Children`s stress regulation and intent participation learning (Enhancing children´s learning through intent participation – understanding relationship between pedagogical sensitivity and stress regulation)

The aim of our longitudinal study of children between 1-4 years is to examine whether pedagogical sensitivity moderates the effects of child characteristics and other possible risks after transition to institutional day care. Pedagogical sensitivity is defined as a child-responsive pedagogy, where teachers/caregivers recognize children’s intentions and individuality along with enriching their activity by encouraging them to function in the upper limits of current abilities. The framework in our study is in the concept of pedagogical quality.
We assume that teachers’/caregivers’ pedagogical sensitivity has a positive effect on intent participation learning through children´s stress regulation. We further suppose that teachers’/caregivers’ work-related well-being is connected to pedagogical sensitivity.
The aim of the study is to track biological bases of development and following the development of attention, practical skills, language, reasoning and socio-emotional abilities. We assume that stress regulation is a core in adaptive development and in learning through intent participation.
Our multidisciplinary research intends to test a model of intent participation learning. The objective is to evaluate if biological givens (temperament, developmental risks) interacts through stress regulation with social and cognitive development following exposure to variations in parental stress and well-being, and in quality of institutional day care.
The aim is to have 400 children in our study from 54 childcare centers from a nationally representative birth cohort in Northern Helsinki Area. The mixed methods (questionnaires, observations, precise measurements, laboratory analyses) are used for detecting complex processes of development during ages 1-4 and work-related predictors for daycare quality.
We study if it is possible to contribute day care quality by an intervention targeted to daycare personnel. Intervention is based on activity theory and developmental work research, and aims at enhancing emotional and attuned adult-child interactions during day care activities. The main goal is to redouble teachers’/caregivers’ efforts to observe children and sensitively respond to their needs as well as activate them to play it by their intentions. Our study bridges research traditions of pedagogical and developmental sciences. We are using mixed methods in formulating a facet with pedagogy that takes simultaneously into account children´s strengths, developmental risk factors, and the child´s zest for learning. We suppose that improved pedagogical sensitivity and children’s intent participation learning are effective means when preventing later learning difficulties and socio-emotional dysfunctions in children.