Faculty of Educational Sciences

The purpose of the study was to gain further understanding of methods used in schools by primary class teachers in tackling misinformation on social media. Misinformation can be considered information that is misleading, false, or fabricated. The spread of misinformation may have severe societal consequences ranging from diminished trust in societal institutions and democratic processes to potential harm to individuals’ health. In tackling the effects of social media misinformation, experts have regarded Critical media literacy as one promising method in preparing students to discern facts from mis-information. However, teachers and their views on misinformation and necessary educational efforts have been so far researched to a lesser extent. The data in the study was collected through thematic interviews. Six primary level schoolteachers from the capital area of Finland took part in the interviews in the Fall of 2022. The data was processed by abductive content analysis. The results of the studies focused on two main themes. The first theme on views on misinformation and knowledge gained understanding of how teachers perceive information on social media. The results were aligned with some key elements of Critical media literacy, for example online factchecking practices by teachers concentrated mainly on sourcing and biases as well as on discerning commercial and political agenda. The second theme of educational efforts focused on the roles of teachers and students as well as on the methods described by teachers in tackling misinformation in schools. Interviewees suggested that building trust between the student and the teach-er, as well as being present and taking time in the school day to address misinformation concerns in the classroom are essential in tackling misinformation. Additionally, promoting sense of belonging and dialogue practices in the classroom were mentioned as important methods to decrease the spreading of misinformation in schools. All in all ac-cording to the interviewees, teachers were seen as key figures for teaching students the skills needed to navigate social media.

Children and adolescents are moving less and less, while time their passive sedentary time has increased. The school reaches children of almost all age groups, which is why schools play an important role as physical education educators for children and adolescents. Class teachers can break passive sitting periods and increase physical activity in their lessons by integrating active breaks. Previous studies have found that active breaks improve students' concentration and attention, as well as enhance their learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to explore elementary school class teachers' experiences during a one-week intervention, during which they integrate physically active breaks into their lessons. This study describes how class teachers perceive active breaks to work in their own teaching and how ready-made break videos facilitate the integration of active breaks. The aim of this study was also to find out what kind of benefits and challenges the teachers perceive in integrating active breaks. This study was implemented using the qualitative research method. The research data were collected through semi-structured thematic interviews immediately after the interventions ended in late February to March 2024. The data were analysed using data-driven content analysis. Four elementary school class teachers were interviewed. The results of the study indicate that teachers found short-term break videos to be an effective way to integrate active breaks into lessons. Teachers perceived that using the break videos to integrate active breaks into lessons were a pleasant, user-friendly, and versatile way to break up students' passive sitting periods during lessons. The results also revealed that teachers felt active breaks working the best when they could choose an appropriate time during the school-day. The effects of active breaks on students' concentration were perceived to vary, and teachers felt that active breaks could be used as one classroom management strategy. Teachers encountered some challenges in integrating active breaks during the intervention, and these challenges did not affect their motivation to integrate active breaks during the intervention period. All teachers expressed their intention to continue using active breaks in their teaching even after the intervention.

Objectives. Society is divided between social classes in many ways. Regional segregation is increasing because parents' income differences continue to grow and children's education level and future income level are increasingly determined by the parents' background. The task of this thesis was to find out the effect of a young person's socioeconomic status on school well-being, school enthusiasm and school burnout. The aim of the thesis was to ex-amine the socio-economic background of the young person as an explanatory variable. The socio-economic background consisted of the dimensions of financial capital. As a the-oretical framework, the thesis reflected the importance of the student's socioeconomic sta-tus and social capital on school well-being. The effect of socioeconomic status on the stu-dent's experience of school well-being was mirrored through Ecological Systems Theory. The study well-being demands and resources model based on Demerout et al.'s (2001) job demands and resources model (Job demands - resources model JD-R) served as an ex-planatory model of the connection between social capital and school well-being between different levels of ecological systems. Methods. The study used the survey data of the Mind the Gap research project, which was collected in elementary schools in Helsinki in May 2013. 761 students aged 12–13 from 32 elementary schools participated in the study. Of the participants, 55.7% were girls (n=423) and 44.3% were boys (n=337). The survey material was interested in young people's thoughts and experiences, especially regarding schooling, friendships, well-being and in-formation about technology. In this thesis, the material was utilized to the extent that it corresponded to the purpose of the thesis. Participation in the study was completely volun-tary, and the parents of those who participated in the study were asked for written permis-sion for the students' participation. The data was analyzed using linear regression analy-sis. In the analysis of the data, version 2.3 of the Jamovi statistics program was used. Results and conclusions. The results showed that a home that offers a young person a fi-nancially stable starting point creates better personal resources for the student to go to school. The results also showed that even if the family's financial situation is not stable in all respects, but the student himself feels that his own livelihood is comparatively good in relation to others, this is connected to an increasing interest in school and lower school burnout. Thus, a student's financial carelessness predicts a student's better school well-being. The research results follow previous research results. Under the current societal economic pressures, there would be a significant need for further research.