TEACHING AND LEARNING GEOMETRY IN PRESCHOOL

The main aim of the study presented in this paper is to explore how preschool teachers can use everyday life settings as teaching and learning situations. The research is praxis near and a goal is to shed light on teaching and learning geometry in three Swedish preschools. In the Swedish preschool curriculum (Lpfö 98 revised 2010, 2011) it is expressed that preschool teachers will create learning environment that enable children to develop the ability to discern and perceive the relationships between concepts. In this on-going research the variation theory (Björklund, 2007; Marton et al., 2004; Runesson; 2006) is used as a theoretical and an analytical framework. In this theory, learning always has an object, ‘what’ and in this study it is geometric figures. The objects are experienced and conceptualized by the children (the learners) in different ways, ‘how’. Marton et.al. (2004) describe three types of the object of learning: the intended object of learning, the enacted object of learning and the lived object of learning. In all, 15 preschool teachers from three preschools are involved in the study. The children are between 1, 5 to 5 years old. In this study the preschool teachers work with variation and contrasts in order to make the object (for example circles) visible for children, and thereby possible to discern. They use fairy tales and children’s play with artefacts as pedagogical tools in everyday life. Observations and documentations are methods to have knowledge of the different forms of the object of learning. So far the findings show that teaching in preschool can be based on a theory of learning where children learn geometry by the discernment of differences and similarities between objects with the help of artefacts in play. The results also show that preschool teachers need knowledge about both the learning theory and the subject. The findings have relevance to Nordic educational research and also in wider areas because it highlights the opportunities for education in preschool; teaching and learning in everyday life.