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Browsing by Author "Forsström, Petra"

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  • Aspergerin oireyhtymään liittyvän älykkyys- ja lahjakkuusmyytin todenperäisyys ja näkyminen koulukontekstissa sekä erityisten kiinnostuksen kohteiden vaikutus Asperger-lapsen opiskelumotivaatioon 
    Forsström, Petra (2017)
    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.
  • Puhetavat kestävää kehitystä koskevassa puheessa kotitalouden oppikirjoissa : indoktrinaatiota vai kasvatuksellisesti hyväksyttävää opetusta? 
    Forsström, Petra (2019)
    Aims. Sustainable development has been one of the most discussed topics over the past decades. Changes towards sustainable way of life are demanded increasingly more as the state of environment deteriorates. Sustainable development has also received a central status in curricula and in contents of subjects as home economics. Textbooks are still often important tools in studying. The aim of this study is to find out what kind of discourses are used in textbooks of home economics in speech considering sustainable development and are there features of educationally acceptable teaching or indoctrination in these discourses. Research questions are: 1) What kind of discourses are used in textbooks of home economics in speech considering sustainable development? 2) What kind of features of educationally acceptable teaching or indoctrination can be recognized in these discourses? The study also participates in discussion of importance of critical thinking and reading and how exercise of power and influencing are present in Finnish textbooks. Methods. This study was carried out analyzing two textbooks of home economics aimed to 7–9-grades in primary school. The study material was analyzed using critical discourse analysis. Results and conclusions. Ten discourses used in textbooks were found: neutral passive, appealing to knowledge/argument, adjectives describing consumer's attitude, evaluating some products as better, appealing to personal and common responsibility, orders, requests, appeals and advices, questions considering consuming, benefits of making sustainable choices, defining sustainable development and goals considering sustainable development in home economics and appealing to feelings. Eight out of ten of discourses contained features of educationally acceptable teaching and seven out of ten features of indoctrination. In most discourses both features were mixed. It seems that there is indoctrination in texts of textbooks to some extent. On the other hand what is interpreted in this study as indoctrination can in other research frames be interpreted for example as using rhetorical methods or other kind of influencing. Thus it's important to carefully ponder if it's possible to claim that it is just indoctrination that is present. Exercise of power and influencing seem to be present in textbooks, despite which concepts considering influencing are used. As conclusion teacher must acknowledge and bring out attempted influencing in textbooks, broaden attitudinal views of books, present reasoning for arguments in books and help pupils develop their critical thinking. Then again can be stated that sustainable development is a political and ethical subject and universally accepted principle. Can sustainable development in general be taught in completely neutral way or be detached from ideologies behind it?

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