This study focuses upon teacher’s development during a Learning Study among children in Swedish school age educare. The aim is to explore and describe in what way Learning Study could affect teachers approach to the learning object and thereby develop their teaching. The study is performed in school age educare settings which is an after-school activity for students in need of childcare during the afternoon. School age educare is a part of the Swedish educational system, regulated by the government, and led by school age educare teachers specially trained for teaching in this setting. A learning study among children in the age group of nine to eleven years, and what influences as learning object was carried out. Two teachers participated in the Learning Study and their conceptions of influences were documented. Data consist of audio recorded interviews and dialogues between researcher and teachers. The study is based on variation theory and the concepts of discernment, simultaneity and variation (Marton & Booth, 1997; Marton & Pang, 2006). While learning it is important for the learners to discern critical aspects of the learning object, discern different aspects simultaneously and variation and contrast in representation forms. Within variations theory learning is defined as gaining knowledge about the world and an assumption is that different people experience things in different ways (Marton & Booth, 1997). That means that an aspect could be critical for one individual but not for another who has already experienced this aspect. A critical aspect is thus critical just as long it is not discerned by the learner. Once the learner has understood the aspect it is no longer critical and a new critical aspect could occur. The result shows that the teachers’ participation in a learning study enabled them to discern the learning object in a different and more complex way. Some critical aspects were illuminated and teachers’ awareness increased and changed to a different way of discerning the terms. The result also shows a new awareness among the teachers when describing their work to their children.

The point of departure in this study is to describe pre-school children´s learning during a learning study and the expectations the teachers have on each child´s learning. The learning study model (Holmqvist & Mattisson, 2008) is used based on variation theory. Three micro-cycles (lessons) form a macro-Learning study cycle (including three lessons). One Learnign study was implemented during three weeks (one lesson each week). The participants in teh study were three pre-school teachers, their 36 children and researchers. The study consits of discussions with teachers on their focus when planning lessons, classroom observations during learning studies carried out in pre-school and interviews with pre-school teachers´about the expectations they have concerning the children´s learning. The results show 1) an increased learning outcome when the object of learning is presented using variation theory and 2) a discrepancy between what the children actually learned and the teachers' expectations. The expectation the teachers´have on their children´s learning differs from what they actually learned indicates that there is a risk that teachers too high or low expectations affect children´s learning ability. By the use of learning study the teachers became aware of this risk.

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to describe pre-school children’s learning during a Learning Study, and their teachers’ awareness of each child’s learning possibilities in relation to what they actually learned. The aims of the study are twofold; firstly we focus on how to design Learning Study in pre-school settings, and secondly we study young children’s (aged 4-5) learning.

Design/methodology/approach - The data consists of three videotaped interviews with each participating child (n=39), three videotaped interventions and one videotaped interview each with three pre-school teachers.

Findings - The results show 1) an increased learning outcome in all three groups, 2) there is a discrepancy between what the children actually learned and the teachers’ awareness about the children’s possibilities. The teachers’ awareness of the children’s learning possibilities differ from what the children actually learned.

Originality/value - Learning study is usually used in school settings, but this paper shows its potential also in pre-school settings. Beside this, the results indicates that there is a risk that if teachers’ expectations are too high or too low, they will affect children’s abilities to learn in either a positive or a negative way by not offering the children sufficiently challenging tasks. By the use of Learning Study the teachers became aware of this discrepancy and were able to reassess their expectations for each child according to their abilities.

Morris & Hiebert (2011) point out a number of important considerations for improvingteaching; their main focus is on "creating shared instructional products". The collaborative work among teachers, in combination with small assessments of the children’s learning, has been shown to be an excellent means of improving quality in teaching situations. The teachers’ assumptions are closely linked to Hattie’s (2012) arguments for getting teachers to plan lessons or learning activities collaboratively. However, it is not about finding the best activities or lessons, it is about studying what it takes to learn at different ages and in different subject areas. In the same way as researchers are supposed to build their knowledge on the shoulders of other researchers, the development of teaching should build on knowledge of previous praxis and its outcomes. Such iterative processes have been used in other cultures for decades. See e.g. lesson study in Japan (Lewis, Perri and Friedkin, 2009), for example, and learning study in Hong Kong (Lo, 2012). Both Hattie (2011) and the theoretical framework applied in learning study, i.e. variation theory, have been influenced by Bransford’s (2000) suggestions that classrooms must be learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-rich and community-centered. Learning Study implies a way to arrange teaching which means that a specific and well-defined learning object is focused and emphasis is put on how the content is presented to the learners. This enables teachers to take the learners perspective and understand the critical aspects of a learning object. In this paper we argue for how learning study could be used to study and improve teaching and thereby put focus on quality in teaching. Our short examples from previous learning studies demonstrate how teachers’ awareness of children’s thinking and learning can create a learning environment of high quality.

