Browsing by Subject "aineenopettaja"

Aims. The purpose of this thesis is to study subject teachers’ conceptions of the support in learning and school attendance given in Finnish upper secondary schools. Due to the amendment of the Basic Education Act the support is now three tiered and emphasizes early interventions, which requires subject teachers to have more special pedagogical knowhow than they used to. This study aims to analyse, how subject teachers see their own role implementing the support and how the subject teacher system and structures of the school affect to teachers’ possibilities to support their students. Methodology. The thesis is a qualitative case study and the analysing methods are discourse analysis and thematic analysis. The research material consists of six semi-structured interviews of subject teachers. Results and conclusions. The study groups are heterogeneous and too big in relation to students’ needs. Teachers have to prioritize, to whom they give the support. Opportunity for consultation and cooperation with the special needs teacher is highly appreciated when implementing the support. Subject teachers’ familiarity with the students is considered important. Subject teachers’ knowledge about the three tier support system is mediocre, yet they consider not to have time for further education. The teachers are interested in learning of the students. However, because of lack of competence and time subject teachers externalize the implementation of the support to the special needs teacher. Being a form teacher expands the subject teachers’ job description to documenting and coordinating the support. In schools the functioning practises that would strengthen subject teachers’ commitment in all three tiers of support needs to be established. By reorganizing the structures of teaching and cooperation, it is possible to improve the subject teachers’ possibility to provide the support that the students’ needs require. The subject teachers’ special educational competence should be increased. The subject teachers don’t have sufficient knowledge about the three tier support system and they consider documentation of the support unnecessary. They may nonetheless, be able to support the students successfully by using different kinds of pedagogical methods and various well-timed and individualised measures of support.

Aims. The purpose of this thesis is to study subject teachers’ conception of the special support given in schools. The special education system in Finland has been renewed in recent years. The special support given in schools is divided into three steps (general support, intensified support and special support) and it is called the tripartite support system. The idea behind this division is that the measure of support is planned individually according to the need for support (Basic Education Act, 1998/642). Previous studies have shown that the reform of the special education system has expanded the job description especially when it comes to elementary school teachers and subject teachers and this is experienced as add to the work load (OAJ, 2012). First, the intension of this thesis is to analyze how subject teachers emphasize the heterogeneity of the groups they teach. Furthermore, it is also reflected if there is a certain trend subject teachers discuss about their skills to support pupils with special needs. Finally, it is studied how subject teachers see their capacity and possibilities to provide sufficient support for learning and school attendance. Methodology. The thesis was a qualitative case study and the analyzing methods were discourse analysis and thematic analysis. Research material consisted of four semi-structured interviews of subject teachers. Results and conclusions. The study revealed that the teachers have positive attitudes towards students with special needs, although they had not received supplementary training to carry out the tripartite support system. The teachers had not participated in multiprofessional cooperation and they considered not having sufficient resources to support their students as the law and the Finnish National Core Curriculum demand. However, subject teachers judged that the special education support and the right for student counseling occurs in their school. According to these findings, subject teachers’ continuing education should still be increased. In addition, subject teachers should also become a solid part of the multiprofessional team planning the support for the students with special needs. Besides, it should be taken into account that teachers have sufficient resources to provide the support as required in the National Core Curriculum and Basic Education Act.

Aim of the Study: The aim of this study is to examine the conceptions of learning and knowledge of subject teacher students at the beginning of their pedagogical studies, and to find out what kind of groups the students may be divided into at the basis of their conceptions of learning and knowledge. The aim is to also find out how age of the student, level of prior education, their major subject, their approach to learning (deep/surface learning) and their mindset (growth or fixed mindset) relate to their conceptions of learning and knowledge and to the groups based on their conceptions of learning and knowledge. Methods The Subject Teacher Students (N=166) have completed a questionnaire on an e-form at the start of their course of the psychology of learning and development, at the beginning of their subject teacher studies. The quantitative material has been analysed by creating a sum variable of each of the areas of conceptions of learning and knowledge; Collaborative knowledge building, Reflective learning, Valuing metacognition, Certainty of knowledge and Practical value. On the basis of the sum variables was created clusters by k-means cluster analysis. These sum variable and the clusters that based on the sum variables were analysed in relation to the background data and the sum variables of their approaches to learning and their mindset trough variance analysis and cross tables. The students' views about learning were also examined trough material-based content analysis. The Conclusion The subject teacher student value collaborative knowledge building, reflective learning, metacognition and deep approach to learning and show a growth mindset already at the beginning of their pedagogical studies. In the cluster analysis the students formed three groups. The Theoretics (30.5 %), valued Certainty of knowledge and Practical value the least, and expressed least surface approach and fixed mindset out of the groups. The Communal Professionals (34.3 %) scored the highest scores of the groups in all the areas of conceptions of learning and knowledge. The Factoriented students (36.1 %) expressed least apprehension of reflective learning and metacognition out of the groups, and personified quite high valuation of practical knowledge and certainty of knowledge.

The aim of this study is to research the temperament of Finnish students in teacher education programmes. The research pursued to examine the temperaments that Finnish students studying to become a teacher have and whether there are any similarities or differences between students in Class Teacher Education Programme (CTEP) and Subject Teacher Education Programme (STEP). Recent studies have focused on the basic education pupils' temperament and the possible benefits or disadvantages that his/hers own temperament may provoke in classroom and school environment. However, we also need to study the temperament of the teachers since they have a major role in classroom interaction. In this study Mary Rothbart's The Adult Temperament Questionnaire (later the ATQ) was utilized to measure and construct the temperament of the students in teacher education. The ATQ forms four main temperament characters which divide furthermore in smaller temperament components. Four main temperament characters according to the ATQ are extraversion, effortful control, negative affect and orienting sensitivity. 425 participants took part in this research from eight different cities in Finland. Data was collected by University of Helsinki e-lomake query. In the query 77 the ATQ -claims were asked. It was necessary to make some changes in the ATQ –model before the further analyses were made. Two temperament components were deleted from the model. After the changes it was reliable to use the query for the analyses. The reliability analysis was made for the main temperament characters and smaller temperament components as well. Temperament differences between class teacher students and subject teacher students were analyzed by using ANOVA. ANOVA was also used for analyzing the temperament differences between students from different cities. T-test was used for analyzing the differences between the sexes. ANOVA-results revealed that there were temperament differences between class teacher students and subject teacher students. ANOVA-results also revealed that there were some temperament differences between the students from different cities. Finally, t-test –results revealed that there were differences in seven temperament components out of 11 between sexes.