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school. There are also great variations in the pre-school teachers' workingconditions.What are the factors that determine the pre-shool teachers' attitudes to theirwork and to their actions in groups of children? There does not seem to be anycommon basic view or consistent practice regarding these concepts. The attitude topre-school, expressed in the existing official directions for pre-school, can onlypartly be found in the notions of pre-school teachers. The guidelines can beregarded as an ideological policy document intended to form the basis of politicaldecisions in the municipality. They emphasizes work, play and learning but theteachers in this study hardly knew that the guidelines existed. The educationalactivities were instead determinded by the practical circumstances of the daynurseries or the part-time groups. Another important factor seemed to be teachers'experiences of these particular groups of children and of earlier groups.The "idea of adjustment" and the "educationalized" approach and workingmethods, which were frequently expressed by these pre-school teachers, reflect thedemands for effectiveness emerging in the late 1970s and in the early 1980s, andwhich were also applied to child-care. Pre -schooling should now be charaterizedby structure and firmer management. The formely recommended child-referencedworking methods should now be replaced by more effetive educational methods,focusing more on the adults' resources.The majority of the teachers in this study were trained when the child-referencedand the "psychologized" approach was prevalent in official guidelines and inliterature for pre-school and in pre-school teacher training. Even if they, in thecourse of their training, have developed notions of pre-school and conceptions ofeducational activities in line with this approach, only a few individuals gaveexpression to such an approach in theory or in practice.One of the starting points for this study is the assumption that notions areformed on the basis of an individual's material conditions. Thus, it can be assumedthat the pre-school teachers' ideas of adjustment and their educationalized workingmethods have been developed during their professionally active time. The preschoolteachers had, for a number of years, been informed about ideas of greatereffectiveness and of th e demand for a firmer structure and management Many ofthem also faced a situation which probaly made it difficult to use pedacogicalmethods focusing on the individual conditions and needs of each child. An attitudeto pre-school, differing too much from the experiences of the work itself, isprobably indefensible in the long run. Notions change under the influence ofchanges in real life. But practice can also be influenced by the notions.The pre-school teacher who, most consistently, expressed the idea ofdevelopment was also the one who had the best opportunities of mantaining suchideas. For many years she had only worked part-time in order to get able to takecare of her own children at home. She was not affected so much as her colleaguesby changes in the working conditions over the years. When she was observed inthe group of children she was able to devote more time than usual to the smallchildren. This means that she had the opportunity to act in accordance with hernotions and conceptions. This gave her the opportunity to strengthen her notionsand conceptions of the work and to preserve her, in many respects, "old" attitude topre-school.187