The importance of the education in the learning process : preschool students' thoughts on their own learning process

The aim of the study was to describe and analyse leaming processes in a group of preschool students. My questions was; what do preschool students think about preschool teachers' attitude regarding meals? Do their attitudes and descriptions change during the time of education and if so, which are the contributory causes to this change? The investigation has a qualitative approach where ten students were interviewed on two different occasions with two years in between. The starting point for the interviews were nine cri tical incidents. In the analysis I found several different attitudes, which were brought together to six general attitudes witch I narned; "the Regulator", "the Considerator", "the Planner", "the Cooperator", "the Adaptor" and "the Persuader". The Considerator, the Planner, the Cooperator and the Adaptor all want to, in their own way, tum the meals into positive and joyful moments for all participants. These attitudes describe an active preschool teacher who plans and organises the meals based on the childs needs and abilities. The Regulator's and the Persuader's attitudes were based upon the will to reform the childs behaviour, which was seen upon as negative or less acceptable. The result shows that the attitudes somewhat differ between the two years, for exarnple does the Persuader deminishes while the Planner grows in nurnber. My analysis shows that there are several contributory causes to the students' change of attitude. These are; work experience, theoretical experience, literature studies, broadened understanding, possibilities to discussion, as well as the collaboration between theory and practice. When discussing the result, theories about competence and knowledge, especially the competence and knowledge of the preschool teacher, are considered. The learning process and effects from education, again especially focused on the education of preschool teachers, are also discussed. One conclusion is thai:" the learning process can either be facilitated or aggravated by the organisation of the education. Alternation between theoretical and practical elements Licentiatavhandling