Browsing by Subject "yliopisto-opiskelijat"

Objective of the study. Previous studies have shown that generic skills required in working life are learned during university studies. However, according to studies, some university graduates may lack generic skills or do not recognise them. This study aims to examine what generic skills graduates from generalist fields have learned during their university studies and whether work experience acquired during studies and participating in practical training correlate with generalist skills learned during university studies. Additionally, it was examined what kind of content graduates would have hoped for during their studies to develop their generic skills and the relationship between these hopes and generic skills learned during university studies. Methods. The data for the study were collected part of a broader study of working life skills (Tuononen, 2019). A total of 1023 University of Helsinki graduates responded to the survey. Respondents were master’s degree graduates from the university’s faculties of arts, social sciences and behavioural sciences (n=372) and their responses were analysed with quantitative methods. Answers to open-ended questions (n=127) were analysed with the abductive content analysis method. Results and conclusions. The results of the study show that graduates had, on average, learned the generic skills measured in the study well or quite well. The respondents had especially experienced to have learned critical thinking skills, multiple perspective viewing skills and structuring and analysing information skills. Co-operation and interaction skills were assessed to have been learned the least of the studied skills. In this study, practical training or work experience acquired during university studies did not correlate with generic skills learned during university studies. Hopes for content to develop working life readiness were divided into formal and informal learning environments. Formal learning environments included courses and practical training, whilst informal learning environments included working life events, alumni activities, study guidance and job-hunting training. The respondents especially hoped for practical university courses with tangible applications to working life. Respondents were divided into two groups based on their hopes for more content in formal or informal learning environments. There was no statistical difference in the assessment of generic skills learned between these groups. More attention should be given to developing co-operation and interaction skills during generalist studies and finding more efficient ways of teaching them. More research is needed to show how studies should be developed to better support the relevance of generalist studies to working life.

Huijarisyndrooma tai huijari-ilmiö on varsinkin hyvin opinnoissaan tai työssään menestyvien yksilöiden sisäinen kokemus omasta riittämättömyydestä. Nämä yksilöt uskovat virheellisesti onnistumistensa olevan huijaamisen tulosta sen sijaan, että uskoisivat omiin kykyihinsä. Aihe on puhuttanut esimerkiksi mediassa, mutta siitä ei ole aiempaa suomalaista tutkimusta. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää huijari-ilmiön esiintymistä suomalaisilla, hyvin opinnoissaan menestyvillä yliopisto-opiskelijoilla ja tarkastella miten eri opintojen vaiheessa olevat eroavat huijari-ilmiön suhteen. Lisäksi tutkittiin huijari-ilmiön yhteyttä itsetuntoon. Tutkimus toteutettiin kyselytutkimuksena ja sen aineisto kerättiin e-lomakkeella. Tutkimukseen osallistuneet henkilöt (n = 120) olivat suurimmaksi osaksi 20-26-vuotiaita ja hyvin opinnoissaan menestyviä yliopisto-opiskelijoita. Huijari-ilmiötä lähestyttiin mittarilla, joka koostui kolmesta ulottuvuudesta: itsensä ja saavutustensa vähättelystä, vilpillisyyden tunteesta ja saavutusten selittämisestä onnella tai sattumalla. Itsetunnon mittarilla mitattiin yksilön kokonaisvaltaista asennetta itseään kohtaan ja käsitystä omasta arvostaan. Huijari-ilmiön yleisyyttä selvitettiin tarkastelemalla summamuuttujien frekvenssejä ja kuvaajia. Huijari-ilmiön ja opintovaiheen sekä huijari-ilmiön ja itsetunnon yhteyksiä tarkasteltiin ristiintaulukoinnin sekä korrelaatioiden avulla. Opiskelijat eivät keskimäärin kokeneet opinnoissaan paljoa huijarikokemuksia. Eri opintojen vaiheessa olevat erosivat huijari-ilmiössä ja varsinkin opintojen loppuvaiheessa näyttäisi esiintyvän selkeästi vähiten huijarikokemuksia. Huijarikokemukset liittyvät usein haastaviin uusiin tilanteisiin, mikä saattaa selittää, miksi huijarikokemuksia oli enemmän alku- kuin loppuvaiheen opiskelijoilla. Tulokset vahvistivat myös aiemmissa tutkimuksissa todettua huijari-ilmiön ja itsetunnon välistä vahvaa negatiivista yhteyttä. Mitä vahvempi itsetunto opiskelijoilla oli, sitä vähemmän he myös raportoivat huijarikokemuksia. Tulokset antavat tietoa opiskelijoiden hyvinvointiin liittyvistä tekijöistä ja voivat auttaa kiinnittämään huomiota siihen, miten esimerkiksi opintojen alkuvaiheessa koettuja huijarikokemuksia voitaisiin vähentää. Huijarikokemukset varsinkin yhdistettynä heikkoon itsetuntoon ovat huolenaihe kyseisten opiskelijoiden hyvinvoinnin ja opintomenestyksen kannalta, ja ne voivat myös aiheuttaa negatiivisia seurauksia yksilön myöhemmälle urakehitykselle.

