Browsing by department "Opettajankoulutuslaitos"

This bachelor’s thesis will show how the media use of children has changed in the past few years and what kind of effects it has on children. This thesis will allso look at media education and think about what kind of media education should there be in daycare. The research method in this thesis was a literature overwiew. The material was collected from research softwares and was picked randomly. Method used in this thesis was content analysis. This thesis showed that the media use of children under the age of seven has changed during the last decate and that children begin to use media even younger. The reasearch showed also that even when the use of media has crown there are little mentioning about media education in the national early childhood education plan, releasted in 2016. It is shown that media education is not necessarily exploited enough in early childhood education.

The aim of this study was to find out what reasons young people give for dropping out of vo-cational education or why they consider dropping out. Incompletion of upper secondary level studies is a current topic and is more widely associated with exclusion of young people. Dropping out of school can be viewed from the perspective of school engagement: dropping out our leaving school is a result of failed engagement. Study motivation affects school en-gagement. In the theories of study motivation intrinsic interest and autonomy play an im-portant role. In earlier studies reasons for dropping out of vocational education and training have been mental health issues, wrong choice of field and socio-economic reasons. This study was carried out as a qualitative, inductive content analysis. The aim was not to prove an existing theory, but to create categories based on the research material. The re-search material was picked out from Demi-fi -web page. Four conversations from years 2013 – 2015 were selected. In this study I concentrate on the reasons young people give for drop out in their texts. Three different reasons were given for dropping out of vocational education. The reasons were external issues, such as the actions of the educational institute and teachers’ lack of professionalism, lack of interest and failed choice of field and lack of personal resources, such as issues with mental health and wellbeing. According to the results of this study, it can be stated that more support should be given to student in choosing the right field of study. Al-so educational institutes should be developed and more attention should be paid to young peoples’ mental health and wellbeing.

Topic and purpose. The topic of this thesis is Finland’s ongoing process of reforming legislation on vocational upper secondary education. According to the government, the objective of the reform is an effective, competence-based and customer-oriented VET (vocational education and training) system. The aim is to increase the amount of on-the-job learning and vocational colleges should create more personalized learning paths for each individual student. I attempt to describe the reform in its societal, historical and ideological context. I also critically examine the key themes of political narratives for this reform. Materials and methods. Political discourse can be examined both as the instrument and as an effect of power. I used rhetorical analysis when I examined the draft (dated November 8, 2016) of government bill for The Vocational Education and Training Act and some acts related to it, and some stakeholders’ reactions to it. Results and conclusions. The draft of government bill is associated with neoliberal ideas, in which a student is personally responsible of his/her own employability. In this rhetoric, a student is a customer of a vocational institution, who is helped to plan educational and workplace pathways. Instead of pedagogical, educational or cultural goals, the student-customer is offered an opportunity to show his/her vocational skills. The neoliberal ideals of effectiveness, individualization and flexibility are emphasized in targets set to educational organizations.

Today children live in mediated culture. Therefore they need many different kind of literacy skills. Basic reading skills are the foundation that it is built on. Children´s literature has its own role in supporting the process of learning to read. The purpose of this qualitative content ana-lysis is to find out what kind of typographical, illustrational and textual ways to support pro-cess of learning to read can be found in Finnish learning to read books. Collected data invol-ves thirteen beginner readers books that are published in Finland. I had three categories in the focus of analysis: typography, texts and illustrations. Through analysis, the main focus on beginner readers books was based on readability and in the clarity of illustrations. The major finding was that some of the books was really targeted for children that are just starting to learn how to read but others was for children that already can read. The another result was that hyphenated text or increased text size are not the only factors that help the progress of learning to read. This study can be used as a support when parents are choosing a book when their children are in a stage of learning to read. Authors, illustrators and graphic designers that are planning to do a book for children that are learning to read can use this study for their benefit.

The role of vision for a child’s overall development is significant. Visual impairments have an effect on almost every aspect of a child’s early development. It has been estimated that the greatest challenges for children with visual impairments come with interaction and communication. Visual impairments exist in every age group, although only marginal among children. When it comes to children with visual impairments, there is a great need for research in the field of early childhood education, especially for providing ways to support the social skills and peer relationships among these children with special needs. Currently, there is only a meager amount of Finnish research and literature on the subject. The aim for this study is to examine the nature of interaction between a child born blind and his peers. It is as important to regard the ways teachers and other personnel support the children to build and maintain friendships. This study is a qualitative case study. The material of the study has been collected empirically observing and filming moments of interaction between 5-year old Antti, who was born blind, and his peers in daycare. After a month’s observation, each educator working in the child group was then interviewed individually. The material has been analyzed through transcription and classification. The conclusion to the study was, that there were significant challenges to interaction and play between visually impaired Antti and his peers. Adults’ support was in a key role in helping Antti succeed in binding and keeping up friendships with his peers. Over all, many social situations in the daycare’s context seemed specifically challenging for Antti. The educators gave insight to the ways they support Antti and all the other children in the group interacting with each other successfully.

