Materiality and activity scenarios: Longitudinal analysis of educational practices in infant school from 1 to 2 years

This research is a part of the project “Materiality and activity scenarios in infant schools from 0 to 2 years: Analysis of educational practices in Spanish and Latin American schools”. We present preliminary results. The aim of this study was to analyze educational practices through the uses of material reality and semiotic systems. This study followed a longitudinal design. We videotaped once a month during four months, the central activity of the day in the classes 1-2 (years) in three infant public schools in Madrid. Two types of analysis were carried out: (1) A qualitative analysis of the activity scenarios centered on the selection, organization and uses of the material world, the nature of the activity, the role of the teachers and the participation of the children. (2) A micro-genetic analysis of each activity focused on the type of teachers’ intervention and its orientation, the semiotic systems used by the teacher and the uses of the materiality promoted. We found 3 different types of educational scenario: Semi-structured, structured and directed. We identified 7 different strategies to introduce children to the uses of material reality: invitations, positive evaluations, accompaniment, reorientations, Distant demonstrations, Direct demonstrations and inhibitions. We also analyze the orientation of the interventions (Specific, adjusted and individualizer/General and homogenizer) and the different semiotic systems used by teachers in each of these interventions: Language, Gestures, Uses of Objects of ¨Direct¨ interventions.