This paper describes analysis of teaching instances that are part of an in-service preschool teachers programme about chemistry and physics in preschool. The aim is to develop knowledge about the communication established between teacher and children in relation to an object of learning, specifically the role of intersubjective communication in relation to an object of learning. A set of science activities with a specified object of learning was developed in groups of teachers and researchers. A qualitative analysis of the communication in relation to the chosen object of learning was performed. The focus of the analysis was excerpts representing differences in intersubjectivity related to the object of learning and what can be said to characterise the communication between teachers and children in these situations. The results show that intersubjectivity can occur in different ways with different consequences for children’s opportunities to experience the intended object of learning. In connection to this, the importance of teachers having a mutual simultaneity in the communication with children about a specific content is highlighted. The teachers have to create links between the child’s perspective and the object of learning. Intermediary objects of learning are discussed as supporting elements in the conquest of new knowledge.

The overall aim of the present study is to study model-based teaching and collaborative inquiry learning of chemical processes and physical phenomena in preschool, with a specific focus on the verbal communication established between teachers and children (4-5 years old). According to variation theory, learning is always directed at a specific content, called the object of learning. This study aims at highlighting what ‘threatens’ the teacher’s and preschool children’s intersubjectivity during the teaching of chemistry and physics content, and at discussing possible ways to continue the teaching of an object of learning, once sufficient intersubjectivity in a teaching/learning situation has been lost. The result shows the need for the teacher to divide and split a larger object of learning, such as e.g. water purification, into smaller learning steps ‘on the way’ in order to hinder breaks in intersubjectivity that otherwise may arise. We introduce the notion of ‘overarching object of learning’ and ‘intermediary object of learning’, and the intermediary objects of learning identified in this study are categorized as belonging to three different themes: the role of words, the role of theoretical models and science concepts and the role of analogies and abstractions. The teacher’s awareness of intermediary objects of learning as critical aspects for children’s individual learning is crucial for the teaching of everyday science in a preschool setting.

Avsikten med denna rapport är att presentera ett treårigt samverkansprojekt mellan forskare vid Högskolan Kristianstad och ledning med personal på samtliga förskolor i ett skolområde. Projektet rör undervisning av naturvetenskap med särskilt fokus på kemi och fysik i förskolan.

Ett skolområde i en medelstor skånsk kommun initierade ett samarbete med forskare vid Högskolan Kristianstad kring undervisning om naturvetenskap i förskolan, speciellt kopplat till det läroplanen benämner som enkla kemiska processer och fysikaliska fenomen. Projektet syftade till att studera modellbaserad undervisning och lärande i förskolan om kemiska processer och fysikaliska fenomen relaterat till hållbarhet i samhällsfrågor och barns vardagsliv. Traditionellt har arbete med naturvetenskap i förskolan handlat om naturen, om växter och djur och om miljörelaterade frågor. I samband med att den reviderade läroplanen trädde i kraft 2011 vidgades emellertid kunskapsområdet till att också omfatta kemiska processer och fysikaliska fenomen (Skolverket, 2010). Att undervisa om kemi och fysik i ett förskoleperspektiv kan av många förskollärare upplevas som svårt och behovet av kompetensutvecklingsinsatser har visat sig vara stort (Skolinspektionen, 2018). Utvärderingar visade att så var också fallet i det aktuella skolområdet.

1 juli 2019 trädde ännu en reviderad läroplan i kraft i vilken användning av digital teknik lyfts fram som ett nytt målområde att sträva mot (Skolverket, 2018). Mot den bakgrunden och i takt med projektets genomförande har kunskap som rör såväl innehåll som lärandeprocesser och undervisningsstrategier implementerats med och utan stöd av modern informationsteknik.

Projektet kan delas upp i två delar. Del I är den kompetensutvecklingssatsning som ovan kort beskrivits och del II är ett forskningsprojekt med fokus på fysik- och kemiundervisningens genomförande i barngrupp samt på projektets övergripande genomförande.

Det övergripande syftet med projektet är att, tillsammans med arbetslag och rektorer i förskolan utveckla kunskap om FyKe-undervisning i förskolan, med respektive utan stöd av digitala verktyg, samt att 8longitudinellt följa utvecklingen hos deltagande arbetslag och rektorer under ett flerårigt kompetensutvecklingsprojekt.

Flera delstudier har genomförts i projektet. Tre artiklar har hittills publicerats i vetenskapliga tidskrifter, ytterligare studier har genomförts med fokus på rektorers och arbetslags upplevelser relaterat till projektets innehåll och genomförande och delvis relaterat till digital teknik. Rapporten avslutas med några sammanfattande punkter med relation till projektets utfall.

