Browsing by Subject "error"

Objectives. Communication is cultural when the patterns of symbolic action and meaning are deeply felt, commonly intelligible and widely accessible. The cultural features, beliefs and values of the speech community can be examined through an important cultural term. The practices that reflect and build the social reality are described in the tradition of Ethnography of communication. In this master's thesis research the speech of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a construction company was examined. The aim was to find cultural meanings that the speech reveals by analyzing the linguistic features of the community. The purpose was to examine what the linguistic features tell about the common beliefs and values and the meanings of CSR. The idea was to examine a cultural term that has not been examined earlier in the tradition of Ethnography of communication. Methods. The research material included 9 semi-structured thematic interviews that were collected from a Finnish construction company. There were 12 interviewees taking part in in the research. Three of the interviews were couple and six were single interviews. The interviews lasted 20–60 minutes. The material reached included some texts from the company's Internet page as well. The research material was analyzed with the Cultural discourse analysis. The cultural features were examined with five discursive hubs that were used as analytical tools. These hubs were dwelling, relations, feelings, action and identity. The analysis consisted of five phases: theoretical, descriptive, interpretive, comparative and critical. Results and conclusions. Two cultural discourses were found in the speech community: open discourse and caring. The interviewees experienced that the meaning of CSR was sharing the good and the bad with the stakeholders. The participants felt that discourse of caring meant acting responsible. Caring and open discourse were important actions in the community. The perceptions about CSR reflected the factors of social responsibility according to CSR research. Based on the cultural premises of the cultural discourses of this study the participants evaluated each other as flexible, open and honest. They were expected to take care of the objectives of their work and the wellbeing of their colleagues. The daily interaction between the participants was experienced to strenghten the features of openness and honesty.

Aims. Touching is vital for humans. Furthermore touch is a way of communicating in interaction. The aim of this study was to examine touching in kindergarten: what is the nature of touching and what is the interactional organization of touch between an adult and a child when a child is crying. Theoretically, the study draws upon conversational analysis approach of multimodal interaction and conception of corporeality. The research questions were: (1) what is the nature of touching between an adult and a child when a child is crying in kinder-garten, (2) how is a comforting touch organized between an adult and a child when a child is crying in kindergarten, and (3) what are the factors that affect the nature and the organization of touching? Methods. This reasearch was a qualitative study of interaction. The research data were 30 hours of videofootage filmed at 1-4-years old child’s kindergarten groups. Altogether, there were 21 different episodes of crying. These episodes were analysed by multimodal interaction analysis. Results and conclusions. The results illuminate the foundational touching have a important role of touch when child is crying in kindergarten. The study identified four different forms of touching: comforting, controlling, assisting and non-touching. The findings also advance understanding on the temporal organization of touch. Comforting touch appeared directly or with a delay. The reason of crying and how the child responsed to interaction by an adult were significant. These factors created the possibilities to different kind of touching. In conclusion, the study found that touch plays an important role in comforting when a child is cry-ing. Touch was also used to control a crying child action. This study points a different forms and ways of organization of touching in kindergarten. In general this study provides the opportunity for increasing awareness of meanings and possibilities of touch and to improve quality of interaction in early childhood education.

The aim of this study is to describe, analyse and interpret teacher's perceptions on temperament and effects of temperament on student evaluations. There's hardly any research done in Finland on how class teacher's receive temperament and how it effects evaluations. The subject is important to further research since each student will be evaluated throughout their school years. There were two research questions: 1. What is the teacher's level of knowledge on temperament? 2. How does temperament effect on students evaluation? Research methodology: Answers to research questions were searched by interviewing six (6) classteachers and by analyzing their answers through Grounded theory and through content analysis. Results and conclusions: Teachers had not really received any education on temperament during their studies. Part of the teachers had searched information on temperament outside of their studies. However teachers had some kind of perception on temperament (inherent way to function and to react in different situations) and the different features of temperament (activity level, shyness etc.). Temperament seems to have effect on student evaluations relating to learning, working and behavior even that according to the Perusopetuksen Opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2014 (Foundation teaching Learning Plan) students temperament should not have effect on evaluation. On the other hand in the same document teacher's are obligated to evaluate working methods and behavior as a part of subject grade. Therefore teachers have contradictory instructions on how evaluations should be performed.

