working. Nevertheless it is often dropped in favour of othersubjects in Swedish preschools.The eight preschool teachers participating in this study are all working in the samemunicipality in the western part of Sweden with children aged 1- 5 years. The method used inthis study was interviews. The interviews were recorded to facilitate the transcriptions.The results show that preschool teachers find that science is an important subject that shouldbe introduced to the children early on in life. They also show that preschool teachers considerscience to have a preventive effect on the learning to the children, and it is needed for them tounderstand everyday processes and phenomena.

Preschool has a long tradition of using picture books, both as entertainment and as a resource for educational activities. In science there are two main application areas. The first one is science concepts and the second is to teach basic science process skills. These skills, observing, communicating, inferring, classifying, measuring and predicting reflects the methods used by scientists. Picture books potential to put science concepts and activities that promote the use of science process skills in a meaningful context, recommends using picture books for this purpose.

The main purpose of this study is to, in the educator?s point of view, try to find out how pre-schools approach science and technology along with Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The survey was conducted based on qualitative interviews where two preschools participated, a total of seven teachers were interviewed. One of the preschools only has access to a computer, and the other preschool is able to use both computer and tablets in their preschool activities. The results of this show that the teacher?s thoughts about ICT are positive and that they consider it as an important part of their work and have many areas where it is useful.

The purpose of this study is to investigate witch knowledge and thoughts children will have about the term of floating and sinking, and witch possibilities there is to make various knowledge visible in preschool physics through playing with water. The study also concern the differences and similarities between two different groups of age who have participated in the study. The study was carried out by an activity with participant observation and feedback interviews afterwards. The result shows that the possibilities to physics are many in preschool. The children expressed new thoughts and ideas who concern other phenomena in physics during the investigation and discussed similar experiments and material to examine.

This study is essentially based on my own questions concerning contemporary playgrounds. Why are they so unimaginative? What do the children say about them? Is it possible to create playgrounds less constructed, and with more natural elements? This report starts with references to literature studies, personal references and my personal view, and ends with a suggestion for a physical solution for an actual day care centre. The aim is to learn more about how the natural environment affects children, the importance of playing, and try to use this knowledge in a design of a day care centre. My main theme can be summarized in the following question: Why is natural elements in playgrounds considered to be healthy for children? I wanted to create a playground with natural characteristics which I myself would have appreciated as a child.

Background: Pedagogical documentation is currently used as a natural part of the educational activities under the revised curriculum for preschool.Aim: The purpose of this study is to see how preschool teachers perceive and define educational documentation in preschool. The aim is also to see what opportunities and obstacles that may arise over the pedagogical documentation.Method: The study was conducted along a qualitative approach with questionnaires in order to reach more preschool teachers and thus obtain a broader picture of the subject content. From a phenomenological approach I have taken account of the preschool teachers' experience and perception of educational documentation and designed it to my own interpretation.Results: The results show that pedagogical documentation is an important tool in preschool teachers work not only found to contain a product, but seems more like a collection of a lot of products to be brought together into a whole..

Recently I discovered that preschool education has evolved from integration of various subject contents and working methods. The purpose of my study is to investigate preschool teachers' attitudes and ways of working with a theme-oriented approach. I also want to examine their opinions regarding the integration of subject content in terms of mathematics and science subjects (NO) in preschools theme-oriented work approach.My questions for this study are:What is a preschool teacher's attitude and their ways of working to a thematic-oriented approach?What is a preschool teacher's opinions regarding the integration of subject content, especially in mathematics and science subjects (NO) in their pre-schools theme-oriented work approach?I have used myself a qualitative method of investigation to produce materials for my research project. I collected my empirical material for my study from the semi-structured interviews that was done with four preschool teachers in two preschools in Botkyrka municipality.

This thesis is about how teachers in natural and social science integrate the upper secondary school library in their teaching and how they use it for their teaching. Literature in connection with the study is described. Qualitative interviews have been done with four teachers from each subject and with an upper secondary school librarian.The study has shown that there are differences between the teachers in social and natural science. One group, consisting of mainly teachers in social science, survey the library collection.They give the pupils suggestions of useful material and sometimes they take out material for the pupils, with help from the librarian. The other group, teachers in natural science, uses library tools, cooperates and discusses with the librarian how the pupils should work when they use the library.

The purpose of this essay is to find an answer to whether the methodology used by the Naturskolan conduces to learning and also if the Naturskolan, as a method of its own, leads to an increased interest in natural science for the pupils participating in the classes at the Naturskolan.The method which has been used to reach the results of the study is a quantitative opinion poll. The results reached through the study has been compared to previous research in the subject. Deeper studies were made to examine however the interest of the pupils was influenced by their visit at the Naturskolan.The results of the study show an increase of interest in natural science after visiting the Naturskolan. It also shows that the teachers? interest in natural science and outdoor pedagogy has increased by the visit at the Naturskolan.Through this study we came to the conclusion that the Naturskolan is a good method to learning..

Through interviews with children of ages 4-5 years old and by observing children children at play at three preschools with different types of outdoor surroundings, I have investigated if the preschools outdoor surroundings have any influences on the children´ choice of play. The hypothesis was that natural surroundings can entice children´s interest in nature being in it and play. I have also investigated if the children know why it is important to be outdoors and if they know it has a positive influence on their health.The result of my investigation is that the children play about the same games at the three different preschool gardens, but at the preschool with more natural surroundings, the children have more contact with plants and animals, and could learn of the different phenomena of nature by the preschool teacher answering their questions. Most of the children in the interviews know it´s useful to be outdoors and be on the move and get fresh air, but many of them thought it was most important to play. By being outdoors the children get exercise, fresh air, play and at the same time they establish an understanding of the nature and a healthier life..

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.