This paper describes an analysis of teaching instances that were part of an in-service preschool teachers programme. The overall aim of the project was – together with teachers – to study model-based teaching and collaborative inquiry learning of chemical processes and physical phenomena in preschool, in relation to an object of learning. Central was the teaching of science in preschool, with particular focus on use of digital tools and the verbal communication as well as obstacles ‘threatening’ the intersubjectivity between teachers and children during learning situations in preschool. Our results show the need for the teacher to address what we call ‘intermediary objects of learning’ and the role of chosen wording andabstract models are emphasised. In addition, the paper highlights different communication categories used by teachers and children during science activities. How the communication varies with e.g. children’s age during teaching will be discussed at the conference.

The Swedish school system offers curriculum-based early childhood education (ECE) organised as preschool (for 0–5-year-olds) and preschool class (for 6-year-olds). The intention to create a playful and educational environment based on children’s perspectives, interests, and questions is strongly based on historical and cultural traditions. This article develops knowledge of ECE teachers’ approaches to science-learning situations. The study applies a phenomenographic approach. The analysis is based on approximately 9.5 hours of video documentation of teacher-led and child-initiated Swedish ECE science activities. We identified two descriptive categories and four subcategories dealing with science-learning situations: (A) making anything visible, containing the three subcategories (Aa) addressing everyone, (Ab) addressing everything, and (Ac) addressing play and fantasy; and (B) creating a shared space for learning (Ba) addressing common content. These categories are related to how efforts to take advantage of children’s perspectives are interpreted and addressed in educational practice. The article discusses and exemplifies the use of various categories and their potential implications for ECE learning practice.

This thesis takes as one point of departure the concept of the expanded curriculum where curricula encompass both the formal steering documents, as well as that which goes on within the framework of preschool education and through the actors in preschools. The overarching purpose is therefore to generate knowledge about what conditions for learning the work of teachers make possible when curricula are created in preschool settings for children aged between 1 and 3. The purpose is also to contribute with knowledge about what these created curricula would mean for children’s agency, and the importance they can have for children’s opportunities for learning and development. The three empirical studies consist of digitally recorded interviews with teachers and video observations with a focus on teachers’ communication with children in preschool. The discussion in the overarching text is constructed around three aspects that emerge in the overall results of the studies. First, the studies reveal how teachers’ work can be likened to a limiting curriculum which, on the one hand, is entirely child-centered, with the children as seen actors, but, on the other, can be interpreted as entirely teacher-centered. Secondly, there is the discussion about the affirmative curriculum, where children are presented as affirmed actors. In other words, content becomes those things that children are interested in, and their modes of expression are seen, affirmed and often repeated. Finally there is the discussion about the possibilities and dilemmas related to an expanding curriculum where children are regarded and treated as real actors in the sense that their intentions and expressions are taken seriously as relevant challenges. The current curriculum text for Swedish preschool can, in this sense, be seen as an obstacle in that its formulations are extremely broad-based, as discussed related to the results of this thesis.

This presentation aims to share results from a study concerning the preschool teacher as a curriculum-maker to preschool. The research question addressed is “what is characteristic for the curriculum offered, as it appears in one teacher’s verbal communication with 1-3 year old children?”. The study is carried out in Sweden and the research area is motivated by the need for knowledge about the implications that a goal-oriented preschool curriculum and broad discretion for teachers might imply for activities in preschool. A qualitative case study with a narrative approach has been adopted and follows the Swedish research council guidelines and ethical rules in social science research. Empirical data consists of videotaped observations of communication between a single teacher and a number of children aged between 1 and 3 during one morning in preschool. The results show that the teacher has an idea of bringing up and to conceptualize children’s near surroundings. Further on there is an idea of inclusion and to teach children different abilities. They also show that the teacher frequently uses questions as a means of communication, where a large number of shifts between different children and different issues are particularly characteristic. Although this contributes to a child perspective, it also implies a teacher-centred position and a fragmented way of exercising the discretion vis-à-vis the curriculum. The findings are discussed and related to curriculum theory and to early childhood perspectives. This research is expected to have impact on understandings of how preschool teachers deal with their teaching assignment for the youngest children in preschool.

