Purpose
The purpose of the study is to increase the expertise that exists regarding the linguistic process that occurs when children create their own stories using interactive whiteboards. The research questions are: 1) What type of linguistic modes of expression do the participants use and how do they convey their pupils’ stories? 2) What role does the interactive whiteboard have in conveying the activities? 3) In what way do the participants achieve a common understanding through the activities?
Result
The study shows that the individual children mainly explore the story through speech, but also using gestures, writing and other symbols and images. The children’s exploration not only affects the interpretation of the idea, but also how it should look aesthetically and visually. The interactive whiteboard enables multimodal approaches to storytelling, as well as intersubjectivity between children and pre-school teachers during the storytelling work. An interactive whiteboard can therefore help shift the focus of reading and writing teaching in pre-school from the reproduction of letters, for example, to including things such as the children’s digital experiences and prior knowledge about a topic. An exploratory teaching method like this can also allow children to become actors in their own learning in an interactive and meaningful way.
Design
The study focuses on four six-year-olds, a seven-year-old and an experienced pre-school teacher at a municipal school. Prior to the study, the children gained experience regarding the use of storytelling. The study’s data material is from 2015 and consists of field notes and six video recordings of the children while they create stories on the interactive whiteboard. The study focuses on the analysis of both conversation and interaction.
References
Åberg, E. S. & Andersson, A. L. (2020). “Kollaborativt berättande med interaktiv skrivtavla i förskoleklassen – en multimodal historia”. Forskning om undervisning och lärande, 8(1):55-80.