Search results for " Education."
showing 10 items of 10128 documents
The effectiveness of the HIPPA intervention in the sociocultural environment of ECEC physical activity
2023
Studies have shown that, on average, children’s physical activity (PA) levels in early childhood education and care (ECEC) environments are low, thus opening up the possibility of interventions. We examined the effect of the teacher-implemented one-year long ‘home-and-childcare-based intervention to promote physical activity’ (HIPPA) study on children’s PA in ECEC settings in Finland. Participating four-year-old children (N = 128) were cluster-randomised into two groups, intervention (seven childcare centres) and control (seven childcare centres), in autumn 2011. The children were observed directly during their ECEC times. Multilevel linear analysis was used to test the PA differences betwe…
Teachers’ language practices and choices in a bilingual, co-located kindergarten in Finland
2022
This article explores the language practices and choices of four teachers in a co-located kindergarten in Finland. Following Finland’s official bilingualism, the education system is built on two tracks –Finnish and Swedish. As official languages of Finland, the two languages share the same status, but since Finnish is the registered language of the vast majority of the population, Swedish can be seen as a de facto minority language –one reason why Swedish education has been seen as an important space for maintaining Swedish language and culture. This constitutes an important perspective for research on Finnish and Swedish early childhood education units that are located in the same building…
Eksperttiopettajan kielikasvatuksen käyttöteoria monikielisten lasten varhaiskasvatuksessa
2021
Tässä tapaustutkimuksessa tarkastelemme, millainen käyttöteoria kaksikielistä pedagogiikkaa (suomi-ruotsi) varhaiskasvatuksessa toteuttavalla eksperttiopettajalla on eri kielten käytöstä monikielisten lasten kanssa toimiessa. Käyttöteorialla tarkoitetaan tässä pedagogista näkemystä, joka ohjaa opettajan toimintaa. Käyttöteoriaa eri kielten käytöstä lähestyttiin kahden tutkimuskysymyksen kautta, joissa tarkasteltiin kielikasvatuksen käyttöteorian keskeisiä osa-alueita ja niiden ilmenemistä eri kielissä. Aineistona oli yhden eksperttiopettajan kaksi haastattelua, jotka analysoitiin laadullisella temaattisella analyysillä. Tulokset osoittavat, että opettajan kielikasvatuksen käyttöteoriassa ko…
Children’s strategic participation in a bilingual Early Childhood Education and Care Centre
2020
This article considers children’s language learning experiences at an early childhood education and care centre (ECEC) in Central Finland. The article draws on data gathered as part of a Master’s thesis study (Holmila, 2019) which looked at the perspectives of staff, parents and children regarding the use of English as part of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methodology at the ECEC, with a view to future developments of CLIL provision. This article considers what can be learned from the children’s perspectives. Following a brief overview of the advantages of bilingual educational programmes and the educational context for this study, the main section of this article focu…
Worldviews and National Values in Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care Curricula
2021
This paper examines how worldviews and national values are displayed in the national (Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) curricula of Sweden, Finland and Norway. The specific interest is to investigate what similarities and differences there are between these three ECEC curricula with regard to the position of religions and other worldviews. ECEC is often the first societal arena for children to enter and to negotiate their personal values, worldviews, and memberships in relation to the values represented in the surrounding social context. Countries employ different policies for dealing with diversity. Home languages for example, are often supported whereas for home cultures and worl…
Parental Perceptions of the Ideal Foreign Language Teacher : Voices from Eight Countries
2020
Early language education has become a global trend as parents from around the world increasingly enroll their children in language classes at preschool or pre-preschool ages. The younger the FL learners are, the greater the parents’ role in their children’s learning process – and the more they may be motivated to be involved in their children’s schoolwork, learning aims, and the way they are being instructed. But what do they want from FL teachers when their children are just beginning their language studies? This topic brought together 14 students from different parts of the world. Students from Canada, China, Colombia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, and Vietnam enrolled in the…
Linguistic, Contextual, and Experiential Equivalence Issues in the Adaptation of a Performance-Based Assessment of Generic Skills in Higher Education
2022
This qualitative study investigated the various linguistic, contextual, and experiential equivalence issues embedded in a performance-based instrument aimed at assessing generic skills in higher education. A rigorous translation and adaptation process (American English to Finnish) was conducted on one instrument, namely Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) International. The data were obtained from cognitive laboratories (n = 13), with think-alouds and follow-up interviews conducted among Finnish undergraduate students. Content logs were created, and the data were analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that linguistic and contextual equivalence issues were more prominent than experie…
Effectiveness of a kindergarten-based intervention to increase vegetable intake and reduce food neophobia amongst 1-year-old children: a cluster rand…
2021
Background: Children’s first years of life are crucial to their future health. Studies show that a varied diet with a high intake of vegetables is positive in several domains of health. The present low vegetable intake amongst children is, therefore, a concern. Food neophobia is a common barrier to vegetable intake in children. As most Norwegian children attend kindergarten from an early age, kindergartens could contribute to the prevention of food neophobia and the promotion of vegetable intake. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of a cluster randomised trial amongst 1-year-old children in kindergarten to reduce food neophobia and promote healthy eating. Methods: Kin…
Interaction in online learning environments : how to support collaborative activities in higher education settings
2006
Collaboration promoted and supported by instructional technology has the potential to lead learners to deeper understanding and knowledge building. There have been optimistic views that any web based interaction can be educationally valuable. However, online learning environments do not, as such, guarantee that learners will achieve genuine collaboration. It seems that there are several difficulties facing those who wish to employ online learning environments as a medium for productive learner interaction. The particular aim of this exploration of interaction and learning in computer supported collaborative learning environments was to study the interplay between learners and consider the w…
Infographics as a Reflective Assignment Method in Requirements Engineering e-Course?
2019
Our Work in Progress Paper in Innovative Practice Category focuses on how learners’ experience use of infographics in advanced level e-course on requirements engineering (RE). Infographics are visual representations of information in such a way that information can be easily understood at a glance. Most of the previous infographics studies have been conducted in the context of inquiry learning. To complement this research, we studied how learners experience use of infographics as a method for reflective assignment and hence if the usage of infographics supported conceptualization about RE. We adopted a qualitative content analysis approach, applying thematic network analysis to the data rec…