Anna Otterborn

Den här avhandlingen undersöker hur erfarna förskollärare integrerar digitala och analoga verktyg i sin undervisning. Avhandlingen fokuserar på så kallad STEM-undervisning där ämnesområdena naturve ...

Swedish preschool science practice is confined to a unique educational setting where upbringing, care, and education are intertwined. This allows teachers to develop innovative cross-curricular and multidimensional science teaching. At the same time, society demands the digitalization of preschool practice, which has caused concern not only about negative effects on children’s well-being but also the risk of foregrounding digital over analog tools in multidimensional and child-centered preschool practice. The aim of this study is to analyze how preschool teachers at the forefront of digitalization integrate digital and analog tools when teaching science and how this integration affects their practice. The data comprises documentation of digitalized science activities provided by ten preschool teachers and transcribed recall interviews with four of the teachers. Thematic content analysis and a framework for analyzing seven teaching dimensions of preschool science revealed the use of digital and analog tools as drivers for multidimensional science education. The findings show that the teachers primarily use digital tools to reinforce social learning, inclusion, and agency during science activities. Digital and analog tools were used to complement one another in pursuing the boundaries of multidimensional science. However, the content of this innovative and digitalized science teaching remained primarily within biology, the traditional scholarly discipline in preschool science. We conclude that the digitalization of preschool science seems to be used to strengthen and diversify teaching within the boundaries of overarching traditional preschool practice where nature encounters and children’s interests and well-being are at the forefront.

Modern preschool education is seen as an essential foundation for nurturing children’s digital literacy. Early childhood education environments have witnessed increased emphasis on integrating programming activities in combination with digital tablets. However, little is known about how preschool teachers implement programming as part of pedagogical strategies during practice. In Sweden, although there is a mandate to develop children’s understanding of the digital world, programming is not formally mentioned in the revised preschool curriculum. This study systematically investigates how Swedish preschool teachers implement programming activities in their teaching practice. Data was collected through a national online survey (n = 199). Findings revealed a range of apps and resources used in combination with tablets, where activity integration takes place as unplugged programming, digital programming, or as a combination of the former. Teachers markedly attributed intended learning goals around programming to tenets of computational thinking and “twenty-first century skills”. Moreover, programming was often actively linked to learning in other domains such as science, technology, mathematics, and language, approaches that show traditional Swedish preschool teaching practices being recontextualized in terms of programming. Based on the reported findings that provide insight into the implementation of programming in preschools, a logical future research avenue lies in exploring the documented programming activities from the perspective of the children.