| dc.description.abstract | This thesisfocuses on small children as scientists, and how interaction with adults and other children affects the child’s learning processes. The goal of the thesis is to make learning processes among small children more visible. Some of my research questions are: How do small l children explore and learn? Do the adults participate as co-scientists, and do they challenge the children in their learning process? What happens when the adults don’t see the children’s discoveries? I observed seven children age one to three years old in a nursery school for five days over a period of two months. I observed interactions and explorations in many situations both indoor and outside. I also interviewed the two teachers in the group. I analyzed my data in the light of postmodern theories, the theories of Vygotsky and Bruner and in the light of the Reggio Emilia approach to learning.
My findings are:
I discovered a gap between how the teachers said they wanted to work with the children, and how they performed their practice. The adults did not participate as co-scientist with the children at the time I did my observations. I did not see adults who challenged the children’s learning either. On the other hand the adults participated in many other settings. They verbalized the children’s initiative and body language, and the nursery school environment encouraged the children to develop independent skills. I discovered that exploration and interaction between children are a valuable resource for children’s learning processes. They imitate each other, they help each other to keep up the interest for the theme, they repeat their actions over and over and they take turns doing it. The adults significance in the children’s proximal development zone, the in between space, demands a high level of knowledge of how children learn and about the theme they are studying. A high sense of ability to listen to the children’s many languages is equally
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