Naslov
Ethnographic approach to the research of children's learning processes at an early age

Autori
Slunjski, Edita

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
BEST PRACTICES AND STRATEGIES ON EARLY CHILDHOOD AND PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION, CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES / - , 2014

Skup
NETQ6 Comenius Network project Second International Conference

Mjesto i datum
Ankara, Turska, 16.01.2014. - 17.01.2014

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Ethnographic approach; process of learning; young children; self-initiated and self-organized children's activities

Sažetak
The modern early education is increasingly focused on acknowledging the needs and the interests of children and providing them with the conditions for acquiring relevant experience and applicable knowledge. Accordingly, ensuring timely and appropriate support to the learning process becomes one of the fundamental questions of early education. Using the ethnographic approach for researching the learning processes among children is becoming increasingly important as it enables us to observe and understand the real characteristics of this process as a foundation of meaningful and purposeful educational actions by the educators. The ethnographic approach to the research of the learning processes enables the development of a curriculum in which a child becomes a real subject of its own learning and education and in which “listening” to the children and systematically “documenting” their everyday activities takes the central position. Gathering and interpreting different ethnographic records enables us to discover the ways in which children understand various phenomena that they are interested in and that they deal with as well as the conditions that can support the development of their understanding and knowledge. In this sense, using the ethnographic approach does not represent just a research technique for discovering the features of the children’s learning processes but a useful “tool” that can provide a strong support to the development of this process. The conducted ethnographic research included three kindergartens with a total of 12 groups and 26 educators and took three years. During it, we kept track of how using different ethnographic records, such as video and photographic records, transcripts of children's conversations amongst themselves and with the educators, and various two- or three-dimensional works made by the children contributes to better understanding and forming of the educational process. We have established that good understanding of children's activities, i.e. the meaning of these activities for the children, has a high correlation with their educators ensuring direct and indirect support for their learning. Different ethnographic records about the activities of the children help the educators base the support for the children's learning on their own individual and developmental differences and specific interests, and to position it the children's «zone of proximal development». Such support from the educators in the children's learning process includes different interventions in physical and social environment of the kindergarten. This implies acquiring stimulative learning materials and different experiences that support children's learning, enabling the opportunities for socialization and communication of children of different ages, and a better inclusion of educators into various self-initiated and self-organized children's activities. In this respect, using different ethnographic records has an adverse effect on the development of the curriculum which moves away from the rigid planning of the learning content and direct teaching of children. It leads towards developing an open, developmental, and dynamic curriculum with constructivist and co-constructivist features.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Pedagogija

POVEZANOST RADA