Browsing by department "Opettajankoulutuslaitos"

Recently one can see the increased interest in Finnish society in what appears to be the newest technology and its implementation efforts into education. Although tablets and SMART boards have rapidly become more commonly used tools in education, one must wonder if this is the best that science and technology can offer for learning. This current paper serves as an informative paper on the latest scientific knowledge available on augmented reality’s uses in education and attempts to identify those uses most valuable for shared learning practices in communities of practice. To achieve this, it asks How has augmented reality been used in education as described by recently published studies and What kind of value could the uses identified in the first question have for an educational community of practice. Initially 34 studies went through several layers of screening, results of which are attached to this review. Final research literature consisted of seven evidence-based studies, that featured educational uses for AR and collected user experiences. This research is a systematized literature review. It includes a broader descriptive background section for the core knowledge on AR and communities of practice, followed by interpretation of results for the more specific questions on the topic. Lastly, it suggests further progressive research considerations for future studies on the topic. It appears that the uses for AR in education are very diverse, AR research and application creation is progressively finding novel educational topics, and that mobile-AR has successfully enabled the implementation of AR in education. On the other hand, studies’ sample sizes remain small, the appliance of AR as a broad concept still escapes researchers, the results of AR’s effectiveness in these reviewed studies might only apply in their unique settings, and none of them studied AR’s educational uses on established communities of practice. For all those reasons, I call for more progressive studies and literature reviews with larger sample sizes, comparative results and study settings incorporating shared learning aspects.

The aim of this study was to examine autism as a socially constructed phenomenon. Autism is a medical diagnosis for a neurological disorder. Assesment whether an individual is autistic or not, is based on the behavior of the individual. Certain type of stereotypical behaviour is a criteria for defining physical attribute as a disorder, disability or illness. Studying autism as a socially con-structed phenomenon allocates the research to those social practices where autism is linguistically actualized and constructed. Examining autism from the viewpoint of social constructionism sets the autistic people, and those that are considered normal, in more equal positions. This is because both parties are considered to equally participate in constructing the shared reality. The methodological choices have been primarily made by recognizing them as choices based on values. Research subject and theoretical viewpoint are also choices made because of their social significance. Belief for shared responsibility and the importance of equal participation has been the theme of this thesis. Equality and universal wellbeing have been most important values that have influenced this study. The premises of social constructionism are special especially consid-ering their relationship with reality. Building on to these thoughts about reality, this thesis is seen as making reality. Discourse analysis relies to the paradigm of social constructionism, therefor it is easily and naturally utilized as part of the analysis. In this thesis discourse analysis is focused on material made by finnish union of Autism- and Asperger (Autismi- ja Aspergerliitto). about autism. The material consists of eleven interviews and it is part of a campaign that’s purpose is to spread awareness about different manifestations of autism. The theoretical viewpoint of social constructionism explains the social and lingual construction of autism as parallel sign systems where autism is seen as a social construction. In this context au-tism exists through its meanings that have been socially and linguistically attached to it. The anal-ysis gave information about the social construction of autism from the lives of autistic persons and their closest ones. Analysis showed that where autism appears there aren´t always challenges and difficulties. This means that there can only be seen a form of neurological development that does not carry inextricably certain type of problematics due to the premises of social construc-tionism where problems only exists when they are socially constructed. In this thesis, reality has been constructed by associating autism with creative possibilities that social constructionism has offered.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how pupils are treated in physical education classes, how the treatment can affect gender equality during classes and how the pupils perceive themselves. Previous research shows that teachers' subconsciousness about their own view of gender and practice can be part of shaping and reproducing gender differences in physical education. Furthermore, previous research has revealed stereotypical beliefs that boys to nature are more suitable for sports than girls. Boys' performance is considered to be the norm for physical education and girls differ from this norm due to their gender. This study aims to analyze PE teachers' attitudes towards gender equality in physical education classes using the following research questions; (1) how does student interaction take place in physical education? and (2) in what way is gender equal education promoted? The thesis is based on a systematic literature review. The research material consisted of nine peer-reviewed articles from eight different countries. The material was found using keywords and keyword combinations from different databases and the material was analyzed through a content analysis. The results of the literature review show that teachers interact with pupils in physical education both verbally and through their practice. There were clear differences in teachers' way of interacting with girls and boys in the way they communicated, how frequently the communication took place and, in the attention paid to achievements. The results also point to scarcity in equality in physical education due to a lack of competence among teachers and teachers' unawareness about their own view of gender and how it affected their own actions.

