Browsing by Subject "erityisopetus"

Tavoitteet. Kansainväliset oppimistulokset ovat osoittaneet maahanmuuttajien menestyvän kantaväestöä heikommin etenkin lukemisessa, kirjoittamisessa ja matematiikassa. Suomessa maahanmuuttajien oppimisvaikeudet ja puutteelliset arviointivälineet ovat johtaneet maahanmuuttajien yliedustukseen erityisopetuksessa. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, millaisia oppimisen haasteita maahanmuuttajalapsilla ilmenee ja millaisia keinoja koulujen erityisopetuksessa on tunnistaa ja tukea niitä. Tutkimuksen erityisenä kiinnostuksen kohteena olivat ala-asteikäiset ensimmäisen ja toisen polven maahanmuuttajalapset. Maahanmuuttajien oppimisvaikeuksista on tehty runsaasti aiempaa tutkimusta sekä Suomessa että ulkomailla, mutta aihetta ei ole juurikaan tutkittu erityisopetuksen näkökulmasta. Menetelmät. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvalitatiivisesti haastattelemalla neljää (4) Helsingin alueella työskentelevää laaja-alaista erityisopettajaa. Kaikki haastateltavat opettajat toimivat laaja-alaisina erityisopettajina peruskoulun alaluokilla. Haastattelu toteutettiin teemahaastatteluina. Aineisto analysoitiin sisällönanalyysillä tematisoimalla aineisto tutkimuskysymysten mukaisesti. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Tutkimukseen osallistuneiden opettajien mukaan maahanmuuttajaoppilaiden koulunkäyntiä vaikeuttivat heikko kielitaito ja haasteet sosiaalisissa suhteissa. Heikon kielitaidon nähtiin vaikeuttavan sekä oppimista että oppimisen arviointia. Maahanmuuttajien oppimisvaikeuksien tunnistamiseen ei ollut käytössä vakiintuneita testejä, vaan opettajat käyttivät työkaluinaan erilaisia sovellettuja testejä ja aiempaa kokemustaan. Maahanmuuttajalasten oppimisvaikeuksia tuettiin osa-aikaisessa erityisopetuksessa pienryhmäopetuksen, samanaikaisopetuksen, ekstraopetuksen ja yhteistyön avulla. Näistä tärkeimmiksi nähtiin yhteistyö koulun sisällä sekä yhteistyö vanhempien ja muiden tahojen kanssa. Kaikki opettajat kokivat maahanmuuttajien olevan mahdollisuus ja rikastuttavan koulun kulttuuria. Maahanmuuttajien opetus koettiin kuitenkin vielä keskeneräiseksi. Tutkimukseen osallistuneet opettajat kritisoivat etenkin resurssien puutetta, maahanmuuttajaoppilaille soveltumattomia testistöjä ja valmistavaa opetusta. Osa opettajista ilmaisi myös tarpeensa lisäkoulutukselle.

According to the Pisa assessments, the number of students with poor reading skills has increased in Finland in recent years. Because of the poor reading skills, approximately one in ten students will struggle with their upper secondary studies and will not achieve an active social status. However, international studies have shown that reading comprehension interventions can improve students’ reading skills even in adolescence. The purpose of this study was to explore how the upper secondary school teachers experienced the teaching of reading comprehension skills for students with reading comprehension difficulties. The study focused on the teachers’ views concerning support of learning Finnish language and social studies. The study answers in three research questions: first, how theory-based reading comprehension support is organized, second, how do the reading comprehension difficulties affect Finnish language studies and social studies, and third, how the reading comprehension support could be improved. The study was carried out by using qualitative methods and following the principles of phenomenological-hermeneutical approach. The data was collected by interviewing seven upper secondary school teachers. Three of them were Finnish language teachers and four of them were special education teachers. The data was analyzed by using theory-based con-tent analysis and data-based content analysis. Based on the results, teachers use theory-based reading comprehension methods, such as reading strategies. However, there were differences between the schools’ structures of sup-port systems. Reading comprehension difficulties were connected with other multidimensional problems. The reading comprehension support can be improved by offering further training for teachers and promoting their co-operation. Besides that, positive attitude might have an important role on reading comprehension support.

