Browsing by discipline "Educational Psychology"

The purpose of this Bachelor’s Thesis was to depict loneliness experienced by university students who moved to the capital area in the beginning of their studies as diversely as possible. The research tries to achieve deeper understanding of the multidimensional phenomenon through eyes of the university students, who moved to the capital area. The research was implemented by collecting free-form essays or essays based on support questions from the university students, who moved to the capital area. Data were collected from members of the student organizations and nations of University of Helsinki and the student organizations of Aalto University. Data were procured both via e-mails and electronic forms. 36 responses were received, and 27 of those were included in this research. Limited data were analyzed with data based content analysis method. In the essays of the university students the clearest causes for loneliness were the exiguity of social relationships and external factors. Most writers described that loneliness experiences were related to scarce social contacts and the different culture of the new place. It can be concluded, that university students highlight multidimensionally different things of loneliness in the beginning of the studies, but the data show that the meaning of few social relationships is essential in the experience of loneliness. The impression of individualistic culture presented in social debate may complicate the help seeking because of the ideal of this culture. However, the data seems to suggest that most of the young adults moving to new places need specifically social support from their equals and intimates during the critical phase of their life in the beginning of studies.

The target in this thesis was to find research and results of empathy and how it is affected by reading literature. My aim was to find scientific proof for using literary against mobbing in schools. The subject is current and many researches have studied it on recent years. I found different aspects of the effects on empathy, but the contradictory results gave productive views on the subject. I also found results that support each other. To argument the possibility to use literary to prevent mobbing I used Finland’s national curriculum of 2014. This study was made by reviewing existing research. My aim was to find results that give support to each other. There was found contradictory results, and reflecting on them gave productive observations. Most of the studies were made between 2013 and 2016 and they were written in English. The results showed that literary has impact on empathy and attitudes. I found four main features (narrative, transportation, identification, reading habits), which have central effects on literary and empathy. The main perception by these studies was that literary has certain effects on empathy. Still, more research is needed to get trustful results. Based on this thesis it is possible to make a research which could be done for example in master’s thesis.

Objectives. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the concept of culturally relevant pedagogy and its importance for teaching and learning. The child's cultural backgrounds, different backgrounds and life experiences have a strong impact on school and education. They can not only enhance learning but also motivate the student to engage in school work and engagement. The goal of culturally meaningful pedagogy is to support the development of each student by utilizing their previous knowledge and skills in teaching and enabling the learner to play an active role in knowledge creation. Previous research has shown that culturally meaningful pedagogy promotes learning and creates favourable environments for it. The concept originated in the United States in the 1990s at the initiative of researcher Gloria Ladson-Billings but continues to live strongly in the field of education. The aim of the thesis is also to examine the historical change and significance of culturally relevant pedagogy in education and training. Methods. This study is a descriptive literature review. The material consists of seven articles in English dealing with the change and significance of culturally relevant pedagogy. The research questions are: In what way does the material justify the change in multicultural education to culturally relevant pedagogy? and In what ways do culturally meaningful pedagogical approaches promote learning and student engagement on the basis of the material? The analysis of the material proceeds according to the research questions. For the second research question, the material is broken down to answer the research question by theme. Results and conclusions. According the data, culturally relevant pedagogy seems to have a strong influence on the field of education. Its significance for learning is positive. According to the material, culturally relevant pedagogy can not only improve school enjoyment and engagement, but also develop a sense of community and increase motivation and academic skills. Culturally relevant pedagogy requires the skill of the teacher to organize the teaching so that the learner is in the centre and can actively influence their own learning. The pupil's previous experiences strongly influence the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy.

Goals. This study is based on already published studies and the results are also given based to them. Enhancing a child’s self-esteem is part of education and parenting. This study searches answers how to enhance child’s self-esteem and what kind of meanings it gets. Phenomenon is approached from educators or parents point of view. The aim of this study is to give as many-sided picture of the phenomenon as possible and also bring the knowledge from the recent studies. The study also tries to bring the theory and research material together. Methods. This study is a descriptive literature review. The research material is based on 15 academic articles. All of the articles addressed enhancing child’s self-esteem. The data was analysed by thematising text fragments that addressed the topic of enhancing child’s self-esteem. It was also brought to knowledge that what kind of meanings does enhancing child’s self-esteem get when it comes to his or her future. Results and conclusions. The most important result of this study is the unanimous findings concerning about the importance of enhancing child’s self-esteem. Ways to enhance child’s self-esteem are found widely from all of the dimensions that Michele Borba presents. The research material tells that it is important to enhance child’s self-esteem already in childhood. The results tell that a good self-esteem predicts success in social relationships and worklife. It also prevents children from depression.

