”Barnehagelæreres arbeid med barns språklæring”.

The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of work with children and language for preschool teachers ("førskolelærer"), and how much knowledge about the work with children and language, student teachers feel they acquire on the bachelor programme in so-cial education. The specific research questions are: 1) To what extent do preschool teachers emphasise their work on children's language learning at preschool? 2) What do the student teachers say about their knowledge about working professionally with children and language at preschool?

The preschool teachers with many years of experience place most emphasis on work on children's language. A total of 75% of the preschool teachers with more than 18 years of experience state that they emphasise language skills to a great extent in their practical work with the children. This percentage can be compared with 54% of the group with 0-4 years of experience, 58% of the group with 5-10 years of experience and 58% of the group with 11-17 years of experience. Moreover, the study shows that a higher percentage of the more experienced respondents place emphasis on communication, language and texts to a great extent in their practical work with the children. Thus 37% of the group with 0-4 years of experience, 44% of the group with 5-10 years of experience, 53% of the group with 11-17 years of experience and 61% of the group with more than 18 years of experience state that they emphasise communication, language and texts to a great extent in their practical work with the children.

The preschool teachers with many years of experience place most emphasis on work on children's language. A total of 75% of the preschool teachers with more than 18 years of experience state that they emphasise language skills to a great extent in their practical work with the children. This percentage can be compared with 54% of the group with 0-4 years of experience, 58% of the group with 5-10 years of experience and 58% of the group with 11-17 years of experience. Moreover, the study shows that a higher percentage of the more experienced respondents place emphasis on communication, language and texts to a great extent in their practical work with the children. Thus 37% of the group with 0-4 years of experience, 44% of the group with 5-10 years of experience, 53% of the group with 11-17 years of experience and 61% of the group with more than 18 years of experience state that they emphasise communication, language and texts to a great extent in their practical work with the children.

Data was collected using two questionnaires. One questionnaire was sent to 1,000 randomly selected preschools and answered by 1192 preschool teachers ("pedagogiske ledere"). The questionnaire for the student teachers was sent to everyone on all bachelor programmes in social education in Norway (year 2012). The population of the study was 1,061 students, 898 of whom answered the questionnaire. The authors analysed the data using pivot tables and descriptive statistics (percentage, average and standard deviation). In the questionnaire to the preschools, the authors also tested whether there were any differences between the four groups of respondents. The groups were divided according to the number of years the respondents had worked at a preschool (0-4, 5-10, 11-17, more than 18 years).

Vatne, B. & Gjems L. (2014). ”Barnehagelæreres arbeid med barns språklæring”. Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift, 98(2), 115-126.