Patterns of Observed Child Participation and Proximity to a Small Group with Teacher in Swedish Preschool Free Play

Swedish preschool is a preschool for all children and free play is an important educational activity. The question is whether all children are participating (ie, are attending important activities and are engaged when they are there) to a sufficient extent in preschool free play? This study aims to explore children's observed participation based on quantitative observational data and a person-oriented method of analysis. A series of systematic instantaneous observations á 3 seconds (M = 19.50, SD = 8.40) of individual children (n = 453) with a minimum age of 36 months, were carried out continuously for 1-2 full days in 56 preschool units in southeast Sweden. Only observations where the overall activity (activity setting) was free play (indoors and outdoors) were used in the analysis. The summed observations resulted in frequency data for four types of activities; pretend play, associative / cooperative interactions, proximity to a small group incl. teachers, and level of engagement (level of focus or effort in the activity) and were selected as important based on the Swedish preschool context and previous research. Proportions (divided by the individual's total number of observations in free play) of the individual activities were calculated. The four proportion variables were used in a series of cluster analyzes to find distinct and interpretable clusters or patterns of participation where the children in a cluster were highly similar in all variables, and at the same time were very different from children in the other clusters. The clusters were then compared based on child characteristics (age, gender, need for special support, receiving mother tongue support) answered by preschool staff, and preschool unit characteristics (number of children, number of staff, children / staff ratio, number of children with mother tongue support, number of children in need of special support, number resource staff) answered by the preschool director / principal, to see if certain characteristics were more common in some clusters than in others. The results identified eight distinct and interpretable patterns that could be arranged from higher to lower participation. Most interesting were two clusters of children that indicated low to very low observed participation, and with high and low proximity to a small group of teachers, respectively. The children in the cluster with a very low participation pattern and low proximity to a small group of teachers were more often children with another mother tongue, and more children came from units with more resource staff. It is noteworthy that few of these children were considered to need special support according to the preschool staff. The children also came from different preschool units. Children in the cluster with a low participation pattern and high proximity to a small group of teachers more often came from preschool units where more children had a different mother tongue. No significant difference between the clusters was noted in the number of children in need of special support, although trends could be discerned. Data was collected with systematic observations with the help of manual-based instrument Child Observation in Preschool (COP), adapted to the Swedish preschool context. The observations consists of many snapshots of individual children across a preschool day, at least. Several aspects of the child's current activity are coded. Individual data is summed across the observations, and proportions of different activities (pretend play, associative/cooperative interactions, proximity to small group with teacher, level of engagement) were calculated. Frequency and proportionate data from the observations are available in the data set, as well as child and preschool unit background information.瑞典学前教育面向所有儿童，自由游戏是一项重要的教育活动。本研究的核心问题为：所有儿童是否都能充分参与学前自由游戏，即是否能参与到重要活动中，且在参与过程中保持投入状态？本研究旨在基于量化观测数据与以人为导向的分析方法，探究儿童在自由游戏中的观测式参与情况。研究团队对瑞典东南部56所学前教育机构内的453名最低年龄为36个月的儿童，开展了连续1至2个完整整日的系统性瞬时观测，以3秒为间隔开展记录，每名儿童的观测次数均值为19.50，标准差为8.40。分析阶段仅纳入整体活动（活动场景）为自由游戏（含室内与室外场景）的观测数据。经汇总各儿童的观测数据，得到四类活动的频次数据：假装游戏、联想/合作互动、与含教师在内的小群体的亲近程度，以及投入度（活动中的专注程度或努力程度）。这四类指标是结合瑞典学前教育场景与既往研究确定的重要观测维度。随后，我们计算了每名儿童在各类活动中的参与占比（占该儿童在自由游戏中总观测次数的比例）。基于这四类占比变量，研究团队开展了一系列聚类分析，以识别具有区分度且可解释的参与模式聚类结果：同一聚类内的儿童在所有变量上均具有高度相似性，同时与其他聚类的儿童存在显著差异。随后，研究人员基于学前教职员工上报的儿童个体特征（年龄、性别、特殊支持需求、母语帮扶需求），以及学前机构园长上报的机构特征（儿童总数、教职员工总数、师幼比、接受母语帮扶的儿童数、有特殊支持需求的儿童数、资源教职员工数），对各聚类结果进行比较，以探究某些特征是否在特定聚类中更为普遍。 研究结果共识别出8类具有区分度且可解释的参与模式，可按照参与程度从高到低进行排序。其中最受关注的是两类参与程度为低至极低的儿童聚类：一类与教师小群体的亲近程度较高，另一类则较低。参与程度极低且与教师小群体亲近程度较低的聚类中，儿童多为非母语使用者，且更多来自资源教职员工配置较多的学前机构。值得注意的是，根据学前教职员工的评估，这类儿童中极少有被认为有特殊支持需求的，且他们来自多所不同的学前机构。而参与程度较低且与教师小群体亲近程度较高的聚类，则更多来自有较多非母语使用者儿童的学前机构。尽管可观察到一定趋势，但各聚类在有特殊支持需求的儿童数量上未出现显著差异。 本研究采用适配瑞典学前教育场景的手工编码观测工具《学前儿童观测量表》（Child Observation in Preschool, COP）开展系统性观测以收集数据。观测内容涵盖学前一日内多次针对个体儿童的瞬时记录，至少会对儿童当前活动的多个维度进行编码。随后对每名儿童的所有观测数据进行汇总，并计算各类活动的参与占比（包括假装游戏、联想/合作互动、与教师所在小群体的亲近程度、投入度）。本数据集包含观测得到的频次与占比数据，以及儿童与学前机构的背景信息。