Objectives. This master's thesis aims to examine motivation, personality and career decision making. The theory is based on Ryan and Deci's (2002) Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Goldberg's Big Five theory. The theory also includes the concept of career decision making. In SDT, motivation is divided into three parts; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, as well as amotivation. The central idea of the theory is a continuum between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, instead of juxtaposing them. The Big Five theory includes the idea of Big Five Personality traits; extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The theory emphasizes the connection between motivation, personality and career decision making. Nevertheless, there is a lack of specific evidence and previous studies to support these connections. Thus further investigation is required. Development of the motivation and personality indicators came to be a significant part of the research. These indicators are used to examine the quality of teacher student's motivation, personality and career decision making, as well as the correlation between motivation and personality. Methods. The study is a quantitative study. The data was collected via electronic questionnaire and send to a group of teacher students in the University of Helsinki during fall 2014. The questionnaire contains a motivation scale, personality scale and claims related to career decision making. 120 students answered the questionnaire. The questionnaires were analyzed by using SPSS-program. The analysis methods used include factor analysis, test that compare means, t-tests, analysis of variance and correlations. Results and conclusions. The study shows that the motivation and personality scales need further developing, since the scales don't function as presumed. The highest mean of motivation was found in a part of extrinsic motivation named "regulation through identification". This was followed by intrinsic motivation variables which indicate that the teacher students are mostly intrinsically motivated. Student teacher's personality traits are split evenly among all traits mentioned. Nevertheless, agreeableness has the highest mean and neutoticism the lowest. Based on the study the teacher students are thoughtful, social, dutiful and systematic. There was only a weak linear correlation between motivation and personality. The certainty of teacher student's career decision making is high.

Insecurity of working life has created a certain manner of speaking which emphasizes indi-vidual’s role as an ideal subject who is preoccupied by continuously improving oneself. Over the last few years youth policy has laid stress on different kinds of guidance and support sys-tems. In the center of the discussion is the social exclusion of the youth and its prevention. Young people’s access to public services was recognized as a crucial problem and conse-quently the Finnish government set up Youth Guarantee. One-Stop Guidance Centers (Ohjaamo) were established around Finland to meet these needs. They bring together differ-ent services providing guidance for housing, education and employment. This research considers how challenges with youth employment and marginalization are han-dled in multi-agency guidance and counselling. The point of interest is how multi-agency counselling is legitimized in One-Stop Guidance Centers. I also ask how young people’s sub-jectivity and counselling specialists’ subject positions are constructed in One-Stop Guidance Centers. The research data consists of six theme interviews with counselling specialists working in a One-Stop Guidance Center. Analysis method was discoursive reading. It was found that multi-agency guidance offered by One-Stop Guidance Center is linked to therapisation and ethos of vulnerability where handling and governing emotions has become an important part of today’s society. Social problems such as unemployment are pinpointed to originate from individual’s qualities. Improving self-knowledge and other measures directed to individual’s psyche are offered as a cure to these social problems. In multi-agency guidance the central practices consisted of improving youth’s self-esteem and building motivation. By building better self-knowledge and finding one’s strengths youth were guided to use their freedom of choice but also governed their expectations. Counsellors’ position was constructed between ambivalent objectives: on the one hand as an ally but on the other hand as a bureaucrat exercising power.

The aim of this study was to explore the well-being and school experiences of people recovering from mental illness. Previous research has provided conceptual models of school well-being, instruments for measuring it, and knowledge about factors associated with it. Interconnections between school experiences and mental health have also been studied. However, the research about these topics has been quite varying in regard to concept use, approaches, and research methods. Furthermore, only a few studies have investigated students’ perceptions and experiences about school well-being. In this study, the essence of school well-being is interpreted based on the narratives of people recovering from mental illness. Different narrative types are also examined. 36 adolescents and adults recovering from mental illness took part in the research by answering anonymously an online questionnaire. The respondents evaluated retrospectively their school well-being during comprehensive school, and narrated their school experiences and things that affected their school well-being. The data was analyzed using hermeneutic phenomenological and narrative methods. The school well-being of most of the respondents had been low at least at some point during comprehensive school, and it was common that the school well-being had decreased over the years. Negative experiences and the factors lowering school well-being were especially related to bullying and adults’ indifferent or evasive attitude. It seems that the lack of social support, low school well-being, and mental health problems are all intertwined with each other. Based on the respondents’ narratives, the components of school well-being are safety, togetherness, being seen and heard, a sense of meaning, and experiences of success. These findings suggest that instruments measuring school well-being should also take into account the eudaimonic aspect of well-being, which includes for example self-realization and meaning. Despite the negative experiences, many of the respondents told heroic stories in which difficulties were eventually overcome. However, the overcoming of difficulties must not be left to the students alone, but school staff must aim at preventing the accumulation of negative experiences.

