Barns tankar om växande och icke-växande : Semi-strukturerade intervjuer med förskolebarn för att synliggöra vad de tänkte om det som växer och vad som behövs för att växa.

Sammanfattning: This thesis is about children´s thoughts on what is capable of growth and what does not, as well as what is needed for these things to grow. My survey has been carried out in three different preschools with children who are four and five years old. My purpose is to create more knowledge about children's perceptions of what differentiates growing from not growing. My aspiration is to make it visible what the children's thoughts is about what it means that something is growing and about what is needed for anything to grow, in order to provide preschool teachers with an increased understanding of the thoughts and experiences children may have. In my research I have used semi-structured interviews. During the interviews I showed the children a toy-car, seeds, leaves, twigs, balloons, rocks, ants and pictures of fire, the sun and the earth. My interview questions emanated from these things. The children used their previous experience and past knowledge to determine if these things were growing or not, this led to the fact that their opinions often parted. The children agreed with each other that humans, seeds, leaf and twigs could grow. They explained that they had memories of themselves as shorter before and that they had also planted seeds. The children also agreed upon that the earth and toy car wasn’t able to grow. None of the children had seen a toy car or the earth growing and they explained it by saying these objects were unable to. When it came to the sun, fire, ants, rocks and balloons they had different experiences and therefore different opinions. One child remembered a large rock which it had climbed upon and draws the conclusions that it must have grown. Another child had observed the sun as bigger in the sky and therefore thought the sun could grow. To have awareness of what knowledge children already have and in which ways children can interpret their own knowledge is important for preschool teachers in order to be able to meet children where they are and help them gain greater knowledge and understanding in the area.