Abstract
Reading sessions are part of the rich world of language in the Finnish curriculum. According to the Finnish National Evaluation Centre the reading sessions and storytelling should be enhanced. This article describes the Finnish situation in reading sessions in early childhood education. The research method is observation with systematic sampling (n = 49,645). According to results, children attend reading sessions on average 24 minutes a day. Children’s involvement (learning potential) was intermediate. The reading sessions included more neutral states of mind than other activities. Children participated less in the evolving events during reading sessions than in the other activities. Also, the personnel participated less in the process. The youngest, 1–3-year-old children attended reading sessions less than other children. The children with immigrant backgrounds had the most dramatic difficulties in participating in the reading session, leaving them vulnerable to segregation. As implications for practice, it is important that the teacher welcomes children’s ideas when children can learn that their ideas are valued, and their ideas can be used for the benefit of the whole group. Reading sessions can be processes, where children and personnel can create and share their ideas. Children can learn to develop these ideas further together with others.
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Reunamo, J. (2022). Observed Reading Sessions Between 08:00–16:00 Hours in Finnish Early Childhood Education. In: Harju-Luukkainen, H., Kangas, J., Garvis, S. (eds) Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care . Early Childhood Research and Education: An Inter-theoretical Focus, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95512-0_12
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