Objectives. Research ethics is an essential part of good science and the craftsmanship of trained professionals. However, there are only few studies about teaching and learning research ethics in universities. In the context of Finnish universities, the research is non-existent. The objective of this study was to examine students' research ethics skills and perceptions, and how university appears as a learning environment from the students' perspective. The objective was also to recognise possible developmental needs in education. The concept of ethical sensitivity represented the research ethics skills of students. Methods. The study utilised a mixed methods approach. The population consisted of psychology and educational science students in University of Helsinki. Students (N=87) responded to a questionnaire examining whether students' empathy, organisational and professional socialisation, and experiences on the department's ethical climate have a relationship with their sensitivity in research ethics issues. Three vignettes were composed for measuring sensitivity in research ethics issues. The informants' task was to recognise the ethical issues embedded in the vignettes. Also the relationship between students' age, field of study, progression in studies, and sensitivity in research ethics issues was examined. Six students, who were also respondents of the questionnaire, were interviewed. The frame of the interviews was created on the grounds of the quantitative results. The interviews were analysed thematically. Results and conclusions. According to principal component analysis, the measure of socialisation did not consist of the same dimensions than the original measure (organisational socialisation and professional socialisation). The Finnish data produced two new components: socialisation to the values of the field and the department, and socialisation to the practices of the field and the department. The latter component predicted sensitivity to ethical issues in research (?=.287, p=.023, R2=.09) in the regression model. Other variables did not have the same relation. The six students interviewed represented two different student clusters based on their socialisation in cluster analysis. Those students who reported a high level of socialisation to the values and the practices of the field and the department emphasised research ethics as certain practices, whereas those students who did not report a high level of socialisation emphasised the relativity of values and the importance of questioning existing norms. The findings suggest that in order for students to commit themselves to ethical research practices, they need to figure out the value basis of those practices. For teaching research ethics this implies that practical guidelines and realistic examples will have to be underpinned with thorough discussions about the underlying values and their consequences. This way the development of the students to responsible and ethical subjects can be assisted successfully.

Objective of the study. Previous studies have shown that university graduates learn various generic skills during their studies. Despite this graduates experience that they have not learned enough of these skills. Moreover, not all graduates can describe or evaluate if they have learned generic skills during their university studies. The majority of previous studies have focused on generalist students' generic skill development. Therefore, the objective of this study is to produce new information regarding the perceptions of learning generic skills of professional field graduates during their university studies. The second objective of this study is to examine the relation between learned generic skills and academic success by observing master’s thesis grades. Previous studies have shown that generic skills are needed but also learned during the master’s thesis process. Despite this, the relation between generic skills and master’s thesis grades has remained unclear. Methods. The qualitative and quantitative data of this study were collected originally as a part of a wider study concerning generic skills (Tuononen, 2019). The data of this study consist of the answers to the HowULearn -survey and interviews. This study includes the survey answers of 138 professional field graduates and eight participants also took part in the interview. The mixed-method design was used in this study and the data was analysed with qualitative and quantitative methods. The interview data was analyzed with abductive content analysis. The survey data was analyzed with statistical tests by using SPSS Statistics. Results and conclusions. This study showed that the graduates of the professional fields learned well various generic skills. The graduates experienced they have especially learned skills related to academic knowledge creation and academic thinking such as analysing and structuring information, looking at things from another perspective and critical thinking. The university studies were experienced to develop less cooperation and communication skills and innovation skills. The study also showed that from measured skills only the skill of analysing and structuring information was statistically related to a master’s thesis grade. The results of this study address that the relation between generic skills and a master’s thesis is still not clear, although the generic skills are needed during the master’s thesis process. In the future, there should be more critical research about the master’s thesis as an indicator of academic success. More studies are needed about how universities could teach better generic skills, which students feel that they have learned the weakest during their studies.