Research on learning has shown the importance of the learner‟s possibilities to discern what differs as well as what is similar when meeting new phenomena. But how does this kind of understanding develop when young children try to understand their environment in natural settings? The results of Tolchinsky‟s research (2003) about young children‟s understanding of numbers and letters before being taught are considered in this study. Tolchinsky‟s results showed that children can separate cards that can be read from those which can not be read. Even more, the results showed that children did not separate cards with numbers in the same way. In this study the point of departure is variation theory, and Tolchinsky‟s results are seen through the perspective of what children do discern, what they discern simultaneously and what kind of variation they seem to need to discern. The aim of this study is to describe in what ways pre-school children seem to discern letters and numbers, what kind of similarities they discern among these phenomena and what kind of variations of the targeted phenomena they are aware of. Three children, aged 4, 5 and 6, have been interviewed when sorting cards with letters/words and numbers. The cards offered have been prepared to include some similarities and some differences, which enable the child to sort in many different ways. As Tolchinsky has found, the children rejected the card that only included letters that could not form a word; they could differentiate cards with numbers from those with letters/words, and no cards including numbers were rejected. In this study we also found how children used chain-complex when talking about the relations between the cards in terms of similarities and differences. Symbols such as the decimal point and minus sign were not commented on at all by the children and had no influence on their sorting.

Research on learning has shown the importance of the learner's possibilities to discern what differs as well as what is similar when meeting new phenomena. But how does this kind of understanding develop when young children try to understand their environment in natural settings? The results of Tolschinsky's research (2003) about young children's understanding of numbers and letters before being taught are considered in this study. Tolchinsky's results showed that children can separate cards that can be read from those which can not be read. In this study the point of departure is variation theory, and Tolchinsky’s results are seen through the perspective of what children do discern, what they discern simultaneously and what kind of variation they seem to need to discern. The aim in this study is to describe how children understand the concepts whole, halves and quarters. Three children aged four, five and six years old have been interviewed before, during and after a playful instruction about the topic. The results show how children understand the phenomenon and what implications this can have concerning their future learning. Due to one of the results, the children understand halves as halves as long as both halves are visible, but as soon as one half disappears the remaining becomes a whole as it is one piece and not two previously connecting to each other.

The aim of this study is to describe in what ways the object of learning changes shape during its way from the intended (planned), enacted (offered) and lived (discerned) object of learning. The study is based on variation theory, and learning study is used as a model. A total of three preschool teachers, 39 children aged 4-5 years and three researchers participated in the study. Three interventions were carried out in three different groups of children (A, B and C) by three preschool teachers. The data consist of video-dcumented meetings with the preschool teachers and researchers, interviews with the children in the form of pre-, post- and delayed post-tests and video-documented interventions (3). The results show (a) how the teachers' focus on aspects concerning the object of learning and aspects not concerning the object of learning affects learning possibilities. The results also show (b) a discrepancy between the children's possibilities to learn adn what the preschool teachers intend to offer them to learn. Finally, the results show (c) how the preschool teachers' understanding of childrens learning sometimes makes them use other words than the appropriate ones to make the intervention funnier or more interesting.

