Abstract:

The Finnish National Board of Education is funding a project, which is carried out in six municipalities in South-West Finland. The aim of the project is to find flexible models for the pre-preliminary education and elementary instruction. In this presentation we refer to these stages as early years of education covering the age groups from 6 to 9. The schools taking part in the project have developed several new teaching models. For instance, pupils of pre-primary stage, 1st and 2nd grade are taught in the same group by a pre-primary teacher and an elementary teacher, another model is constructed for children who need more time for studying the 1st and the 2nd year curriculum. These “slow” learners study three years with special education teacher and an elementary teacher. In some of the schools the major goal is to enhance home and school cooperation or to teach literacy and mathematics with new methods.
The role of the university is to provide in-service training in mutually agreed topics for teachers. The university also conducts studies related to these topics. One of the topics is pupils’ self-esteem, which is one of the key elements in enhancing learning.
We constructed two parallel questionnaires of 50 items for pupils and their parents. The theoretical background is based on the five-stage model of self-esteem by Michele Borba (2000) and Robert Reasoner (2000). According to them strong self-esteem is built on five building blocks: security, selfhood, affiliation, mission and competence. Sense of security means that a person (here a child) has a feeling of strong assuredness, she or he feels comfortable and safe. A child also knows what is expected of him or her, and is able to depend on other individuals in different situations, and he or she comprehends rules and limits. Sense of selfhood is a feeling of individuality, which means that a person is acquiring self-knowledge that includes an accurate and realistic self-description in terms of roles, attributes and physical characteristics. Sense of affiliation is a feeling of belonging, acceptance or relatedness. It is also a feeling of being approved, appreciated and respected by others. Sense of mission is a feeling of purpose and motivation. It can be seen also as self-empowerment through setting realistic and achievable goals. It means that a person is willing to take responsibility for the consequences of his or her decisions. Sense of competence is a feeling of success and accomplishment in things that are regarded as important or valuable. A person is aware of his or her strengths and also able to accept his or her weaknesses. The model can also be called as an empowerment cycle. Parents and teachers play an important role in enhancing children’s self-esteem.
The aim of this study is to examine: 1) How strong is children’s self-esteem during the early years of education? 2) Does children’s self-esteem vary in different models of teaching/learning? 3) How strong is the correlation between the children’s and the parents’ estimates?
The data was collected during April and May 2011. Altogether 458 pupils (pre-primary = 65; 1st grade = 265; 2nd grade = 128, ages 6 – 9) and 418 parents answered the questionnaires. The children filled questionnaires at school and their teachers delivered parents’ questionnaires to the parents who returned them in a closed envelope back to the teachers.
The results of the study will be presented in the conference presentation.

Keywords:

Pre-primary education, elementary instruction, self-esteem.