Toddlers Various Way to Interact in a Story-Time Setting

Author(s):

Elisabeth MellgrenKarin Elsa Gustafsson

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 07B, Studies of Interaction & Communication

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

B3 332

Chair:

Ingrid Maria Carlgren

Contribution

Keywords: “early childhood literacy”, toddlers, video observations This is a part in the project Children’s Early Learning in the issue of language and communication. We have made video observations in a arranged a story-time setting at the pre-schools involved one pre-school teacher read for one child at the time. The children are about one to three years old. The preschool-teacher read the story by Tidholm (2005). When the story is finished the teacher let the child play with three-dimensional figures and some other object which are related to the story. We can see a variation in how the pre-school-teacher read and interact with the child in the settings, but our focus is to describe and discuss the variation of the toddler’s interaction in this setting. The study is based on an Interactionistic perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986; Bruner, 1996) and a pedagogical perspective of quality (Sheridan, 2001, 2007). The cognitive, social and emotional aspects of children’s development cannot be separated as they constitute an integrated whole where children learn by experiencing, acting and communicating with the environment, which in turn interacts with them in various ways (Marton & Both, 1997; Pramling, 1994; Säljö, 2000). Our point of departure is that every child learns to read and write in his or her own way, depending on the child’s opportunities, experiences, interests, the circumstances in which the child is involved and the people with whom he or she is integrated. What you learn depends on the context. The historical and cultural context to which you belong determines the value of different types of competence (Gustafsson & Mellgren, 2005). Researchers have long debated what the optimum starting-point is for children to learn to read and write. In the literature in English, where this is discussed, the concepts whole language and phonics are compared. Adams (1994) states, in a comprehensive survey of the research field, that there is no either/or but both/and. She says that reading in early childhood are important to make the child familiar with texts, this is urgent just like healthy food and good treatment. Myrberg (2003) also reached this conclusion. Introducing written language as a subject area has been one of the tasks of pre-school and the pre-school class since 1998. In Sweden preschool embraces children from one to five years of age and constitutes the first step of the educational system Utbildningsdepartementet, 2006). By the concept early childhood literacy, we mean various creative ways of using the written language, corresponding to the concepts “broader textual concept” and “multimodality”. It fits in with the description by Gillen and Hall (2003), who sees the child’s early writing activity as competent creation of meaning. What a child achieves on a certain occasion should be seen as an imprint in time of the child understands at a specific point in time and in a specific context (Kress, 2003; Gee, 2002). Makin (2003) have done a research-review and she says: A review of research two aspects of the environment are of particular importance in literacy learning: Availability of appropriate resources; and interactions between children and adults who mediate their literacy learning. It also suggest further research (s. 327, Makin, 2003) The video observations are analysed, and we can se a variation in the children’s way to act in the story-time setting in five qualitative categories (Runesson, 2004). According to Makin (2003) the aim of this paper is to highlight the most advanced category to describe the interaction between the child and the teacher in this story-time setting.

Method

Interactionistic perspective Video observation

Expected Outcomes

Qualitative aspects of interaction in a story-time setting

References

Adams, J. M. (1994). Beginning to Read Thinking and Learning about Print. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22(6), 723-742. Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Dahlgren. G., Gustafsson, K., Mellgren E., Olsson, L-E. (2006) Barn upptäcker skriftspråket. Stockholm, Liber utbildning. Tredje reviderade upplagan. Gee, J. P. (2002). A Sociocultural Perspective on Early Literacy Development. I S. B. Neuman, & D. K. Dickson (Red.) Handbook of Early Literacy Research. (s. 30-42). New York: The Guilford Press. Gillen, J. & Hall, N. (2003). The emergence of early childhood literacy, I N. Hall, J. Larson, & J. March (Red.) Handbook of early childhood literacy (s. 3-12). London: SAGE. Gustafsson, K., Mellgren, E., Klerfelt, A., Pramling-Samuelsson, I. (1999) Pre-school teachers - children, computers and IT – II. Paper presented at EARLI 99 8th European Conference for Research and Learning, Gothenburg, Sweden, August 24-28 1999 Gustafsson, K., Mellgren, E.(2000). En studie om barns skrivlärande. IPD-rapporter Nr 2000:08. Göteborgs universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik. Gustafsson, K., Mellgren, E.(2002). Using Text in Pre-school. A Learning Environment. Manuscript accepted for publishing in Early Childhood Development and Care Vol 172, 2002. Gustafsson, K., Mellgren, E. (2005). Barns skriftspråkande – att bli en skrivande och läsande person. [Early Cildhood Literacy: Becoming literate]. (Göteborg: Stuides in Educational Sciences, 227). Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Gustafsson, K., Mellgren, E.(2008). Yrkesroller i förskolan. En utvärderingsstudie av en fortbildning initierad av Kommunal och Lärarförbundet. IPD-rapporter Nr 2008:01. Göteborgs universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik Harms, T., & Clifford, R. (1980). The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale. New York: Teachers College. Kress, G. (2003). Perspectives on Making Meaning: The Differential Principles And Means Of Adult and Children. I N. Hall, J. Larson & J. March (Red.) Handbook of early childhood literacy. (s. 154-166). London: SAGE. Makin, L. (2003). Creating Positive Literacy Learning Environments in Early Childhood. I N. Hall, J. Larson & J. March (Red.) Handbook of early childhood literacy. (s. 327-337). London: SAGE. Marton, F., & Booth, S. (1997). Learning and awareness. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Mellgren, E., Gustafsson, K. (2007). Toddler’s Interaction in a Story-time setting Paper presented at 17:th EECERA ANNUAL CONFERENCE “Exploring Vygotsy’s Ideas: Crossing borders. Prague, CZECH Republic, 29:th August -1:st September 2007. Myrberg, M. (2003). Att förebygga och möta läs- och skrivsvårigheter. En forskningsöversikt på uppdrag av Skolverket. Stockholm: Skolverket. Pramling, I. (1994). Kunnandets grunder. Prövning av en fenomenografisk ansats till att utveckla barns sätt att uppfatta sin omvärld. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Runesson, U. (2004). Lärande förutsätter en erfaren variation. (in press) I M. Hermansen (Red.) Om læring – en status. Köpenhamn: Kliw. Sheridan, S. (2001). Pedagogical quality in preschool: An issue of perspectives. Göteborg studies in Educational Sciences 160. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Sheridan, S. (2007). Dimensions of pedagogical quality in preschool. The International Journal of Early Years Education, 15(2), 198-217. Säljö, R. (2000). Lärande i praktiken: Ett sociokulturellt perspektiv [Learning in practice: A socio-cultural perspective; in Swedish]. Stockholm: Prisma. Tidholm A-C. (2004). Alla får åka med.[Everybody can ride along]. Alfabeta Utbildningsdepartementet (2006). Lpfö 98. Läroplan för förskolan. Stockholm: Fritzes.

Author Information

Elisabeth Mellgren

University of Gothenburg

Department of Education

Göteborg

186

Karin Elsa Gustafsson