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract The growing marginalization and inactivity of Finnish young people in societal matters has increased debate on participation in the 21st century. Solutions to social problems, such as indifference, insecurity and exclusion, have been sought from participation. Disturbing information about children and young people's dissatisfaction in school has contributed to questions about pupil’s participation, activity and opportunities to influence in the school community. The school, as a community of growth for children and young people, plays a key role in promoting well-being and preventing social problems. The aim of this literature review is to establish the meaning of children’s participation and find out how it is connected to the school satisfaction. Finnish and Anglo-Saxon research literature is used as a source material for the thesis. Research literature does not provide such a comprehensive definition of participation. The meaning of the concept varies depending on the context. In the research literature children’s participation has been described through “the ladder of participation”. These typologies describe the gradually increasing participation from incapacity to the opportunities to influence in joint action with adults. Children’s participation requires redistribution of power and critical review of the traditional state of children and adults. In other case participation will only remain to the level of non-participation. In addition to the functional element, participation includes also more subjective experience of empowerment and the feeling of belonging to the community. Studies have shown that the school satisfaction and participation in the official activities of the Finnish pupils is comparatively low. One reason for dissatisfaction seems to be lack of experience of the opportunities to influence in the school community and poor social relationships with peers and teachers. The participation in the curriculum (2014) has been taken into account mainly as an experience of democratic influence in the context of formal schooling, such as an activity in student council. For children, however, the school appears as a community where informal and formal are linked together. The perspective of students should also be taken into account whilst developing participation and promoting school satisfaction.

In this thesis I examine the meanings and status of play in the curriculum 2014 for pre-primary education. I analyse the play from the educational perspective. The earlier thesis of play pedagogy address that play is natural and characteristic way of learning for preschooler. This thesis obey the method of the qualitative content analysis. The curriculum for pre-primary education function as the document for the thesis. In the curriculum 2014 for pre-primary education the play is aboard diversily in the pre-primary education. Play of pre-primary education is constructed from functional and adequate learning environment. Play should develop joy and learning.

Goals. The aim of this study was to clarify the concept of classroom atmosphere and specify the ways how teacher can improve the classroom atmosphere. The classroom atmosphere is a multidimensional phenomenon and can be difficult to define as a concept, but which nevertheless affects everyday schoolwork. The classroom atmosphere is essential to the success of schoolwork from the point of view of both pupils and teachers. Improving the classroom atmosphere is an important part of the teachers work, so in this study I focused on the ways in which teachers can improve the classroom atmosphere. Methods. This study is a descriptive literature review. Research data consisted of seven teachers’ handbooks which introduce different ways to improve classroom atmosphere. The data was analyzed by thematizing the ways of improving the classroom atmosphere. These categories were used to discuss what kind of ways a teacher can use to improve the classroom atmosphere. Results and conclusions. The results of this study indicate that the ways to improve the classroom atmosphere are diverse and extend beyond the classroom. The data shows that teachers’ handbooks provide a variety of ways to improve the classroom atmosphere, which are in line with each other. The classroom atmosphere can be improved by managing the classroom, influencing schoolwide practices and policies, investing in school-home collaboration, practising functional exercises and games, and by advance planning. Improving the classroom atmosphere happens in similar context than social and emotional learning and it aims to similar skills than social and emotional learning.