Social integration consists of the four following elements: interaction, friendships, the student’s own perception and acceptance by classmates. The subject is relevant in developing special education system, as social integration is known to play a key role in pupils’ education and wellbeing. It is also known that the level of social integration is weaker within students with special education needs, than with other students. The aim of this master’s thesis was to find out how social integration appears in a certain primary school in Helsinki from the teaching staff’s point of view. The participants in this master’s thesis were a principal, a special needs teacher and six class teachers from grades 1-6. The research data was collected by interviewing the participants with a thematic interview in May 2020. The data was transcribed and then analysed qualitatively with both theory-based and material-based content analysis. The results of this study showed that the level of social integration within students with special needs is described to be lower than within other students. However, the teachers were aware of the methods supporting social integration, and were implementing these actions in their classroom work. The participants felt it was one of their most important tasks to support students’ social integration, and according to this study, the ways of supporting it were for example pedagogical co-working with colleagues, mutual pedagogical structures in teacher committee, and practical classroom work.

This master’s thesis focuses on the support for learning and well-being in Finnish general upper secondary education. In Finland, the reform of general upper secondary education started in 2017. Under the new Act on General Upper Secondary Education (714/2018), students are entitled to receive special needs education and other support for learning, when The National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Schools (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2019) will come into force in the autumn of 2021. Special education will be given by special education teachers (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2019). However, many Finnish upper secondary schools do not yet have a special education teacher, and practices in special education are still lacking (Greus et al., 2019). The main aim of this study is to structure a general view of support for learning and well-being in general upper secondary education. In addition, the purpose is to analyse factors that enable or challenge support being fulfilled in school and to examine visions of special education teachers job description in the future. The aim of this study is also to act as a tool for developing support in Finnish general upper secondary schools. This study is carried out as a qualitative case study. The data is produced in one general upper secondary school by interviewing subject teachers, the principal, the guidance counsellor, the psychologist, the school social worker and the school nurse. The support in general upper secondary school appeared multidimensional and layered. In relation to the student, three layers were found: individual support, support in group and support in the structures of the school. The best situation with support measures was in individual student welfare services, whereas in instruction individual support was rarely actualized. The main factor that challenged the support being fulfilled in instruction was the fact that subject teachers did not know the students. In student welfare services the main challenge for support was the lack of time. The job of special education teachers in the future was met with confusion and optimism.

The current Act on Upper Secondary Education does not provide any specific information on the organization of special education. This is why the special education programs vary between upper secondary schools. Not all secondary schools have special education teachers and this might place students with special needs at a disadvantage. There have been only a few researches on special education in upper secondary schools in Finland during the last decade and the studies have focused on the need of special education in upper secondary education or, the job description of a special education teacher. The purpose of this study is to describe the perceptions of the students’ regarding the challenges that they face in their studies and the support they have received. The aim is also to look at the special education from a student point of view and clarify, how the need for support is recognized, what kind of challenges does the student with special needs meet and who provides the support and how. The data for this qualitative study was collected by inteviewing 14 upper secondary school students over the age of 18 with special needs. They all studied in the same upper secondary school in southern Finland under the guidance of the same special education teacher. The topic was approached by using phenomenography which enables clarification of variations in individual views and investigates different understandings of reality. Students view on the recognition process of special needs in upper secondary school was based on a reading assesment and diagnostic evaluation done by the special education teacher. The recognition of reading difficulties was a relief for most of the interviewed students. They felt that early recognition gives them more time to benefit from the support. The interviewed students found it hard to work with the subject teachers, because they felt that the teachers could not offer them enough support. The results showed that the amount of the support depends on the attitudes and skills of the subject teacher. Other challenges were problems with concentration, reading difficulties and fatigue. Students found the special education teacher to be the keyperson that provides them support. The new Act on Upper Secondary Education secures everyone´s right to special education and the services of a special education teacher. In the future, special education teachers will have an important role as consultants or intermediators between the students and subject teachers, so that students with special needs get the help they are entitled to.