In Helsinki Medical school, half of the students experience lot of stress during their studies. Earlier inter-national research shows that university students wellbeing can be improved with practicing mindfulness skills, but in Finland there are fewer studies in this topic. Research on mindfulness trainings effects on different study programs, age-groups and genders are also missing. The aim of this study was to find out, if practicing mindfulness is linked to better wellbeing in university students in Helsinki Medical school. Other aim was to find out and there some effect concerning study program, gender, age, the amount of mindfulness training or earlier mindfulness background. The study was randomized controlled trial research with intervention- (N=52) and control group (N=35). Intervention group practiced mindfulness skills on different methods and control group had sup-port as usual from the university. The measures were gathered with online questionnaire in the in the baseline and at the end of the study (5-8weeks). T-test was used to analyze changes between baseline and finish measurements. Repeated ANOVA was used to measure intervention effect. The overall wellbeing in the intervention group did not change during the intervention. Whereas in control groups wellbeing decreased statistically significantly in almost every variable. It is possible, that mindfulness training helps to prevent increase of stress levels. There was seen decrease in subjective wellbeing in both groups, but in the intervention group the decrease was significantly less (p= 0.03, η2 =.053). The intervention effect size (η2) was small. In intervention group there was a significant differ-ence between medical and dentistry students and psychology and logopedics student’s subjective wellbe-ing (p=0.037, η2=.084). There was a moderate intervention effect (η2). Medical and dentistry students experienced more effect from the intervention. Due to small amount of the study subjects, results are di-rectional. The results support the earlier findings where mindfulness has effect on wellbeing. Methods based on mindfulness training should be studied more to find out cost effective and preventive ways to support medical student’s wellbeing. More research is also needed to find out the best methods for different genders, age groups and students from different study programs.

Objective of the study. Previous research has shown that students learn generic skills during university studies both in formal and informal learning environments. According to them universities’ task is to develop students’ generic skills. The connection between generic skills and learning environments which support their learning needs more research. Objectives of this study were to find out students’ experiences on learning generic skills during university studies, which learning environments supported their learning of the generic skills, and how students experienced to learn generic skills in different learning environments. This study’s aim is to increase understanding of students’ learning of generic skills and to get perceptions of the learning environments which support the learning of specific generic skills. Methods. The semi-structured theme interview material (n=58) collected at the Centre for University Teaching and Learning at the University of Helsinki was used in this study. The interviews collected from the students at the Faculty of Arts (n=20) were selected for this study. The results were analyzed by using abductive content analysis. Results and conclusions. Learning of skills related to forming academic knowledge and thinking skills was highlighted clearly in the results. Furthermore, learning of social and communication skills was emphasized in the results. According to the results, both formal and informal learning environments supported learning of generic skills. Learning of skills related to forming academic knowledge and thinking skills in university studies generally was highlighted in the results. Learning of social and communication skills was emphasized in working life generally in the results. Learning of specific generic skills is essential during university studies, even though it is not always easy to recognize learning them. In the future, students’ learning of generic skills could be studied for example by investigating the relation of some pedagogical approach to students learning of generic skills. In this study, students mainly described learning of generic skills in university studies generally. Moreover, students’ experiences on learning generic skills in the beginning of their studies could be compared to their experiences after completing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.

Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract Nuorten tulevaisuuskäsityksien sanotaan muuttuneen myöhäismodernina aikana. Yhteiskunnan muuttuessa kiihtyvää vauhtia on tulevaisuuden suunnittelusta tullut entistä vaikeampaa. Tulevaisuuteen suuntautumisella tarkoitetaan laajassa mielessä tulevaisuutta koskevaa ajattelua, esimerkiksi yksilön toiveita, tavoitteita ja arviota omista mahdollisuuksistaan. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman aihe on opintojensa loppuvaiheessa olevien generalistialojen yliopisto-opiskelijoiden tulevaisuuteen suuntautumien ja työarvot. Generalistialoilla tarkoitetaan yleissivistäviä koulutusohjelmia, jotka eivät johda suoraan mihinkään ammattiin. Tutkielmani ensimmäinen tutkimuskysymys käsittelee sitä, miten opiskelijat suuntautuvat tulevaisuuteen ja millaisia epävarmuuksia siihen mahdollisesti liittyy. Toinen tutkimuskysymys tarkastelee, millaisia arvoja ja orientaatioita opiskelijoilla on työtä kohtaan. Tutkimusaineistona toimii kahdeksan puolistrukturoitua teemahaastattelua. Haastateltavat henkilöt opiskelivat Helsingin yliopistossa eri tiedekunnissa. Aineiston analyysiin käytettiin teoriaohjaavaa sisällönanalyysiä, jossa teoreettisina apuvälineinä toimivat keskustelu laajentuneesta nykyisyydestä sekä Ronald Inglehartin arvojen muutosta koskeva teoria. Tutkielman laajempana teoreettisena viitekehyksenä toimii keskustelu refleksiivisestä individualisaatiosta. Tutkielmassa havaittiin, että opiskelijat elivät korostetusti nykyhetkessä tai lyhyissä lähitulevaisuuteen ulottuvissa periodeissa. Opiskelijat olivat sopeutuneet tilanteeseen, jossa tulevaisuus näyttäytyi melko avoimena ja epävarmana. Toimiva elämänhallintakeino nopeasti muuttuvassa yhteiskunnassa oli pitää omat mahdollisuudet avoinna. Inglehartin arvoteorian mukaisesti opiskelijoilla korostuivat postmateriaaliset työarvot, sillä työssä arvostettiin kiinnostavia ja merkityksellisiä sisältöjä sekä mahdollisuutta toteuttaa itseään. Vaikka haastateltavat olivat pääasiassa hyvin työkeskeisiä, oli heille tärkeää säilyttää tasapaino eri elämänalueiden välillä, joten työn ohella myös vapaa-aikaan ja harrastuksiin haluttiin panostaa. Teoriaa laajentuneesta nykyisyydestä on käytetty aiemmin pääasiassa huono-osaisten nuorten tutkimuksessa, mutta tutkielmani perusteella se kuvaa hyvin myös varsin hyväosaisten yliopisto-opiskelijoiden tulevaisuuteen suuntautumista.