Objectives. The aim of this thesis was to analyze how everyday life is structured in student families. The second purpose was to gather information about how daily routines affect the families’ mastering of everyday life. It has been proven in many previous studies that regularity and routines support families’ day-to-day lives. Also, combining family life with studies has been shown to create many challenges. With proper knowledge and a healthy respect towards routines, some obstacles of everyday life could be prevented from occurring beforehand. Methods. This thesis was qualitative and the data was collected by interviewing mothers (n=5), who were chosen by using purposive sampling. In each of the families, at least one of the parents was studying full-time and at least one child was in a day care center. The interviews were conducted as theme interviews and the data was analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. Results and conclusions. The families organized their everyday lives by coordinating studying, work and family life. The analysis revealed several different factors which support or hinder the mastery of everyday life. Day-to-day life was mainly cyclic and weekdays consisted of six different temporal phases. On weekends, the routines and schedules were more flexible. Establishments like kindergarten and school had both positive and negative effects. The flexibility of student life eased everyday life but at the same time the incessant need to study constrained it. Kindergarten regularized life but it also brought time pressure in the mornings. The management of schedules turned out to be a notable challenge for the families, which they attempted solve by equally dividing chores, scheduling studies and regularity. According to the results, routines had positive impacts on the mastering of everyday life. They relieved the families of certain actions and decreased the feeling of rush. They also created feelings of security and predictability from the children’s point of view. Scheduling routines had a great impact on intimate relationships, spare time, study time, sleep and emotions as well as on the flow of day-to-day functions. Routines were also associated with parenting goals, such as supporting the child to become more independent and responsible. If necessary, the most important routines could be adjusted accordingly but usually the aim was to stick by some common rules. Nevertheless, better routines were consciously created and molded simultaneously as the children grew up. As for the negative effects, fully scheduled weeks can be exhausting and have an overpowering effect on the family’s comings and goings.

The aim of this thesis was to gather more information on the topic of values education from the perspective of primary school teachers in Finland. While the topic has been examined to some extent in previous studies, the focus of this thesis differs from those earlier works. Paula Suhonen (2012), for example, has studied the role and realisation of values education in schools, and the ideas and attitudes the teachers have concerning their role as value educators. My study continues her work by further examining especially the latter topic. Above all, the goal was to examine how teachers themselves view their role as a value educator, and how conscious this role is. Furthermore, the aim was to determine how teachers see values in general: as absolute and immutable, or more dependent on time and place. The theoretical background of the thesis leans on general deninitions of values and values education and - as in most previous research - values education is here linked to moral philosophy. The research was carried out as focused interviews of three teachers of various ages and career stages. The focused interview as a method suited the process well, as the aim of the research was to record the teachers' thoughs as personal and authentic as possible. The interview material was then phenomenografically analyzed by creating categories portraying teachers´ perceptions of themselves as value educators. These descriptional categories were based both on theory and the interview material. The findings of the thesis supported those of previous studies: in addition to the school curricula and the Finnish law, the values of the interviewees were based on their own upbringing and personal experiences in life and at the workplace. While being highly conscious of their role as "quardians of a lot", they also view the busy everyday encounters at the school as rather concrete interaction, where values education is carried out mainly through solving ordinary, everyday problems. Each of the teachers experienced values education as an essential part of their work, but what they hoped for was that their role would be specified more clearly, for example in the school curricula. This would be a good topic in future research on values education, as previous studies have also called for by suggesting that The aim of this thesis was to gather more information on the topic of values education from the perspective of primary school teachers in Finland. While the topic has been examined to some extent in previous studies, the focus of this thesis differs from those earlier works. Paula Suhonen (2012), for example, has studied the role and realisation of values education in schools, and the ideas and attitudes the teachers have concerning their role as value educators. My study continues her work by further examining especially the latter topic. Above all, the goal was to examine how teachers themselves view their role as a value educator, and how conscious this role is. Furthermore, the aim was to determine how teachers see values in general: as absolute and immutable, or more dependent on time and place. The theoretical background of the thesis leans on general deninitions of values and values education and - as in most previous research - values education is here linked to moral philosophy. The research was carried out as focused interviews of three teachers of various ages and career stages. The focused interview as a method suited the process well, as the aim of the research was to record the teachers' thoughs as personal and authentic as possible. The interview material was then phenomenografically analyzed by creating categories portraying teachers´ perceptions of themselves as value educators. These descriptional categories were based both on theory and the interview material. The findings of the thesis supported those of previous studies: in addition to the school curricula and the Finnish law, the values of the interviewees were based on their own upbringring and personal experiences in life and at the workplace. While being highly conscious of their role as "quardians of a lot", they also view the busy everyday encounters at the school as rather concrete interaction, where values education is carried out mainly through solving ordinary, everyday problems. Each of the teachers experienced values education as an essential part of their work, but what they hoped for was that their role would be specified more clearly, for example in the school curricula. This would be a good topic in future research on values education, as previous studies have also called for by suggesting thatvalues education should be more closely linked to actual studying material. The questions of values and their immutability divided opinions among the teachers - which might have though been affected by their differing interpretations of the research questions on the topic. values education should be more closely linked to actual studying material. The questions of values and their immutability divided opinions among the teachers - which might have though been affected by their differing interpretations of the research questions on the topic.

