Syftet med studien var att bidra med ny kunskap inom forskningsfältet teknik i förskolan genom att studera förskollärares och barns volition i bygg- och konstruktionslek för att för att se hur tekniskt kunnande delas mellan barn. Tre frågeställningar har väglett undersökningen: (1)Vad kännetecknar förskollärares och barns volition att bygga och konstru-era? (2) Hur utforskar barn teknik i och genom konstruktionerna? (3) Hur uttrycks och delas teknikkunskap mellan barn? Studien utgår dels från ett teknikfilosofiskt perspektiv, utvecklat av Mitcham och dels uti-från variationsteorins antagande om urskiljning, simultanitet och variat-ion för att utveckla lärandet. I studien har barns volition (viljeakt) stu-derats när de identifierar, bygger och förbättrar tekniska konstruktioner och hur förskollärarna stödjer deras tekniklärande. Data består av vi-deoobservationer och fältanteckningar från fyra olika konstruktionsak-tiviteter. En slutsats som kan dras utifrån studiens resultat är att det finns en koppling mellan teknisk kunskap och volition. Med ökade tek-nikkunskaper ökade barnens volition att delta i aktiviteterna och ut-veckla konstruktionerna. Studiens resultat visar att det är centralt att barn och förskollärare riktar sin uppmärksamhet mot ett gemensamt lä-randeobjekt i byggaktiviteten för att tekniklärande ska ske. Förskollä-rarnas aktiva deltagande är betydelsefullt för barns tekniklärande för att kunna urskilja nya aspekter av lärandeobjektet. De redovisade resultaten visar på ett flertal teknikaspekter som ges tillfälle att utforska i bygg- och konstruktionslek. Centrala tekniska begrepp bearbetas och barnen får erfarenheter av hur material och redskap kan användas för att skapa olika konstruktioner. Det ger också tillfälle till samarbete och att dela kunskap med varandra.

Technology volition is the will to develop knowledge of, and use, the physical world to design products, processes and systems. The aim of this study was to contribute new knowledge of children’s technology volition when they identify, build and improve technical constructions, and how teachers support this learning. Analysis focused on moments when children’s volition was expressed in a construction activity. In total, eleven preschool teachers and 49 children, aged 4–5 years, from three preschools, participated. Data consists of video-recordings from four activities, two each in preschool A and B, showing children’s expressed technological volition, as well as field notes about the teachers’ preparations. Results show how differences among children’s expressed volition is connected to their imagination of how materials can be combined to construct ‘houses’ and ‘vehicles’ from everyday objects. Building a house resulted in a focus on how to make the building solid and water resistant, and inspired children to learn about materials for different purposes in houses such as the floor, walls and an angled roof. Building a vehicle encouraged children to talk about speed, movements and fuel. Results show how children indicate and express their discernment of how materials are combined to create constructions, and how they discover ways in which materials change during the building process. For some of the children it was difficult to see the potential of a material other than its original use, while others used their imagination to find opportunities to use materials to make new objects.

This article contributes knowledge about technology education in pre-school, a research field that is still undeveloped.The aim is to study pre-school children’s ways of discerning a physical phenomenon (equilibrium) during collaborative construction play. Two different activities have been studied: playing on a homemade seesaw made of a log and a plank, and building towers with blocks. In the first activity, 3 children aged 4-5 years from one pre-school participated. In the second, 4 children aged 3-5 years from another pre-school participated. Data consist of video-recordings of the two activities and field notes. The video-recordings are analysed based on variation theory. In both activities, children discerned and explored the phenomena of equilibrium, centre of gravity and balance.Three children tried different ways to spread their mass over the seesaw. They distributed the weight both by crawling to the middle and by standing on the ends of the plank. In the building activity, a group of four children tried to build high block towers and discerned the importance of the weight distribution for stability and for the construction not to collapse. The results showed that the children who had discerned more aspects of the phenomenon of equilibrium were able to use and develop their knowledge during the activities to a greater extent than children with less knowledge. They also shared knowledge with other children by making them notice aspects needed to understand the activity, thereby participating in a more active way. The results can be used by pre-school teachers to design collaborative play activities for learning science in pre-school.

The aim of the study is to describe what young children are offered to discern and actually discern through the construction technology in preschool, and in what way different constructions result in different learning affordances. Three different kinds of constructions were studied; house, vehicle and towers. The variety of objects generates functional differences which affect what focus the children have on the constructions. 11 preschool teachers and 49 children aged 4-5 years old from three preschools participated. Data consists of video-recordings of five activities of construction technology and fieldnotes. The results show that differences in constructions implies different expressed focus and learning during the activities. Building a house resulted in a focus on how to make the building solid, water resistant and inspired the children to learn about different kinds of material for different purposes in a house, such as the ground, floor, walls and the importance to tilt the roof to get rid of water and snow. Building a vehicle inspired the children to talk about speed, movements and different kinds of fuel. Finally building towers resulted in a competition where they tried to build the highest tower. The importance to build the tower as straight as possible was found to be important to avoid that the tower collapses, and by that they focused on equilibrium and balance. The results show that different kind of construction activities can be used to create different focus in science learning during play in preschool.