Browsing by Subject "salibandy"

The goal of the research was to examine how a beginner learns when he/she joins a new community. As theoretical context I used Jean Lave's and Etienne Wenger's theory about Communities of Practice, according which learning will occur when a beginner gradually turns into a full member of the community. The research problems were: how and what team members talk about, how they build and maintain culture in the community and what kind of a significance it has for a beginner's ability to learn. I collected the research material through observing and recording speech during practice and games of a women's floorball team in autumn of 2013. In addition I interviewed three players. Two of whom were beginners and one that had played floorball for several years. The material was analyzed by using methods of discourse analysis. The research material shows that the players' views about learning process of a beginner and what influences it is similar to Lave's and Wenger's ideas. It was seen as very important for learning for the beginner to be able to observe and gradually attend activities in the community of practice. For this to be possible the beginner has to be committed to the community and on the other hand the community has to give the beginner justification to attend all common activities. According to results the community which was in the focus of my research should give a beginner more space and opportunities to attend conversations between team members to be able to create the best possible circumstances for the beginner to learn. The results of the research are adaptable to any kind of community of practice.

The requirements of junior sport coaching have changed during the last two decades. Coach is expected not only to teach the sport but to educate and have influence on junior athletes' qualities comprehensively. The expectations of social education in junior coaching are more important especially in team sports. Primary school teacher has pedagogical, educational and group organizing skills because of his training and work experience. The purpose of this study is to examine how junior athletes evaluate the educational coaching skills of their coach who has the primary school teacher's degree. The definition of the educational coaching is based on the master's thesis of Harjunen & Pihlainen (2008). The research was done during the spring 2016 as a quantitative survey to those 14-21-year-old floorball junior players (n = 122) whose coaches have primary school teacher's degrees. The questionnaire used in this study was developed by Harjunen & Pihlainen in the above-mentioned master's thesis. The differences between means and the independent variables affecting them were analyzed by using the SPSS program. From the junior players' point of view coaches that had primary school teachers' degrees were generally very good at educational coaching. Especially they evaluated highly coaches' skills at 1) developing individuals, 2) planning the training, 3) supporting players to train independently and 4) having one-on-one discussions with the players. The youngest players in this study were more negative in their views than the older players who, on the other hand, underlined coaches skills to develop individuals. Views about coach's skills were more positive if player had been playing for a number of years, but the longer player had been under one coach's influence more negative the views changed. Junior player's parents' possible teacher background or junior player's own interest in teacher's profession didn't have significant influence on their views in this study.