Objectives. According to international and national research children’s skills in natural sciences are declining. Decreasing interest in these branches of science has also raised concern. LUMA center of the University of Helsinki aims to meet these challenges by enhancing co-operation between schools and informal learning environments. BioPop is part of the LUMA center and it organises summer science camps for children in primary school. The goal of these science camps is to increase children’s interest especially in biology. Interest is known to have a positive effect on learning and capabilities. That is why development of teaching to enhance children’s interest is important. The aim of this study was to investigate which kind of activities and teaching methods children considered interesting, and did their gender or age have an influence on this. Methods. BioPop collected a questionnaire at the science camps during summer of 2015. This questionnaire was meant to investigate children’s interest in different activities and it was answered by 135 children. Activities were compared by their means. Because measured interest in activities was not normally distributed, the connection between gender and interest was examined by Mann-Whitney U-test. The same test was used to examine connection between age groups (7–9-year-olds and 10–12-year-olds) and interest. Results and conclusions. Mostly all campers were really interested in every activity. Statistically significant differences between genders were found in five activities: making nametags and camp rules, plant identification, gathering and pressing, catching invertebrates on the ground and in the water, examination of fingerprints and doing fish-cards and painting an aquatic ecosystem. Working outdoors in natural environments and visual arts were emphasized in these acitivities. It was interesting that girls considered all of these activities more interesting than boys. There were no significant differences in interest between two age groups. All in all campers found biology’s experimental methods the most interesting. Figuring out what kind of teaching methods are related to children’s interest gives schools important knowledge on how to develop teaching. BioPop also receives feedback on the success of its work.

The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to collect information from literature about the democratic school and the similarities that the finnish primary school curriculum has in common with it. Previous pedagogical philosophers such as John Dewey have laid the groundwork for democratic schools to be born. Democratic schools are still a relatively new and unknown form of schooling, to which this literature review aims to shed some light to. This literature review is based on an integrative method with some narrative aspects. In addition to scientific articles that have been collected from the HELKA library system of the University of Helsinki, this literature review has also been adding content from other literature on the topic, as well as websites of democratic schools. One of the most central features of democratic schools, which also seems to be quite unique to democratic schools, is that students have the freedom to choose what, how, when and with whom to study. Another interesting characteristic aspect to democratic schools is, that everyone in the school community is welcome to take part in common decisions, no matter what age. Even though the finnish primary school system and the democratic schools have quite different practices, the finnish primary school curriculum does share similarities with the democratic schools in terms of values and learning concept.

In this research I have introduced the theory of design-pedagogy and its suitability to be used as a teaching method. The aim of this research was to highlight the primary school teachers’ thoughts about design-pedagogy as a teaching method in primary school. The interest of this study lays specifically in the teachers own experience in design-pedagogy and how they understand their own role as a teacher when using this method. I also brought up some points that are in favour of design-pedagogy as a teaching method in primary school from the new curriculum that was published in the Autumn of 2016. My research material consisted of semi-structured the interviews from two teachers. The interviews were analysed using thematic approach of content analysis method. Both of the teachers had used design-pedagogy as a method in their classrooms multiple times. The teachers were also acquainted with the theory of the method. The material was collected in May 2016. I classified the material in three different categories. The categories were based on the research questions. Both teachers interviewed saw design-pedagogy as a positive and versatile teaching method. The teachers highlighted that the strength of the method lays specifically in the way it lets the students collaborate and get involved. The teachers described and experienced their own role in design-method diversely with multiple terms of classification. All together the teachers saw design-pedagogy as a way to develop students’ own self-determination and transversal competence. These are points that are brought several times in the new curriculum for Autumn 2016.

Objectives The purpose of the study is to identify and describe schools’ digitalisation as one of the areas of school change. The research problem looks at the practice of projectisation educational policy has contributed to, and at the stakeholders and structures of this projectisation. There was no comprehensive study on the impact of digitalisation in schools, but there was plenty of material on various projects and justifications for digitalisation to be found. Research questions and the previous theoretical framework follow a coherent two-part approach: who are involved in digitalisation and which areas of activity do digitalisation projects seek to change? Methods The research material used was research related to digitalisation: dissertations, master's theses and scientific articles, lists of project funding from the National Board of Education and electronically available public records on digitalisation projects. The analysis examined projects and participants at universities, regions and content areas. The perspective and position of the researcher in the thesis is of a family-oriented class teacher student's one, with experience of digitalisation and service quality from the business sector. The position was a strongly directional factor in the analysis. Results and Conclusions Stakeholders are public sector, academic, private business, and school level executing and participatory actors. The content of the projects is guided by the National Board of Education and other funding providers. The time span of educational policy has shortened and the demand for development has accelerated. The lack of an impact study is widely recognized. By contributing to the impact study, also other students represented by the author of this thesis could improve their understanding of the change in the education industry and ultimately promote pupils' well-being through appropriate digitalisation.

