Browsing by Author "Rajamäki, Silja"

Number of immigrants are continuously increasing both in Finland and in Sweden. Among the immigrants there are many children of comprehensive school age. Therefore, it is important to study how encountering and educating of newly arrived students is arranged. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the research that has been done in years 2012–2017 about newly arrived students and their education in preparatory classes, and to present themes that have emerged from research. The aim was to present a structured totality of previous research on this subject. This study was carried out as a literature review. I answered my research questions by reading previously in Finland and in Sweden made studies about preparatory class. I presented and analyzed the results of previous studies and I summarized results in four different themes: newly arrived student’s integration in school system, learning a new language, collaboration between home and school and teacher’s opinions about their work. I described the key results of studies through these themes. The importance of integrating preparatory classes student in to the mainstream education emerged from many studies. Integration is carried about by arranging part or entire of the pupil’s education in the mainstream education. According to research results, language was the most important thing in integrating in to the society. Apart from teachers, students also learn language in interaction with other students. Collaborating with home and school was found to be an important factor in integration of the student and the whole family. Although collaborating may sometimes be very challenging. Teachers working in preparatory classes described their job as rewarding. They liked about the freedom that came with the job and they also liked about possibilities of using their creativity. According to teachers, lack of resources and lack of teaching materials were the worst part of their job.