Being a tour guide or travel companion on the children's knowledge journey

Abstract

The purpose is to discuss two competing theories of learning in preschool based on preschool teachers’ views of knowledge and learning. The focus is mathematical learning but the discussion is applicable to all early childhood learning contexts. Preschool teachers’ views on children's learning and development is important for the pedagogy they use and affects how they structure everyday life in the preschool and could lead to consequences for toddlers’ knowledge development. In Swedish research on learning, we can identify two dominant, competing perspectives, one based on a predetermined linear course that can be understood as adults defining what is important for children to learn, and a multidimensional perspective, starting with children's knowledge – what they already know and express with spoken or unspoken language. I advocate the broader view of learning since the linear view gives children little opportunity to influence what is to be learned and in what way. Children's initiatives are overlooked in favour of teachers' perceptions of what is important to learn.