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze how teachers ways to communicate with children in preschool contribute to conditions for children's learning and development, and thereby to how curriculum is created. The curriculum as concept (Gundem, 1997; Vallberg Roth, 2001) is used both for the policy documents concerning preschool and for what is actually said and done in pedagogical contexts. Central to the preschool educational work is the communication that takes place between teachers and children. Hundeide (2002) describes communication as a dialogic interaction with verbal, non-verbal and physical interaction between adults and children. This means that adults’, in this case teachers, speech and actions are considered dependent on what children express and a sense of caring is created between people who interact (ibid.). Communication can in turn be said to contribute to the shaping of a social structure which, according to Giddens (1984) takes place at different levels of consciousness and whose duration varies. With that as a starting point communication between children and teachers in preschool can be studied as a contribution to the preschool curriculum is created, maintained and changed over time, but also as a contribution to how children's learning conditions here and now can be understood. The underlying data is from an observational study conducted in Swedish preschool where teachers communicate with 1-3 year old children. 4 teachers were shadowed (Czarniawska, 2007) and filmed during their everyday work in preschool. Ethical issues in research in all events are crucial (Research Council, 2002) and especially when it involves people who, like the youngest children, can not make their case or assess potential research impact (Heikkilä & Sahlström, 2003). This has been the subject of specific ethical considerations in this study. Shiers model (2001) for children's participation has in a qualitative analysis inspired the construction and use of analytical concepts. The study's results show qualitative differences in teachers' communication of content and in how they listen into and make use of children's own expressions. Overall, it contributes to a curriculum in which teachers' awareness of and challenge of children's perspectives and opportunities in conjunction with the formulated intentions of the curriculum seems both limiting and expanding. The discussion highlights the findings related to curriculum theory (Evans, 1975, 1982), social theory (Giddens, 1984), and childhood perspectives (Halldén, 2003; Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2003).

The aim of this article is to describe and analyze how preschool teacher’s ways to communicate with the youngest children in preschool contributes to conditions for children's learning. Data has been gathered from four Swedish preschools where observations were conducted to study teachers' communication with 1-3 year old children. The results of the study showed qualitative differences in teachers’ communication about a content. One conclusion is that a broad repertoire of ways to communicate seems to favor conditions for children as actors to jointly expand the content in focus. Another conclusion is that the repertoire of children's actions and expressions made possible appears to be related to qualitative differences in teachers’ communication.

Studien som ligger till grund för detta licentiatarbete syftar till att utveckla kunskap om hur den läroplan för de yngsta ser ut så som den beskrivs av förskolans lärare. Fokus läggs på den beskrivna läroplanens innehåll och arbetsformer och på vad som karakteriserar verksamheten för de yngsta barnen i förskolan. De teoretiska utgångspunkter som används är läroplansteori för yngre barn samt i viss mån även barndomsperspektiv med koppling till barndomspsykologi, barndomssociologi och barndomspedagogik. Det är en kvalitativ studie vars empiri består av data från 15 transkriberade och analyserade samtalsintervjuer med lärare som arbetar med förskolans yngsta barn i åldrarna 1-3 år. Metodansatsen är fenomenografisk vilket i analysen gett verktyg att urskilja kvalitativt skilda beskrivningskategorier av innehåll, arbetsformer och karakteristiska drag för förskolans verksamhet. Resultaten visar att läraruppdraget framstår som unikt på det sättet att arbetet med barns lärande och utveckling huvudsakligen tycks ske här och nu och i mindre utsträckning utifrån en planerad verksamhet. Det har resulterat i begreppet nuets didaktik. Begreppet grundar sig i lärares beskrivningar av innehåll och arbetsformer i vilka gemensamma drag är konkretion, tidsaspekten samt ett tydligt barnperspektiv kopplat till didaktikens utgångspunkter vad, hur, varför, vem, var och när. Vidare visar resultaten att för dessa lärare är personlighetsutveckling och social anpassning det ojämförbart väsentligaste syftet med de yngsta barnens lärande och utveckling samt att lek har samma dignitet som specifika innehåll så som naturvetenskap och matematik. Ett starkt barnperspektiv reser frågor kring barns och lärares ansvar i lärandeprocessen såväl som utveckling respektive bevarande av förskolans verksamhet. I studien diskuteras även det karakteristiska i verksamheten för de yngsta relaterat till kontinuitet i utbildningssystemet.

