Collegial Learning and Digital Literacy Education in a Swedish Preschool

This article focuses on preschool teachers’ collegial learning in relation to children's use of digital learning tools in preschool. The aim of the study was to investigate how preschool teachers understand, change, and improve learning situations when digital tools are used, under the supervision of a film educator, a preschool colleague, and a researcher. The results show how five dedicated teachers, without a special interest in digital tools, started using tablets in preschool as a learning tool to achieve the goals in the curriculum regarding communication. The experiment model used in the study is based on design-oriented theories. The design-based experiment provided an opportunity for in-depth reflection among the teachers and a meeting place for collegial learning processes, which can in turn lead to preschool development.

Playing Activity with Orientation as a Method for Preschool Development

According to Vigotskian conception, psychological development of children occurs within the frames of cultural activities. Each form of activity may be expressed as a kind of narration or personal emotional involvement experienced by a child in different periods of childhood. One of essential kinds such experience is playing activity, engaging collective participants in a global social situation: children and adults. Playing activity with variety of modes and types of games, different in diverse social and historical conditions, may provide interesting psychological opportunity to study content, structure and stages of same activity. Games may differ by a variety of parameters. In this study the authors are interested in presenting two kinds of expression of playing activity: organized games with external orientation introduce by adults. Such types of games imply communication and collaboration within groups of preschool children in preschool institutions. The article presents phases of introduction of playing activity, kinds of means of external orientation proposed by adults and examples of concrete games with procedure of implementation. The authors discuss qualitative achievements in psychological development of preschool children as a result of participation in playing activity. The authors conclude that essential methodological approach of historical and cultural conception of development should be used together with conception of psychological structures activity. Such an approach might be useful for qualitative understanding of meaningful development at preschool age.