Achievement goal orientations depict studying motivation and they are related to academic achievement. Yet, the means to support the developing achievement goal orientations in childhood require further examination especially in the case of children with special educational needs (SEN). Musical and physical activity may enhance learning but the associations with achievement goal orientations remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine what kinds of goal orientation groups occur among 3rd to 4th graders within one and half years, and how integrated music and physical education are related to the achievement goal orientations. Migrant background and SEN were observed as demographic factors. Finally, between groups comparisons were analyzed in terms of academic achievement in mathematics. The participants (N = 52) were comprised of four classes of which three received integrated music and physical education three times a week for two school years. The fourth class received usual curricular education during the experiment. Twenty students had special educational needs and eleven spoke some other language than Finnish as their first language. Teacher questionnaires were used to collect data from students’ achievement goal orientations and mathematical achievement was evaluated using RMAT and MATTE tests in three time points. Goal orientation groups were formed using K-means cluster analysis and between groups comparisons were analyzed with cross-tabulation and nonparametric tests. Three distinctive goal orientation groups were found in each time point: mastery, performance and avoidance goal oriented. No significant difference was found between the integrated education group and the usual curricular group in their achievement goal orientations. Instead, goal orientations tended to develop more maladaptive among students with SEN – especially if their first language was other than Finnish. Mastery oriented students’ mathematical achievement differed significantly from the avoidance oriented ones’.

Problems might emerge in the learning of students and support is then needed. In order to give sufficient support for students, several different instructions and regulations have been made to insure this, for example the model of Learning and Schooling Support. This model is meant to act as a guide for organizing the support and also to enhance early recognition of difficulties through assessment. Teachers are expected constantly to assess learning and difficulties in learning process of the students, and therefore tools of assessment are important in the supporting process. This thesis examines the tools of assessment used by special education teachers. It also examines how they evaluate these tools and what kinds of differences there are in the use of the tools between schools in the city of Espoo. In addition, this thesis studies the processes of Learning and Schooling Support, what kind of measures the special education teachers take if difficulties in learning or schooling are detected. The data in this study consist of questions answered by special education teachers working in primary schools in the city of Espoo. An electric questionnaire was used to collect the data. Questions were answered by 35 special education teachers who represent almost 50 % of all primary schools in Espoo. The data has been analysed in the means of quantified qualitative analyse. Both qualitative and quantitative information has been collected. Microsoft Excel software and manual arrangement has been used to produce different categories and to construct models of supporting. The intention was to create a description of the changes in the utilisation of diagnostic tools during the past 10 years and how well the procedures of the special education teachers were in line with the given instructions and regulations. The study points out that there is a variety of different assessment tools in use in Espoo and that there was no common policy for assessment tools in use even if the school had a plan for assessment. The city of Espoo only demands the use of Ala-asteen Lukutesti, and therefore schools and teachers were allowed to choose which tools of assessment they utilised. Despite the miscellaneous tools and the lack of precise instructions, special education teachers found these tools important when defining learning difficulties. Teacher also had mostly positive attitude when talking about assessment tools. The processes of support differed between teachers and subjects. Some deficiencies in the supportative processes were found even among those special education teachers who acted according to laws and regulations. In my opinion more time is needed for the correct procedures of supporting seen in the model of Learning and Schooling support to become established. In order to give effective support to students I suggest that teachers are trained and co-operation between different professionals is enhanced.

Pyrin kandintyössäni löytämään polkuja maahanmuuttajataustaisten lasten ja nuorten erityisluokkasijoitusten yliedustuksen juurille kuvailevan kirjallisuuskatsauksen avulla. Yliedustusta on Suomessa tutkittu kovin vähän, vaikka se on silmin havaittavissa. Tasa-arvoa uhkuvaan koulueetokseemme mahtuu ainoastaan erityisluokkien “lapsen edun” näkökulma, vaikka segregaation ongelmat ovat varsinkin maailmalla laajalti tunnustetut. Katsaukseni aineistossa yhdistävänä tekijänä oli kasvatustieteellinen ote sekä eksplisiittinen rodun – tai rodullistamisen käsitteen käyttö teoria- ja/tai tulkintakehyksenä. Etsin aineistostani viitteitä rodullistamisen prosessin yhteydestä kyvyttömyyden (dis/ability) tuottamiseen. Ableismi oli mielestäni tähän oiva teoreettinen viitekehys. Ableistisissa prosesseissa toisen ihmisen (miksei eläimenkin?) olemista; taitoja, tietoja ja toimintaa arvioidaan suhteessa kuviteltuun kaikkivoipaan ja kyvykkääseen (“able”) ideaali yksilöön tai - yhteisöön (Campbell, 2019), joka Suomalaisessa kontekstissa ja aineistossani määrittyy “suomalaisuudeksi” (Juva, 2019). Prosessissa tuottuu diskursiivisesti ideaalin tavoittamattomille erilaisia “kyvyttömyyksiä” merkiksi ulkopuolisuudesta. Samassa prosessissa kuva ideaalista piirtyy näkyväksi; vasten esimerkkiä, mitä se ei ole. Rodullistamisen ja ableismin teoreettiset yhteydet ovat ilmeiset. Myös analyysini perusteella aineistossani esiintyvillä rodullistamisen prosesseilla tuotettiin sen kohteille vino pino kyvyttömyyksiä nimenomaan suhteessa kuviteltuun “suomalaisuuden” ideaaliin. Pidänkin katsaukseni päätuloksena myös aineistossani tulkittavissa olevan rodullistamisen ja ableismin prosessien selkeää yhteyttä ja sen tarjoamaa mahdollisuutta tutkia myös rodullisuutta nimenomaan kykyjä ja ennen kaikkea kyvyttömyyksiä tuottavana mekanismina.