The intention of this presentation is to discuss the role of education in preschool for children 1-3 years of age. It´s one angle of a study made in some Swedish preschools in 2009. The main study aims to develop knowledge concerning what the curriculum looks like that is described by teachers working with the youngest children in early childhood education. Focus is on descriptions of the what and the how in the curriculum, eg. what children should learn and how they can learn and also what is characteristic for early childhood education concerning the youngest children. A theoretical mapping of Scandinavian preschool research shows that only a few of the studies concern the youngest children, which contributes to the direction of this study’s interest. An interviewstudy with semistructured questions was carried out with 15 teachers who are working with children 1-3 years old in five different preschools. In this presentation I discuss and analyze some of the findings from the main study related to curriculumtheory and to different paradigms holding childhood perspectives. Childhood sociology, childhood psychology and childhood pedagogy constitutes a background to questions concerning child perspectives and the children and teachers as actors doing preschool. The results show that teaching assignment seem to be unique while the responsibility is to deal with and manage a large amount of care, education and learning on the spot. One concept evolved from the study is “a didactic in terms of the present moment”. It’s closely connected to the didactic questions what, how, why, who, where and when and important aspects are time, concreteness and a child perspective. In these teacher’s descriptions, children’s interests and needs seem to be more strong guidelines than intentions of the curriculum. Corresponding to childhood perspectives (Sommer, Pramling Samuelsson & Hundeide, 2010; Corsaro, 2005), this indicates a view of the child as competent and having the equal rights as adults. Another result is teacher’s sayings that self-esteem and self-confidence are prime abilities for children to achieve before they can learn anything else. This at the same time indicates an opposing view of the child as incompetent to learn until they reach certain amounts of these abilities. Further in these teachers’s outspoken curriculum the role of play is described as essential in preschool as science and mathematics while aestethics is hardly mentioned. I argue that this is can be seen as a sign of an approach to more school-like activities. This is in contrast to  other research where preschool teachers position themselves as being against “schoolifying” in preschool (Enö, 2005). Related to curriculumtheory (Evans, 1982) for the youngest the results show a childcentered position and a broad interpretation of what are characteristic grounds for preschool activities. Teachers in preschool have an important work in order to achieve quality in children’s learning and development (Sheridan, 2001). Therefore it’s essential to discuss what could be the consequences if children never choose or are interested in some pedagogical content as aestethics and if teachers follow children’s intentions more than the curriculum.

The intention of this presentation is to discuss the role of education in preschool for children 1-3 years of age. It´s one angle of a study made in some Swedish preschools in 2009. The main study aims to develop knowledge concerning what the curriculum looks like that is described by teachers working with the youngest children in early childhood education. Focus is on descriptions of the what and the how in the curriculum, eg. what children should learn and how they can learn and also what is characteristic for early childhood education concerning the youngest children. A theoretical mapping of Scandinavian preschool research shows that only a few of the studies concern the youngest children, which contributes to the direction of this study’s interest. An interviewstudy with semistructured questions was carried out with 15 teachers who are working with children 1-3 years old in five different preschools. In this presentation I discuss and analyze some of the findings from the main study related to curriculumtheory and to different paradigms holding childhood perspectives. Childhood sociology, childhood psychology and childhood pedagogy constitutes a background to questions concerning child perspectives and the children and teachers as actors doing preschool. The results show that teaching assignment seem to be unique while the responsibility is to deal with and manage a large amount of care, education and learning on the spot. One concept evolved from the study is “a didactic in terms of the present moment”. It’s closely connected to the didactic questions what, how, why, who, where and when and important aspects are time, concreteness and a child perspective. In these teacher’s descriptions, children’s interests and needs seem to be more strong guidelines than intentions of the curriculum. Corresponding to childhood perspectives (Sommer, Pramling Samuelsson & Hundeide, 2010; Corsaro, 2005), this indicates a view of the child as competent and having the equal rights as adults. Another result is teacher’s sayings that self-esteem and self-confidence are prime abilities for children to achieve before they can learn anything else. This at the same time indicates an opposing view of the child as incompetent to learn until they reach certain amounts of these abilities. Further in these teachers’s outspoken curriculum the role of play is described as essential in preschool as science and mathematics. I argue that this is can be seen as a sign of an approach to more school-like activities. This is in contrast to  other research where preschool teachers position themselves as being against “schoolifying” in preschool (Enö, 2005). Related to curriculumtheory (Evans, 1982) for the youngest the results show a childcentered position and a broad interpretation of what are characteristic grounds for preschool activities. Teachers in preschool have an important work in order to achieve quality in children’s learning and development (Sheridan, 2001). Therefore it’s essential to discuss what could be the consequences if children never choose or are interested in some pedagogical content and if teachers follow children’s intentions more than the curriculum.

