This study was conducted during the academic year 2002-2003 in a municipality in Eastern Finland. It focuses on pre-school education assessing its quality factors from the parents', teachers' and children's points of view. Theoretically, the study focuses on analyses of the purposes of the national core curriculum and pedagogical issues that are related to understanding quality in pre-school education. According to this study, parents, pre-school teachers, and children are satisfied with pre-school education in general. They all emphasize its importance for children's development in the areas of cognitive and social skills and development. Results clearly show that pre-school education should be revised to meet the needs of improvement in the area of cooperation, the expectations of modern society, and the aims of the national curriculum. In addition, pre-school education is still searching for its own cultural position in the area of Finnish school and daycare systems.

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The aim of this qualitative case study is to explore how the teachers, parents and children describe the advantages and disadvantages of preschool education when it is located in the comprehensive school context. In addition, the study aims to clarify which dimensions of the learning environment occur in preschool? The learning environment is defined in physical-aesthetic, psychosocial, and pedagogical-ethical dimensions. Accordingly, the school environment provided a socially rich learning environment for preschool children and allowed versatile relationships between the preschool children and the school's pupils. The physical proximity was beneficial to preschool teachers' co-operation with class teachers and other school experts. However, the physical proximity caused doubts which were related to parents' concerns about children's transportation, their long school days and the organisation of care in the school context. Many preschool teachers experienced that the school context lacked opportunities for play and the amount and quality of indoor and outdoor equipment and material didn't support preschool children's high-quality learning. The school's physical environment had especially significant links with the psycho-social environment by expanding social networks and favorably influencing preschool children's and pupils' school motivation. There were, however, some negative features in the psycho-social learning environment, one of which was bullying, which worried preschool children and was mostly experienced in outdoor activities.RÉSUMÉ: Le but de cette étude était d'étudier la facon dont les professeurs, parents et enfants décrivent les avantages et inconvénients de l'éducation préscolaire lorsqu'elle se situe au sein de l'enseignement primaire. Elle cherchait aussi à préciser les facteurs environnementaux qui influencent l'apprentissage dans le préscolaire. Cet environnement est décrit dans ses dimensions physiques, esthétiques, psycho-sociales, pédagogiques et éthiques. Selon cette étude, l'environnement scolaire procure un environnement riche socialement pour les enfants d'âge préscolaire et favorise le développement de divers modes de relation entre les jeunes enfants et les élèves du primaire. La proximité physique bénéficie à la coopération entre enseignants du préscolaire, du primaire et d'autres spécialistes. Toutefois, elle suscite des doutes liés aux préoccupations des parents quant au transport, aux longues journées et à l'attention portée à leurs enfants dans ce contexte scolaire. De nombreux enseignants du préscolaire ont constaté que l'école n'offre pas suffisamment d'activités ludiques et que le nombre et la qualité de matériel et d'équipement, intérieur et extérieur, ne facilitent pas un apprentissage de qualité des jeunes enfants. L'environnement matériel a un lien significatif avec l'environnement psycho-social, jouant sur le développement des réseaux sociaux et sur la motivation des jeunes enfants et des élèves du primaire. Cependant, on constate quelques traits négatifs dans l'environn...