Creating and maintaining play connection in a toddler peer group

This study explores how one and two year old peers (henceforth toddlers) participate in joint play activities in a natural group-care setting. We focus on joint play activity between three toddler peers during one full day-care day in a Finnish toddler classroom. Questions guiding the analysis concern the sequential understanding of how play emerges within peer interaction and how toddler peers are able to build sustained co-participation in their joint play during the day. The analysis showed that joint play was fragmented and organized in short segments of dyadic or triadic interaction. Re-establishments of joint play and accumulation of significant play signals during the day were important practices for toddlers to constitute social organization and sustained co-participation in their multi-party peer play. The results strengthen our understanding of very young children as both more and less competent play companions in their peer groups and guide adults’ practice in relation to peer play in toddler classrooms.Peer reviewe

Mothers’ attitudes toward peer play

Autorės Monikos Skerytės-Kazlauskienės prieskyra nurodyta : "Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences"Mothers’ attitudes toward their children’s peer play is analyzed in the chapter. Research data was collected in the families that have two or more children of various ages and where children’s play is valued. Six interviews with mothers were carried out. The mothers were asked about the value of children’s peer play. Analysis of the data highlighted the most significant aspects of peer play outlined by the mothers: peer play releases children’s creative potential; peer play is a space where children develop long-lasting mutual relationships; constantly changing peer play support the development of children. In addition, the study revealed that mother’s understanding of children’s conflicts in play differs from the existing institutional practices. The implications of these findings suggest, that knowledgeable parents possess deep and valuable observations of children’s peer play that should be used to reconceptualize some important topics in early childhood educationEdukologijos tyrimų institutasVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŠvietimo akademij

Children's views and strategies for making friends in linguistically diverse English medium instruction settings

Despite one in four children in Australia entering preschool using English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2017), Australian classrooms are predominantly monolingual English-speaking. This mismatch in languages may affect how participation and relationships are established. This chapter explores children’s strategies for making friends in settings characterised by linguistic diversity but where the medium of instruction is English. Child friendly interviews (video recorded) with 72 preschool-aged children, 3-4 years, were conducted in at a preschool in inner-city centre. Children were asked to talk and draw a picture about making friends when there are language differences. Children’s responses not only revealed their competencies in using non-verbal strategies to communicate with each other but also reflected inclusive attitudes. The importance of using a variety of languages as media of instruction, such as including songs and words representative of the minority languages of the classroom, and having conversations about language difference are highlighted

What may characterise teaching in preschool? : The written descriptions of Swedish preschool teachers and managers in 2016

This paper addresses national concern about teaching in preschool, building on the challenges, opportunities, and requirements facing today’s preschools due to the higher expected level of preschool assignments. The aim is to build knowledge of how preschool teachers and managers from ten Swedish municipalities characterise preschool teaching. The material was generated in a 2016 survey completed by 243 respondents (91% response rate). A didactics-oriented textual analysis referred to Kansanen’s (1993) three-level schema comprising the action, theoretical, and meta-theoretical levels and the results identify eight distinctive traces ranging from the rejection to the recognition of preschool teaching. Recognition traces emphasise wide-ranging, diffuse, and child-centred teaching. The results indicate that traces of the action level are more prominent and ‘multivocal’ than are traces of the theoretical and meta-theoretical levels. Overall, the combined analytical results support the concept of ‘diffuse multivocal teaching’