Förskollärare planerar barns möten med matematik: Ett reflektivt skoldidaktiskt perspektiv

Author
Rostedt, J.
Source
Linköping universitet
Year
2019

Purpose

This thesis focuses on planning in Swedish pre-schools. The aim is to describe and analyse pre-school teachers’ authentic planning regarding children’s first encounter with mathematics. The study addresses the relationship between the teacher’s intention and reflection regarding mathematics teaching. The study is based on the fact that little research has been conducted on planning children’s first encounter with mathematics. The aims of the study are to investigate: (a) intentions highlighting that pre-school teachers focus on their current pre-school children’s first encounter with mathematics (b) pre-school teachers’ reflections on children’s mathematical abilities.

Result

The results show that pre-school teachers plan children’s first encounter with mathematics by reflecting on the children’s starting point in the planning process. Therefore, there is a link between intention and reflection. The results also show that the pre-school teachers had put together their own planning model, but the model was not based on specific learning goals. In conclusion, a suitable language must be developed within didactics of mathematics.

Design

Through fieldwork and participatory observation, data were collected from Swedish pre-schools. Three criteria were used to identify participating pre-schools: (1) the pre-school teacher had to be qualified to teach mathematics, (2) the educators had to work together in one team, (3) at least one of the participants had to be a pre-school teacher. The fieldwork consisted of authentic planning interviews in which the researcher participated as an observer. Authentic means situations that would arise regardless of the researcher’s presence.

References

Rostedt, J. (2019). «Förskollärare planerar barns möten med matematik: Ett reflektivt skoldidaktiskt perspektiv». Licentiateavhandling. Linköping universitet.