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Everyday environments and activities of children and teachers in

SND-ID: SND 1144

Creator/Principal investigator(s)

Frida Åström - Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication orcid

Madeleine Sjöman - Jönköping University, Högskolan för Lärande och kommunikation orcid

Description

How preschool teachers and children spend their time in preschool is important for children's engagement and learning. The study aims to give a broad description of how often children and staff spend time in different types of activities, interactions, and environments. Systematic momentary observations of individual children and teachers/staff were conducted continuously during a full day in 78 preschool units (mainly for children 3-5 years) during the autumn term. The observations resulted in frequency data for different types of activities for children and teachers. Frequency data were summarized at the unit level, and percentage distributions of activities were calculated.

Results showed that free play indoors was the main activity setting, followed by free play outdoors. Children interacted as much with other children as with teachers. The focus was dominated by non-pretend play, construction, art and music, followed by pretend play and academic contents. Child engagement was significantly higher in free play indoors compared to outdoors. Teachers engaged in varied tasks, but their centr

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Language

English

Research principal, contributors, and funding

Research principal

Jönköping University

Principal's reference number

2012/23021 samt 2013/361-271

Responsible department/unit

Högskolan för Lärande och kommunikation

Protection and ethical review

Data contains personal data

No

Ethics Review

Linköping - Ref. 2014/479-31

Linköping - Ref. 2012/199-31

Method and time period

Unit of analysis

Population

Swedish preschool units

Time Method

Sampling procedure

Non-probability
Seventy-eight preschool units participated in the study. All units were inclusive in line with Swedish preschool norms. Preschool units in the TUTI project (n = 39) were selected through stratified convenience sampling based on municipality size and population density. Only public preschools were approached, and no limitations of unit target age was made. Preschool units in the PEPI project (n = 39) were selected by a combination of purposive and convenience sampling. Units where the majority of children were three years or older were approached. Public preschool units in a region of Sweden where children with disabilities currently were enrolled were initially approached, in line with overall project aims. Then, independent (non-profit) preschool units in a smaller region of Sweden was approached, without further criteria.

Time period(s) investigated

2014-09-01 – 2014-12-01

2015-09-01 – 2015-12-01

Geographic coverage

Geographic spread

Geographic location: Sweden

Geographic description: South-east and central east region of Sweden

Lowest geographic unit

Municipality

Highest geographic unit

Country

Topic and keywords

Research area

EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Social Sciences (The Swedish standard of fields of research 2011)

Keywords

environment, pre-primary schools, observation (data collection), free play, activity, involvement

Publications

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Åström, F., Björck-Åkesson, E., Sjöman, M., & Granlund, M. (2020). Everyday environments and activities of children and teachers in Swedish preschools. Early Child Development and Care. Epub ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1754209
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-48650
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1754209

Granlund, M., Almqvist, L., Gustafsson, P. A., Gustafsson, B. M., Golsäter, M., Prozchowska, M., & Sjöman, M. (2015). Tidig upptäckt - Tidig Insats: slutrapport [Early detection - early intervention: final report]. Retrieved from: http://ju.se/download/18.7d241c5015334a41afbaaf9/1456998747634/TUTI+Rapport+till+Socialstyrelsen.pdf. Jönköping University/CHILD

If you have published anything based on these data, please notify us with a reference to your publication(s). If you are responsible for the catalogue entry, you can update the metadata/data description in DORIS.

Dataset
How children and teachers spend their time in preschool: systematic child and teacher observations in 78 Swedish preschool units

Description

Data was collected with systematic observations with the help of manual-based instruments Child Observation in Preschool (COP) and Teacher Observation in Preschool (TOP). The observations consists of snapshots of individual children/teachers across a preschool day. Several aspects of the individual's current activity are coded. Individual data was aggregated to preschool unit level, and proportions for different activity aspects were calculated. Aggregated frequency and proportionate data are av

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Version 1.0

Citation

Frida Åström, Madeleine Sjöman. Jönköping University (2020). How children and teachers spend their time in preschool: systematic child and teacher observations in 78 Swedish preschool units. Swedish National Data Service. Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5878/8rsx-5w70

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Data format / data structure

Numeric

Creator/Principal investigator(s)

Frida Åström - Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication orcid

Madeleine Sjöman - Jönköping University, Högskolan för Lärande och kommunikation orcid

Time period(s) investigated

2014-09-01 – 2014-12-01

2015-09-01 – 2015-12-01

Data collection 1

  • Mode of collection: Observation
  • Time period(s) for data collection: 2014-09–2014-12
  • Source of the data: Events/Interactions

Data collection 2

  • Mode of collection: Observation
  • Time period(s) for data collection: 2015-09–2015-12
  • Source of the data: Events/Interactions

Variables

415

Number of individuals/objects

78

Published: 2020-03-05
Last updated: 2022-08-18