Objective of the study. Psychological distress and psychological problems are common among university students. Web-based treatments offer a possible efficient and low-cost solution for supporting university students´ well-being. Acceptance and commitment therapy is a cognitive-behavioural approach, which by promoting mindfulness and acceptance skills and values-work aims to develop psychological flexibility, that is, ability to stay in contact with the present moment and persist or change in behaviour in the service of chosen values. There is already a considerable evidence-base of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy, also delivered in web-based format, in alleviating distress, depression and anxiety and improving well-being of university students. The aim of this study is to further investigate the potential of acceptance and commitment therapy in improving university students´ psychological flexibility and well-being. The purpose was especially to explore the effects of a web-based acceptance and commitment therapy on the sub-processes of psychological flexibility and on well-being among different types of student groups. Methods. The data was collected from the web-based course Towards better studying provided by University of Helsinki in 2018. In the course the students worked with a web-based acceptance and commitment therapy program designed to alleviate stress and composed also reflective writing assignments of their process. The study sample (N=10) consisted of one group of students scoring high and another group of scoring low in psychological flexibility in the quantitative measurement of psychological flexibility at the beginning of the course. The data consisted of the writing assignments composed by the students. Based on this data four different profiles where identified that represented the students´ psychological flexibility and well-being at the beginning of the course. Both, the students scoring low as well as the students scoring high in psychological flexibility where divided into two sub-groups based on qualitative data. The effects of the course overall as well as the effects among the four different student profiles on psychological flexibility and well-being where investigated by using qualitative content analysis. Results and conclusions. Web-based acceptance and commitment therapy had remarkable positive effects on university students´ psychological flexibility and well-being but the effects differed to a great extent among different student profiles. Also, the students´ psychological flexibility at the beginning of the course looked somewhat different from the perspectives of quantitative measurement on one hand and qualitative measurement on the other.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine what kind of working life skills students had learned during their Bachelor’s level studies according to their own experiences. Working life skills are skills and abilities, which are applicable in a range of contexts and tasks and are learned while completing disciplinary content studies. According to previous studies university studies contribute to the development of students’ working life skills to some extent but they do not necessarily provide all the skills required at the labour market. The second purpose of this study was to examine what kind of learning experiences had supported the development of the students working life skills during their Bachelor’s level studies according to their own experiences. In previous studies students’ working life skills have developed especially in the instruction/courses emphasizing experiential learning. Methods. The study is based on narrative research methods and the data were collected by utilising the narrative interviews from six students at Aalto University. The interviewed students had completed Aaltonaut minor program at Aalto Design Factory during their Bachelor’s level studies. A one-question interview technique was applied in the interviews. The interviews were analysed with narrative analysis and analysis of narrative. Results and conclusions. Students reported that during their Bachelor’s level studies, they had learned working life skills related especially to social and communication skills. These skills were, for example, teamwork, oral communication and presentation skills. Students perceived that they had also learned working life skills, such as entrepreneurial mindset and innovative thinking, as well as the ability to reflect on their own learning and knowledge and confidence about their own expertise. According to the findings of this study, students experienced that basic and major studies in their Bachelor’s degrees developed their working life skills narrowly. These studies contributed mainly to their working life skills related to teamwork, information retrieval and scientific research. The students perceived that their working life skills developed especially through the learning experiences, which were based on concrete experiences. In the Bachelor’s level studies, these kind of learning experiences were mainly offered by the Aaltonaut minor programme.