This study is conducted in collaboration between a preschool teacher and a researcher within the framework of a project where twelve preschool teachers should explore the concept of sustainable development and then address challenges in their own preschools concerning how to work with the children towards a sustainable society. This should be done by improving their own practices with the inspiration from international research within the field of early childhood education that was shared and discussed during the monthly meetings with the group stretched over one year. 

The future needs creative and innovative people. An important goal is to get more young people interested in technology and environmental issues. One can argue that it is important for preschools to arouse the curiosity for mathematics, science and technology among children and give them a positive experience of these subjects.

The national curriculum for the preschool in Sweden, where this study is conducted, is revised in 2010 with a stronger focus on learning activities and subject matters. By working with math, science and technology children learn how to solve problems, experiment, draw conclusions and in that way increase their self-confidence.  How can this be done in the educational context of the preschool? The purpose of this study is to find out how preschool teachers can address the goals in the curriculum with special emphasis on technology as expressed in the children’s building and construction. The research questions that were put are:

- How can preschool teachers’ way of interaction with the children arouse their interest in building and construction?

- How can documentation be used to enhance the preschool teachers’ professional development?

The concept of children’s cooperative learning is an overarching theoretical view. According to Vygotsky children learn through interaction, communication and imitating each other. Problem solving with a more experienced peer or adult helps the child to construct knowledge when interacting (Tudge 1990). It is also vital that children get the opportunity to participate and to have an influence on their daily life. This is made possible through the preschool teachers’ “communicating with them, asking questions, listening to them in order to make them develop skills and a desire to argue for their standpoints” (Sheridan & Pramling Samuelsson 2001, p. 189).

Furhermore Gallenstein’s article “Engaging Young Children in Science and Mathematics” (Gallenstein, 2005) has offered a theoretical point of view, especially the article’s references to Bruner’s conception of how new knowledge is adapted. Bruner identifies three stages in the process, the enactive (actions on objects), the iconic (based on images) and the symbolic (introduction to symbols and abstractions). All these stages have been taken into consideration by the preschool teachers in supporting the children’s building and construction.

Documentation is vital throughout the study. Documentation is here seen as being prospective and not retrospective. As Lenz Taguchi puts it documentations “become active “agents” in planning new learning challenges and preconditions for further cooperative and investigative work and play among the children (Lenz Taguchi 2006, p. 260)

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