The research examines the development and sharing of expertise in the profession of tailoring. The focus is on four themes: the impact of individual and social factors on the development of expertise and activities that either advance or inhibit its deepening. Research focused on traditional handcraft professions is important as it increases the appreciation, understanding and knowledge of these professions. Studying traditional handcrafts is also important in order to prevent the decline and disappearance of these fields. The theoretical part of the study focuses on examining previous research and theoretical literature on expertise and the development and sharing of expertise. Literature on the diversity of the methods of learning skills is also briefly discussed in the second chapter of the study, which also serves as a general introduction into the topic of the study. In this study, the development and sharing of expertise was studied by using qualitative research method. The collection of the data was carried out by conducting semi-structured individual interviews. For the purpose of the research, the experiences of skill development as well as the development and transfer of skills were collected from tailors engaged in the trade (n=4).Theoretical content analysis was used in the analysis of the material. The research results showed that the deepening of one’s own expertise was advanced by imitating the technical details of competitors and by learning by research. Sharing knowledge and skills together with other experts was not found to very common in the data. According to the tailors interviewed, the biggest obstacles for sharing expertise were the challenge of teaching skills that require routine and the lack of time. It can also be seen from the data that the reflection of one’s own workmanship was low, which may be related to the challenge of sharing skills. Those tailors who constantly challenged their own skills and routines experienced their opportunities for professional development more strongly. The reluctance to deviate from routines also rose from the data as one of the most concrete obstacles for the development of expertise. Acknowledging the factors that advance professional development is justified when the education of tailors is considered. The results of this study can contribute to this process. The organizations educating tailors should avoid teaching students simply to repeat things that are already known, even if it is important to build on what has already been learned. Educational arrangements that promote open learning and are based on students’ own interests’ support their ability to both renew and transfer what they have learned into future professional practices.

The purpose of this study was to discover how Asperger syndrome is connected to child’s intelligence, giftedness and motivation in school and teaching context. Research questions were: 1) How true is the image of intelligence and giftedness often associated with people with Asperger syndrome and how does this image appear in school context? 2) How do special interests characteristic of Asperger syndrome affect child's study motivation? In former studies the syndrome has often been seen in the light of challenges in social communication and there is less information about teaching children with Asperger syndrome and how do these children learn. Thus this study brings out further information about academic performance of a child with Asperger syndrome. This study was carried out as a descriptive literary survey. Scientific publications of experts in the field of autism spectrum and Asperger syndrome were used as sources and sources were searched for in libraries of The University and City of Helsinki and in databases of the Internet. As a result was discovered that the image of intelligence and giftedness was partly a myth. Most children with Asperger syndrome had normal intelligence and a relatively small number of children with Asperger syndrome were especially gifted or intelligent. Child's style of speaking and vocabulary gave an impression of intelligence and hid other problems. Performance in intelligence tests was uneven and giftedness was often narrow and connected to child's special interest. Many children had difficulties in other areas such as concentration and social relations. Some children with Asperger syndrome are however truly gifted and teacher has to be able to take both child's gifts and weaknesses into account. As a result was also discovered that special interests affected child's study motivation. Child was motivated to gather more information about his special interest but wasn't necessarily motivated to study other subjects or to do assignments. Using special interests one could on the other hand get child interested in new things and assignments. Therefore teacher should be aware of child's special interests and incorporate them into teaching with deliberation.

Everyone in the Swedish speaking minority in Finland does not come easily in contact with the Finnish language. At the same time, there is an increase of Swedish-speaking Finns moving to Sweden. One of the reasons for emigration to Sweden is language. It is important that all Swedish-speaking Finns have the chance to learn and master the Finnish language to have the same opportunities in the Finnish society as the native Finnish speakers. The purpose of this study is to observe the attitudes towards the Finnish language among pupils in Swedish speaking schools. To get a wide perspective a comparative study was conducted between so to say pair schools (where a Finnish and a Swedish speaking school are sharing the school property) and a regular Swedish speaking school. In this quantitative study, the data was collected by a paper questionnaire that pupils in grades 4-6 filled in. Two pair schools and one regular school participated in this study. The sample consisted of N=81 pupils and the data where analysed in the statistical program SPSS. The results showed that the pupils in general had a relatively neutral or a slightly more positive attitude against the Finnish language. The pupils in the regular school had slightly a better attitude towards the Finnish language than the pupils in the pair schools. Students that spoke Finnish regularly had a better attitude towards the Finnish language. The pupils in the pair schools where not that interested in interaction with the pupils from the Finnish speaking schools.