In 2019 the new Upper Secondary School Act (714/2018) entered into force as a part of a larger upper secondary school reform. The Upper Secondary School Act obliges every upper secondary school to organize special education for all students who have challenges in learning. It was volyntary to organize special education before the reform, and special education was offered mainly in large cities. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the job description of special education teacher in upper secondary school and potential job description in the future. There is only a little previous research on special education in upper secondary schools. This thesis was conducted as a qualitative study. The material consisted of interviews with four special education teachers. At the time of the interview, the interviewees worked in upper secondary schools. The interviews were conducted as semi-structured thematic interviews and theory-driven content analysis was selected as the method of analysis. According to the results the job description of a special education teacher in upper secondary school can be divided into three themes which are student work, cooperation and developmental work. Work emphasizes individual work with students, and testing for difficulties in reading takes a lot of time. Cooperation is closest with student counsellor. Consultation is mostly informal (conversations in the corridors for example). Acting as a special education teacher in the upper secondary school requires continuous additional training. Encounters with students and the freedom to plan one’s schedule bring a lot of joy. Challenges encountered at work include difficulties in scheduling, insufficient resources and digitalization. The themes of the job will most likely remain fairly similar in the future. Teaching will change from individual work to more collaborative work. The cooperation is probably closer with all the personnel of the school. More resources for special education in all upper secondary schools in Finland is hoped. Special education teachers will hopefully have the opportunity to act as promoters of the general well-being of students. Materials should also be in print instead of digital materials.

Previous research proved that problem behavior is related to academic success and dropping out from school. (Kauffman 1997, Goldstein 1995; MacMillan & Reschly 1998). Sup-porting studying of this dropout group is a vital part of preventive action against social exclusion. In Finland Education law enables support and special education in schools for those in need. There are students in special education whose teaching take place out of the school with special scheme. This small marginal of students will be educated by the school. Studying take place in extracurricular time. This study surveys this specific phenomenon and terms it home schooling. Its purpose is to clarify the process of home schooling from the teacher's point of view.This study will resolve what kind of goals do the teachers set for this kind of teaching activities. Additional purpose is to gather information of the reasons teachers name to be significant to process of home schooling. The research is qualitative by nature and can be characterized as a qualitative case study. Research data consist of five theme interviews. Two of the teachers were from elementary school and three from the Finnish primary school. All of them had experience of the process of home schooling. The stories describe overall home schooling of twenty-one students. Material was collected in Southern Finland 2012. Transcribed interviews were analyzed by using content analysis. This study clarifies that the aims of home schooling are different in elementary school and in the upper comprehensive school. Upper comprehensive school priorities are to secure getting graduation diploma from primary school and prevent social exclusion. In elementary school the main goal was to secure the child itself and its surrounding. The prior reason for home schooling in elementary school teacher named outwardly oriented behavior. Behaving was directly aggressive. Upper comprehensive school the main problem was inwardly oriented behavior. Students did not come to school or did not do school work. This scientific research reveals that in the teacher's point of view problem behavior, unstable home environment, weak academic performance and problems in social skills were the reasons that led to home schooling. Problems were often multifarious and imbricated. The teachers experience was that home schooling made studying possible, when the support in the school system was not enough. The information offered will further the process of developing home schooling.