The aim of this study is to describe in what ways the objectof learning changes shape during its way from the intended(planned), enacted (offered) and lived (discerned) object oflearning. The study is based on variation theory, andlearning study is used as a model. A total of three preschoolteachers, 39 children aged 4-5 years and three researchersparticipated in the study. Three interventions were carriedout in three different groups of children (A, B and C) bythree preschool teachers. The data consist of videodocumentedmeetings with the preschool teachers andresearchers, interviews with the children in the form of pre-,post- and delayed post-tests and video-documentedinterventions (3). The results show (a) how the teachers’focus on aspects concerning the object of learning andaspects not concerning the object of learning affectslearning possibilities. The results also show (b) adiscrepancy between the children’s possibilities to learn andwhat the preschool teachers intend to offer them to learn.Finally, the results show (c) how the preschool teachers’understanding of children’s learning sometime make themuse other words than the appropriate ones to make theintervention funnier or more interesting.

Preschool children's learning is the subject of this study. Three children aged 4, 5 and 6 participated. The data consists of individual interviews with the children before and after the intervention and a videotaped intervention. Our results show that children seem to see a whole as something that is not cut into pieces, no matter what i looks like. They do not necessarily refer to the whole when they see a half, nor do they imagine the halves or quarters in a whole that is not cut into pieces. On the other hand, if they see halves they do not have any difficulty putting them together into a whole, but this happens when they can see the material in front of them. The results reveal some interesting findings, pointing at the natural flexibility small children have in discerning a half in relation to a whole insteac of in relation to a representation (like a full circle). On the other hand - the children show difficulties in seeing what parts a whole can be divided into. This is the other way around, as children in higher grades with a view of the circle as the correct representation of a whole, which sometimes makes it hard to manage problem solving at higher grades where flexibility in how to understand proportions is needed.

The aim of this research is to study knowledge utilization and discursive patterns during pre-school planning meetings fronstage. The study is designed as a qualitative case study based on tape recordings of five planning meetings and three video documented activities. Three pre-school teachers and three researchers participated. In the analysis, Foucault’s work on discursive practices is used as theoretical framework. The study highlights knowledge used and cited in the local negotiations. The conclusions are that the knowledge used is based on both professional knowledge related to children's learning and development, and local knowledge of children and their abilities, conditions and personalities. The professional knowledge appears as rather implicit and it is primarily the local knowledge of children and their individual needs and circumstances that is most clearly expressed. Dominant discursive patterns are formulated as the staff make themselves responsible for making the pre-school activity not school-like for the maturing child. On the front stage arena the teachers' tasks primarily appears as a desire to maintain the pre-school content in accordance with pre-school ideology that also controls how they see the children’s learning in pre-school in another perspective than student learning in a school context

Swedish preschools and schools are welfare institutions required to achieve and demonstrate high quality. The teachers’ extensive responsibility for quality development and evaluation is stated in the national curriculums. Many studies have contributed with quality definitions and suggestions on how quality can be achieved and measured. This paper discusses how discourse analysis can contribute to the studies of quality and quality work in school. Short extracts of data from the on-going project Quality work in Swedish pre-school are used in order to give an insight in the method’s potential and limitations. Our methodological framework is inspired by Foucault’s theories of discourse and knowledge relations, in which discourses are regarded as more or less systematic statements about how we should think about the world. According to Foucault discourses shape and created meaning systems which may gain the status of 'truth', and hereby dominate how we define and organize ourselves and our social world. Some discourses can constrain and dissent the production of knowledge, while others may enable 'new' knowledge. Discourses lead to mechanisms that control us, by construing some manners of speaking [or writing] and behaving as appropriate, true and good, while others are construed as inappropriate, untrue and undesired. Consequently the study of discourses is closely related to the study of power relations, focusing on how these relations are operating in the spoken [or written] words. The questions that arise within this framework are e.g. How do some discourses maintain their authority? Why do some 'voices' get heard whilst others are silenced? Who benefits and who does not? Critical discourse analysis is a method used to study discourses and their relations to sociocultural practices, which allows for a critical perspective on the society. Critical discourse analysis is especially suitable for studies of texts such as steering documents, interview transcripts etc. The analyses focus on how discourses express themselves, e.g. in teachers’ statements about quality. The method provides a number of analytical tools such as: Normalization [What is expressed as a ’truth’? What does this ‘truth’ encompass?]; Pronouns used [Who are made responsible?]; and Modality [How forceful are the statements?]

The short extracts from our analyses demonstrate how language contributes to create, consolidate and sometimes change the perceptions of quality in socio-political institutions such as the Swedish municipal preschool. We exemplify how power relations coexist or concur within this discourse, and illustrate the discursive shift which seems to have occurred.