During preschool history a large number important points of departures regarding children’s learning and development have been brought to attention. In this paper we want to spread some light on two of them. One of these is children’s own experiences and the other is an aesthetic dimension of learning. In this presentation we want describe this topic, to analyse and discuss it. In modern education children’s experiences are considered to be a starting point for their learning and development. A difficulty then is that children arrive to pre-school with different experiences and expectations against which they relate new knowledge of their surrounding world (Pramling Samuelsson & Asplund Carlsson, 2003). Therefore, to take advantage of and make use of each child’s knowledge seems to be a pedagogical consequence in the learning processes. The concept of aesthetics has often got a one-sided interpretation as a methodical support for learning and development about different contents (Pramling et al, 2008). Children have been viewed as creative individuals, who through their own will, actions and practices learn to develop into human beings. At present the Swedish curriculum points out the importance of, as it says: “Creating and communicating by means of different forms of expression…/” (Utbildningsdepartementet, 1998. s. 10). The tendency, thus,  is to view aesthetic expressions as a method closely related to children’s development and acquisition of knowledge. The purpose of this study is to find out how aesthetics can be seen as one dimension of children’s experienced world. The research question is how children’s experienced world appear in verbal communication and how will those experiences be used in a learning situation. The study took place in a pre-school setting with children 3-5 year of age. The data consist of video observations in situations where teachers and children work with science content or more specifically they investigated; “What is soil?” The data are analyzed qualitatively (see Sinclair (2001) and Hohr and Lorenzer (1975) in Austring (2006)). The outcome of the analysis shows that three categories of children’s experienced world can be discerned, which we like Sinclair label: “Pathfinder”, “Track-Taker” and “Floater” (Sinclair 2001). The outcome also shows that the children’s use of their experiences is related to these three categories. When the children are dealing with the science content in focus another result points out that there are three different ways of acting present: empirical, aesthetic and discursive way. On a general level one conclusion is, that aesthetics is a natural part of children’s experienced world and that it is of importance for children in their meaning making. Strong or weak aesthetics in a learning situation will be further discussed and problemized.

I denna studie, som ingår i ett övergripande projekt om lekresponsiv undervisning i förskolan, analyseras de frågor barn ställer under lek. Frågor förstås här som språkliga handlingar som gör något till förgrund och något annat till bakgrund. Frågor indikerar därför vad som är i fokus för barns uppmärksamhet och säger något om hur barn förstår vad de leker. Frågor ses som viktiga att respondera på utifrån en ambition att utforma undervisning responsiv på lek. Syftet med studien var därför att bidra med insikter om vad vi kan lära av barns frågor för att kunna utforma och problematisera förskollärares undervisning i lek. Analysen fokuserar barns frågor i 51 videoobserverade leksituationer där barn och förskollärare deltar. Resultatet visar att barnen i huvudsak ställer frågor i och om leken de är engagerade i (94 av 104 frågor; som om) medan övriga frågor (10) handlar om något som aktualiseras av leken men som handlar om förhållanden utanför denna (som är). Implikationerna av detta resultat för undervisning i förskolan diskuteras.

This article discusses results obtained from a study on the contribution of the preschool teacher as a curriculum-maker in preschool. The research question addressed is ‘what is the characteristic for the curriculum offered, as it appears in one teacher's verbal communication with 1–3-year-old children?’ The research area is motivated by the need for knowledge about the implications that a goal-oriented preschool curriculum and broad discretion for teachers might imply for activities in preschool. This study was carried out in Sweden, and the empirical data consist of videotaped observations of communication between a single teacher and a number of children aged between one and three during one morning in preschool. The results show that the teacher frequently uses questions as a means of communication, where a large number of shifts between different children and different issues are particularly characteristic. Although this contributes to a child perspective, it also implies a teacher-centred position and a fragmented way of exercising the discretion vis-à-vis the curriculum. The findings are discussed and related to curriculum theory and to early childhood perspectives.

I denna studie analyseras hur förskolans personal resonerar om att undervisa de yngsta barnen i förskolan. Fokusgruppssamtal har använts för att samla data från personal som arbetar med de yngsta barnens verksamhet. Billigs diskursteoretiska termer används i analyser av personalens resonemang om undervisningsbegreppets innebörder. Resultaten pekar mot två diskurser där krav och rättigheter utgör spänningsfält och där ett argument för något kan utgöra motargument i samma diskussion. Undervisning med de yngsta barnen utgör en del av en förskola i förändring. Med det i åtanke förstår vi personalens argument som motsägelsefulla när begreppet undervisning i förskolan beskrivs, något som kan ses både inom en diskurs och mellan diskurser.

