About the education
This course provides an introduction to the field of mathematics. It covers both children's and the students' own relationship to mathematics, as well as mathematical learning theories related to gender. The course considers children's mathematical activities and exploration in their daily lives.
In the course, mathematics is treated as a language and studied using practical-aesthetic and multimodal forms of expression including signs and symbols, games, and ICT. The use of pedagogical documentation is extended as a tool to monitor and challenge learning processes as well as to reflect on the students’ own pedagogical actions.
The course content is consistently discussed in relation to the task of a preschool teacher and the objectives of the curriculum, for example:
- the importance of play for children's use of mathematics,
- how children create meaning from the study of signs and symbols.
For students interested in studying 30 ECTS credits during one semester, two other courses in early childhood education are also offered;
- Early Childhood Education focusing on Science and Education for Sustainability, 12 ECTS credits
- Early Childhood Education: Explorative Learning, 6 ECTS credits
Subject: Early Childhood Education
Are you interested in young children’s learning and learning conditions in combination with the traditions and knowledge of the preschool teacher profession? Early childhood education is an trans-disciplinary subject that unites the conditions for young children’s learning and meaning making in relation to children’s explorations of different subject contents. In this process children’s play has a central role.
Early childhood education also addresses the pedagogical and didactic considerations within the scope of the preschool teaching profession in order to follow young children’s exploration and learning strategies within different thematic areas. Here special emphasis is on active listening and designing integrated learning environments that can meet and challenge children’s exploration processes. Emphasis is also placed on ethical and aesthetic relations and processes. Pedagogical documentation and assessment in relation to the goals of preschool has a central position in early childhood education.
Furthermore early childhood education accommodates broad questions about how laws, political decisions and structural conditions influence young children’s learning processes in preschool. In this context aspects such as social class, gender, ethnicity and their impact on children’s experiences are central. Developing the basis for parent participation is also an essential part of early childhood education.
Area of interest: Human, Social and Political Sciences, and Law
Are you interested in human beings and society? How we function individually and together, what drives us, our learning processes, how rules and laws have been established, and how we interact with each other? If that is the case we have a lot to offer.
This area of interest covers anything from Pedagogy, Psychology and Gender Studies, to Statistics, Political Science, Law and many other subjects. Their common denominator is the relation between human beings and society, independent analytical thinking and often an international perspective.