Purpose
The study investigates how schoolchildren’s memories of the time they spent in kindergarten can tell us something about how and what children learn in kindergarten. The researchers investigate how holistic learning environments create opportunities for experience-based learning that previously took place in the home and local community.
Result
The researchers believe that by providing children with an environment for free play in kindergarten, children get to experience the risks and benefits of engaging in risky (but sufficiently safe) situations. Adult-led activities, on the other hand, do not necessarily elicit the emotional reactions necessary for play to provide basic learning.
Design
The data material is a reanalysis of a previous study that investigated what children’s memories of kindergarten can mean for the understanding of learning in kindergarten. In the reanalysis, the researchers use a biosocial perspective that locates learning in all experience as a multidimensional concept, and which provides insight into how the experiences that children remember may have contributed to learning outside of structured learning activities. The 22 children in the study were between six and 13 years old and had all attended the same kindergarten. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the children in which they were asked, among other things, what they learned in kindergarten, what they liked best to do there, what they could decide for themselves and in what ways other children and staff were important to them.
References
Aslanian, T. K., Andresen, A. K. & Baasland, T. (2020). «Climbing, Hiding and Having Fun: Schoolchildren’s Memories of Holistic Learning in a Norwegian Kindergarten”. Nordic Studies in Education, 40(3):268-285.