Conclusively, discourse analysis neither describe quality nor prescribe how it can be achieved. It contributes to our knowledge about the ‘truths’ and power relations that are embedded in the spoken and written ‘talk’ about quality. This knowledge is not merely of academic interest. It can also prove useful for teachers trying to understand and relate to the circumstances under which they are expected to create and evaluate quality in a school setting.

I denna studie av lek i förskolan fokuseras den styrning som äger rum i leken. Det teoretiska ramverket utgörs av Foucaults maktanalys, där styrning handlar om att forma, vägleda, administrera och reglera människors handlingar. Undersökningen är utförd i fyra barngrupper på tre förskolor, där i huvudsak barn mellan fyra och sex år deltar. Det empiriska materialet består av transkriberade videoobservationer av lek. I studien synliggörs den styrning som verkar i leken, och några av de teknologier som gör styrningen möjlig pekas ut. Studien argumenterar för att leken, som anses vara barns fria uttrycksmedel, är väl reglerad i syfte att bidra till skapandet av ett framtida barn med vissa kompetenser. I framtidens namn kategoriseras och normaliseras lekinnehåll och handlingar i leken. Genom att upptäcka de diskurser som är styrande och reflektera över hur makten används, blir det också möjligt, att analysera vad som dikterar vårt sätt att normalisera och kategorisera barn och lek.

Traditionally Swedish pre-schools have been awarded full value, where a path of development and education has often been included. School preparatory learning was rarely emphasized (Brembeck, Johansson & Kampmann, 2004). In recent years pre-school has been given a clearer and partially changed mandate related to children's learning and development (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2010). This new tradition of increased focus on learning and goal achievements is challenging for the teachers (Ljung-Djärf & Tullgren, 2010). With this background the aim of the presentation is to give an overview of Swedish Learning Study projects among pre-school children and how these could impact on the teaching and learning in pre-school settings. The presented studies are Learning Studies and consist of two or three micro-cycle studies. Theoretically they are based upon variation theory and the concepts discernment, simultaneity and variation (Marton & Booth, 1997; Marton & Pang, 2006). When learning it is important for the learners to discern critical aspects of the learning object, discern different aspects simultaneously and whit variation and contrast in representation forms. In the studies special focus is put on generative learning (Holmqvist, Gustavsson & Wernberg, 2007) which could be described as the ability to develop knowledge about the learning object beyond the learning situation in the learning study. The studies show that it is possible to accomplish a Learning Study among young children. Learning Study offers the children, and the teachers, to put focus on a certain object of learning. Also more complex and compounded learning objects are possible for the children to gain and develop knowledge about. Learning Study not only enables the teachers to be aware of their on expectations of the children´s learning, but also spot the importance of the teachers and the teaching when it comes to the children´s learning.

Swedish preschools are welfare institutions required to achieve and demonstrate high quality. The preschool teachers are responsible not only for the quality of the daily activities at the preschool, but also for the evaluation and development of these activities. The latter can be problematic especially in times of diminishing financial resources. This raises question on how quality is defined and evaluated.

Our analysis of the national steering documents showed two coexisting discourses concerning quality and quality work in the Swedish preschools: I) a relational discourse within which quality was closely related to relations and reflections, and II) a new public management (NPM) discourse within which quality was related to measurability and effectiveness.

A following study of discursive expressions of quality and quality work among preschool teachers showed that the participants’ statements to a high extent corresponded with the relational discourse found in the national steering documents. The teachers regarded themselves responsible for maintain good relations to the children and their parents, and to their colleagues. The relational discourse was to some extent challenged by the NPM discourse. This discourse was found in statements stressing a correspondence between activities and curriculum, and the local guiding principle: perform, evaluate, and develop. Evaluations were made by mandatory reports to the municipal administration and locally produced inquiry forms to the parents.

In this paper we present a study which aims to explore discursive expressions about how quality could be achieved in preschool work among preschool teachers. The methodological frame of reference is inspired by critical discourse analysis, which enables the study of discourses and their relations to socio cultural practices, hereby allowing a critical perspective on society. Data was collected during a seminar where preschool teachers reflect upon their work and how they define quality or lack of quality.