This paper describes an analysis of teaching instances that are part of an in-service preschool teachers programme. The overall aim of the project is – together with teachers – to study model-based teaching and collaborative inquiry learning of chemical processes and physical phenomena in preschool. Our interest is directed towards the teaching of science in preschool, with particular focus on use of digital tools and the verbal communication and intersubjectivity established, or not established, between teachers and children during learning situations in preschool. Teaching activities were jointly developed by work teams in preschools and researchers. A qualitative analysis of video recordings of enacted teaching activities has been performed. The focus was excerpts representing qualitative differences in intersubjectivity related to the object of learning, and what characterised the communication in these situations – the roles of teacher, children and scaffolding digital technology. The focus of this report will be teaching activities developed  with air resistance as the object of learning. The result indicates the importance of intermediary objects of learning and place them on the science teaching agenda indicating that they can constitute a supporting element in the conquest of new knowledge. Further, children’s understanding of abstractions and physics concepts when designing a digital movie about investigated phenomena is discussed. The three-year professional development (PD) programme is ongoing and analysis of several instances during the first and second years will be discussed at the conference.

This paper describes an analysis of teaching instances that are part of an in-service preschool teachers programme. The overall aim of the project is – together with teachers – to study model-based teaching and collaborative inquiry learning of chemical processes and physical phenomena in preschool. Our interest is directed towards the teaching of science in preschool, with particular focus on use of digital tools and the verbal communication and intersubjectivity established, or not established, between teachers and children during learning situations in preschool. A phenomenographic analysis of the enacted object of learning was performed. The focus is excerpts representing qualitative differences in intersubjectivity related to the object of learning and what characterised the communication in these situations – the roles of teacher and children. From our results we state that mutual simultaneity may be seen as a variation of intersubjectivity. The result also places the intermediary object of learning on the science teaching agenda and shows that it can constitute a supporting element in the conquest of new knowledge. Further, children’s understanding of abstractions and concepts when designing a digital movie about science phenomena are discussed. The three-year professional development (PD) programme is ongoing and analysis of several instances during the first years will be discussed at the conference

This paper reports on model-based teaching and collaborative inquiry learning of chemical processes and physical phenomena related to socio-scientific issues (SSI) in Swedish preschools (1-5 years). A special focus is children's learning related to intended and enacted teaching, and the research contrasts teaching and learning processes with and without scaffolding by tablets. A developed theoretical framework for analysis of different referential meanings experienced during work with chemistry and physics in preschool will be presented. Results describe in detail how reasoning and questioning during teaching engage children and preschool teachers. The role of tablets in collaborative physics learning will be discussed.

In this presentation we want to elucidate children’s own experiences and the other is an aesthetic dimension of learning. In modern education children’s experiences are considered to be a starting point for their learning and development. To take advantage of and make use of each child’s knowledge seems to be a pedagogical consequence in the learning processes. The concept of aesthetics has often got a one-sided interpretation as a methodical support for learning and development. The tendency is to view aesthetic expressions as a method related to children’s development and acquisition of knowledge. The purpose of this study is to find out how aesthetics can be seen as one dimension of children’s experienced world. The study took place in a pre-school setting with children 3-5 year of age. The data consist of video observations in situations where teachers and children work with science content or more specifically they investigated; “What is soil?” The data are analyzed qualitatively. Three categories of children’s experienced world can be discerned and seen as related to three different ways of acting. On a general level one conclusion is, that aesthetics is a natural part of children’s experienced world and that it is of importance for children equal right in their meaning making. Strong or weak aesthetics in a learning situation will be further discussed and problemized.

The aim of this article is to study and problematize the importance of the communicative approach of teachers related to child perspectives and children’s perspectives as well as the meaning for children's learning. The article is based on empirical material from two observational studies of preschool teachers at two Swedish preschools, children aged between 1 and 6. One theoretical basis of this article is that teachers not only ought to observe the understanding children are carriers of. Teachers also have to make use of the understanding in the continuing learning process to be able to support children's learning. Children need to be given the opportunity to be aware of and experience how their own understanding can be linked to new experiences. The results reveal qualitatively distinct communicative approaches with regard to how teachers verbally engage in and make use of what children are occupied with. The discussion relates this to child perspectives combined with children’s perspectives as a didactic basis.