”Trivsel og kvalitet i barnehagen”.

The objective of the report is to describe development work at daycare centres ("barnehage") which has been done at seven municipalities in Oppland, Norway. The aim is to provide an insight into the variation in quality at the selected daycare centres through descriptions of variations in a number of important areas linked to how children experience everyday life at the daycare centres and to children’s social and language development. Furthermore, variations are described in the pedagogical practices as well as parent experience and satisfaction with the daycare centre and cooperation with the staff.

The results show that there is some variation in how children experience well-being at their daycare centre. The majority experience that they are very happy at their centre, while others are not always so. About 20% of children are assessed as unhappy at their daycare centre “to some extent” or “sometimes”. This means that they do not always like going to their daycare centre and they feel they are teased by other children. The results also show a relatively large variation in children’s social skills. Many of the children are assessed to have good social skills and therefore function well socially, while others are assessed to have poor social competence and therefore function less well socially at their daycare centre. A few children has limited social skills to the extent that they have problems participating in collective activities and play.

With regard to language skills, 20% of children achieve the best possible assessment. Even though most have good language skills, a number of children find it hard to express themselves and understand language. This applies for 8% of the children. Overall, the majority of the children are assessed as being well-functioning, although girls score higher in all parameters than boys.

The assessment of the employees of the quality of the daycare centres shows that most assess the environment at the institution as good. However, a relatively large percentage, about 12% of employees, are unsure or think that the environment is not so good. Most employees also experience that their relationships with the children in their department are good and that their cooperation with the parents works well. About 5% replied that their relationships with the children were not good, and about 10% assessed that cooperation with the parents was not entirely satisfactory. The parents’ assessment of the quality of the daycare centres are shows that most parents are satisfied with the daycare centre and their cooperation with the personnel. About 10% state that they think that cooperation is not so good.

The results in the report are based on four questionnaire surveys in which children, parents, a contact carer and other daycare-centre personnel have answered a number of questions about the content and quality of the daycare centre and children’s skills. For example, children’s well-being is measured (assessed by the children themselves), as well as social competence, language skills and behaviour (assessed by personnel). Quality is understood as process quality and measured through how the personnel perceive their work environment, relationships between adults and children, and cooperation between personnel and parents. The two first categories are assessed by the personnel, while the final category is assessed by both the personnel and parents. The studies were conducted in 2013 and they cover children between 4-5 years-old. All the daycare centres in Gran, Østre Toten, Øystre Slidre, Ringebu and Øyer municipalities were included in the sample, while Lillehammer and Gausdal each had two daycare centres in the sample. A total of 664 children, parents and contact carers as well as 562 employees were invited to answer the questionnaire. 636 children, 645 contact carers, 494 parents and 473 other employees responded. All the groups answered an electronic questionnaire. The children themselves have responded to the different questions by first watching and listening to a cartoon presentation illustrating the concepts in the questionnaire. Then a person read a statement aloud, which the children responded to by clicking on various “smiley” response alternatives. The results of the questionnaire survey were analysed using different types of histograms and significance tests of mean values.

Lekhal, R. & Vigmostad, I. (2014): ”Trivsel og kvalitet i barnehagen”. Oppdragsrapport nr. 6-2014. Elverum: Høgskolen i Hedmark.