To Örebro University

Preschool is the arena for early literacy education and preschool teachers are expected to challenge and support children’s early literacy development. However, previous research indicates some uncertainties among preschool teachers regarding what can be considered as early literacy in preschool and in particular, writing activities. This study aimed to pilot-test and analyze the applicability of the Social Language Environment-Domain, SLE-D, which is a self- reported assessment tool, containing dimensions of play strategies, care strategies and communicative strategies to serve as a tool for preschool teachers to develop knowledge about language awareness and didactic strategies that promote children´s early literacy. This study encompasses the concept of early literacy and the theoretical foundations has its roots in Bartons´s (2007) ecological perspective of literacy. Additionally, the processes of learning and development is related to Vygotsky´s work (1986) in which the language mediates meaning making in social-cultural settings. This study has through the approach participatory action research (Reason & Bradbury, 2006), involved fifteen preschool teachers to make self-reported assessments of SLE-D and critically analyze their teaching strategies. The result shows that the preschool teachers’ self-reported assessments within the dimensions play strategies, care strategies and communicative strategies increased during the research period of 22 month. However, play strategies was the dimension that increased most from the first data collection to the last data collection. The results indicate that the preschool teachers have paid attention to and developed their teaching strategies in literacy-related play activities in preschool. In general, the preschool teachers seemed to pay attention to and implement conditions for children’s early literacy in preschool. However, it should be noted that those domain specified items that were reported low in first occasion, increased the most.  

As the first step of institutionalized schooling in Nordic countries, preschool education servers as the educational context of early literacy, in which children’s development is supported by preschool teachers. Children’s language development can be supported in several different ways. One way described in previous research has been by assessing children’s skills and development through different type of assessment material (Vallberg Roth, 2015). In this presentation, we seek to shift the focus of literacy assessment that maps children’s skills, to preschool teachers’ analysis of their skills in teaching in terms of three overall competencies; first, knowledge about language awareness and second, knowledge about literacy environments that promote children’s early literacy and third, critical reflections aiming to develop didactic strategies in early literacy.

References

Barton, D. (2007). Literacy an introduction to the ecology of written language. Blackwell Publishing.

Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (2006). Introduction: Inquiry and Participation in Search of a World Worthy of Human Aspiration. In P. Reason, & H. Bradbury (Eds.), The Handbook of Action Research (pp.1-13). Sage.

Vallberg Roth, A (2015). Delstudie 2 Bedömning och dokumentation i förskola. In: Vetenskapsrådets rapporter 2015. Förskola tidig intervention. Vetenskapsrådet.

Vygotsky. L.S (1986). Thought and language. MIT Press