Tämän tutkimuksen tavoite on selvittää luokanopettajien kokemuksia etäopetuksesta. Eten-kin tilanteen yllättävyys ja nopea siirtyminen etäopetukseen saivat minut kiinnostumaan ai-heesta. Tutkimuskysymykset olivat, että miten opettajat ovat kokeneet etäopetuksen järjes-tämisen koronavirustilanteen aikana, miten opettajat ovat järjestäneet etäopetusta ja millaisia mahdollisia haasteita etäopetuksessa on ollut. Etäopetusta on tutkittu suomessa jonkin verran, mutta alakoululaisten osalta aihetta on tutkit-tu hyvin vähän. Nummenmaa (2012) on aiemmin tutkinut opettajien suhtautumista etäope-tukseen. Laadukkaasta etäopetuksesta oli paljon määritelmiä tutkimuskirjallisuudessa ja yh-deksi merkittäväksi tekijäksi tutkimuskirjallisuudesta nousi vuorovaikutuksen mahdollistami-nen etäopetuksen aikana (Saarinen, 2002). Tutkimuskirjallisuudesta nousi esille myös min-kälaisia haasteita etäopettaminen tuo opetukseen. Esimerkiksi oppilaiden ikä (Nummenmaa, 2012, s. 29), oppilaiden sosioemotionaaliset taidot (Lallimo & Veermaans 2005, s. 11) ja oppi-laiden itseohjautuvuustaidot (Kalliala, 2003 s. 14). Hyödynsin työssäni myös mediakeskustelua, koska mediakeskustelua etäopetuksesta käy-tiin runsaasti etenkin alussa oppilaiden siirtyessä etäopetukseen. Mediassa nousi huolta siitä, että onko etäopetus laadukasta ja miten oppilaat pärjäävät etäopetuksessa. Tutkimustulokset käytiin läpi käyttäen aineistolähtöistä sisällönanalyysia. Tutkimukseen osal-listui neljä henkilöä, joista jokainen on valmistunut luokanopettajaksi kasvatuspsykologian opintosuunnasta. Aineisto kerättiin sähköpostihaastattelulla. Tutkimustuloksista selvisi, että nopea siirtyminen etäopetukseen koettiin haastavaksi. Haastavan alun jälkeen opettajat kuitenkin kokivat, että etäopetus lähti sujumaan hyvin huolellisen suunnittelun jälkeen. Haastateltavat kertoivat myös etäopetuksen positiivisia puolia ja etenkin yhteisopettajuus ja yhteistyö kollegoiden kanssa koettiin voimavaraksi. Etäopetusta järjestettiin monipuolisesti erilaisia digitaalisia alustoja käyttäen. Etäopetukseen liittyi myös paljon haasteita. Haastavia tekijöitä oli mm. yhteysongelmat, oppilaiden tavoitettavuus ja opettajat kantoivat huolta oppilaista, jotka tarvitsevat enemmän tukea oppimisessa.

The alienation from nature among the younger generations has become a concern in stud- ies as well as in the media during recent years. Separation from nature easily leads to the exploitation of nature in a damaging way. The desire to take good care of nature develops during childhood through a positive relationship with nature. The aim of this study was to research the development of child's relationship with nature. The study examines the structure of the child's natural relationship from the perspectives of the family and the growing environment, school and outdoor activities. This research is a descriptive literature review. The research data consisted of articles collected from six different databases. The articles were peer reviewed and published in the 21st century. Individual keywords and combinations of keywords were used to find the data. The keywords in Finnish were luontosuhde, luontoliikunta, luonto and lapsi. English searches were made by the keywords nature connection, human-nature connection, nature relationship, nature, children, outdoor education and outdoor physical education. According to this study, it can be stated that growth environment, family, school and nature activities are all important for a child when developing a relationship with nature. The relationship with nature develops stronger in children living in rural areas compared to those living in urban areas. Parents, in turn, help in constructing this relationship by conveying values and attitudes towards nature. Outdoor activities provide the child with experiences and perceptions on which to construct a relationship with nature. In school, connection to nature can be promoted through environmental education and by providing information on nature. The results of this study can be used especially in education, by taking into account children’s growing environments, by cooperating with parents and by providing nature experiences that children may not have at home. Further research could identify what could be done at school in order to increase children’s interest in nature or the factors that attract children to nature in general. From a school perspective, it might be interesting to study how much individual forest trips or outdoor education during the school day affect children's interest in nature?

This thesis aims to clarify and integrate how Martin Buber's philosophy is utilized in Finnish research regarding education and dialogue. According to this thesis, in recent Finnish research main focus has been on following themes: Buber's worldview and religion, Buber's philosophy, the two word pairs (I-It and I-Thou) and education.