Different ways of handling learning objects in science when pre-school children and their teachers are visiting nature

The aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge about pre-school teachers´ qualitative different ways of handling a learning object in science when children 4-5 years old are visiting nature. Learning is here seen as a change in the learners’ possibility to experience the world in a certain way and it takes place everywhere. It can be both planned and unplanned.The framework used, variation theory, states for learning to occur, critical aspects of the learning object have to be simultaneously discerned and focused on. The learning object is seen as a capability and it can be defined by its critical features. When playing and interacting with others, a space of variation is constituted that decides what is possible to learn concerning a delimited learning object. When teachers make differences in the children’s´ earlier experiences visible it may contribute to, critical aspects that the learner has not been previously able to discern becomes visible. The data is collected by video observations (20 hours). A group of children and their teachers were videotaped during their stay in nature (a total of 9 days). The research builds on ordinary preschool activities and is not an experiment designed by the researcher. A qualitative analysis seeks to discern how teachers can maintain children’s interest of the phenomena and contribute to develop the children´s knowledge. All parents were informed and had to give their written permission for the children to take part in the research. Every time when starting the video recording the children were asked if it was OK to observe them and they were informed it was freely for them to stop the recording whenever they wanted. The teachers were informed they also had permission to stop the observation whenever they wanted. All participants were guaranteed preservation of anonymity. Three qualitatively different ways of dealing with a learning object is found. In the presentation possible reasons for the teachers´ different ways of handling the learning object will be discussed. Implication for practice is to show the teacher´s role in children’s learning of science. The curriculum points out science learning as an important question for pre-school teacher to handle, but teachers often lack a strategy for this mission.