The purpose of this Bachelor´s Thesis was to examine the amount of digital devices and the use of them on the finnish pre-primary education of Espoo. This thesis examined also was there any factor what prevents the use. The National Core Curriculum for Pre-School Education (2014) and the Espoo Pre-Primary Education Curriculum (2016) emphasize the information and communication technology competence. The previous studies show that the utilization of infor-mation and community technology in early childhood education is low. In addition, there is little qualitative research information of the pedagogical utilization of the information and comminty technology. This thesis was conducted by a quantative method. The data was collected by an online survey. The onley survey was built on the basis of previous studies and the objectives of the National Core Curriculum of Pre-School Education (2014). The target group of the research was selected pre-school teachers of Espoo Finnish early childhood ecucation, who have the windows devices on their pre-primary groups. The data was analyzed by a IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0 -statistical program. The thsesis found that the digital devices were versatile in the pre-school goups of the Espoo Finnish early childhood education. Half of the respondents used their digital devices pedagogically. In addition to the pre-school teacher, the other adults and children used the digital devices. The children´s use of the devices was supervised and controlled. Chilren used the tablets more regularly than the other devices. Pre-School teachers utilized the applications and digital learning enviroments to support expression skills and linguistic and mathematical skills. The biggest factor prevents the use of the devices was the failure of the devices.

Aims. The purpose of the study was to examine the experiences of three primary school teachers of Viikki Teacher Training School in using and putting into practice design-oriented pedagogy. The study investigates why the teachers use design-oriented pedagogy, what is it best for and what similarities it has with the National Core Curriculum 2014. The study com-pares prior knowledge with the experiences of the teachers and the curriculum. The topic is current, since the new curricula has set a goal of arranging a multidisciplinary learning mod-ule once a year. Methods. The research approach was a qualitative case study in Viikki Teacher Training School. The results were obtained by thematically interviewing three primary school teach-ers who use design-oriented pedagogy in their own teaching. The interviews were tran-scribed and analyzed using theory-based content analysis. Results and conclusions. The teachers used design-oriented pedagogy to carry out various projects with current topics a couple times a year. In their opinion design-oriented pedagogy improves many skills of learning and use of different work methods. Especially improve oneself as a learner, working together, interaction and data acquisition stand up amongst the skills benefited. The role of the teacher was to enable learning by offering support and resources. The objective of design-oriented pedagogy is to develop the skills of the students which are needed to act in the society of the future. According to the teachers, this will manifest in deeper understanding of knowledge, use of various sources and benefiting technological platforms. The students were the focus of learning, but that learning took place based on the curriculum.

This bachelor thesis reviews drama education and possibilities to use drama education in the school environment. The thesis is influenced by the international effort to provide equal possi-bility to common primary school for everyone, so that the support needed by the pupil can be arranged as far as possible in connection with the mainstream, which brings to the schools in-creased interaction between all the students and the teacher. The background work has been af-fected by the new basic education curriculum introduced in 2016 which highlights both the ne-cessity and topicality of drama education as well as the inclusive aspiration to offer a common school for all, as defined in the Basic Education Act. The main argument of the thesis is the question, whether or not drawing attention to the inter-action between the students, could prevent pupils with special needs from falling out of the school system, and further on from social isolation. The aim of this study is to determine if the drama education can increase the interaction between the students and develop their interper-sonal skills. Attention is drawn especially to those pupils who have high risk of social exclusion. The method is a systematic review of the literature. In the theoretical part as the concept of drama education is defined broadly and interaction is defined narrowly. The theoretical part al-so clarifies the current status of special needs education as well as integration and inclusion ef-forts and concepts. Studies, books and articles about drama education, special education and in-teraction in studies have been used as material of the theoretical frame. In the theory part there is drama education is determined extensively and interaction is deter-mined briefly. In the theory part there is clarifyed how the special education is now and which are the aims of the integration and inclusion. In the theory framework Key results show that the drama potential way of working are diverse and wide. Interaction, embodiment and learner-oriented approach are in the center of drama education. The results of this study show that drama is a joyful way of working. Role-taking can be used in classrooms to bring in excitement, emotion, fun and interaction between people. Science learning is approached by experience and study becomes a holistic experience. Also positive development in psychological well-being has been found as a result of using drama education. Based on this Bachelor's thesis it is not possible to draw direct conclusions about a connection between development of drama and communication skills, but the use of drama education working in the school environment is increasing the amount of interaction at school, and thus it is increasing the interaction skills of pupils of drama education. Drama education can also have a significant positive impact on learning outcomes.