The aim of this study was to explore the epistemologies and conceptions of learning upper secondary school students (13-15-year-olds), high school students and their teachers express, and to compare the differences of these epistemologies and conceptions between the three groups. The theory of this thesis is based on earlier research related to epistemologies and conceptions of learning that suggest that epistemologies and conceptions of learning evolve with education and age towards a more sophisticated view of knowledge and learning. The data for this pilot study was collected from a small region in Finland in November 2015. The participants; upper secondary school students, high school students and their teachers (N=380), answered an online survey with two-part Likert-type statements measuring various kinds of epistemologies and conceptions of learning (collaboration, valuing metacognition, deep approach, surface approach and certain knowledge). The data was analyzed through looking at correlations and comparing the results of the three groups using ANOVA. The results of this study partly confirm previous study results of differences in epistemologies and conceptions of learning. Differences between secondary school students, high school students and teachers did occur, older students as well as the teachers tended to have more complex views of knowledge and learning. However, the results of the high school students suggest that they valued certain knowledge too, which is considered a less sophisticated epistemology. The results also show that the teachers valued collaboration and metacognition, but that the students didn't experience these two epistemologies to be practiced in class.

Goals. Education has a major role to play as a factor in increasing and sustaining the well-being of society. Within the decades there has been a wide range of student welfare services designed to promote equal education. The history of student welfare is part of the history of the Finnish welfare state, and regardless of the age, student welfare services have been geared to meeting the social challenges that characterize the era. Student welfare services can be seen as a welfare policy targeting children and young people. The new student welfare law came into effect in 2014. In the absence of previous research into this law, it was appropriate to study how the law and the discourse that supports it integrates student welfare into the whole of the Finnish welfare policy. Methods. The research material was the government's proposal for parliament as a student welfare law and some related laws (HE 67/2013). No new material was collected for the study. The analysis has applied the three-phase critical discourse analysis initially proposed by Fairclough, first examining the themes and rhetoric of the government's proposal. In the third stage of the analysis the results of the previous steps were analyzed in the contexts related to the production of the government's proposal. Based on the results of these three phases, conclusions have been drawn as to why the government's proposal was formed as it was. Results and Conclusions. The themes of the government's proposal focused on the organization of student welfare strategies and regulations on organizing responsibility. Much attention was also given to themes of well-being and equality. The economic aspects were not as much quantified, but the economic argumentation was strong. The rhetoric of the proposal was mainly factualizing and no options were given in the proposal. There was also a lot of commonly-accepted value themes in the proposal. In the social context, there was concerns about the diversity of the problems of children and young people and the burden on national economy. The purpose of student welfare is to ensure that as many students as possible become part of working life. According to the study, student welfare seems to be an integral part of a welfare policy in which pupils' well-being and education have been made a tool to increase the economic well-being of society.

Goals. Education has a major role to play as a factor in increasing and sustaining the well-being of society. Within the decades there has been a wide range of student welfare services designed to promote equal education. The history of student welfare is part of the history of the Finnish welfare state, and regardless of the age, student welfare services have been geared to meeting the social challenges that characterize the era. Student welfare services can be seen as a welfare policy targeting children and young people. The new student welfare law came into effect in 2014. In the absence of previous research into this law, it was appropriate to study how the law and the discourse that supports it integrates student welfare into the whole of the Finnish welfare policy. Methods. The research material was the government's proposal for parliament as a student welfare law and some related laws (HE 67/2013). No new material was collected for the study. The analysis has applied the three-phase critical discourse analysis initially proposed by Fairclough, first examining the themes and rhetoric of the government's proposal. In the third stage of the analysis the results of the previous steps were analyzed in the contexts related to the production of the government's proposal. Based on the results of these three phases, conclusions have been drawn as to why the government's proposal was formed as it was. Results and Conclusions. The themes of the government's proposal focused on the organization of student welfare strategies and regulations on organizing responsibility. Much attention was also given to themes of well-being and equality. The economic aspects were not as much quantified, but the economic argumentation was strong. The rhetoric of the proposal was mainly factualizing and no options were given in the proposal. There was also a lot of commonly-accepted value themes in the proposal. In the social context, there was concerns about the diversity of the problems of children and young people and the burden on national economy. The purpose of student welfare is to ensure that as many students as possible become part of working life. According to the study, student welfare seems to be an integral part of a welfare policy in which pupils' well-being and education have been made a tool to increase the economic well-being of society.

Objectives. In previous research, prenatal stress has been associated not only with preterm birth and low birth weight but also with child temperamental characteristics and emotional development. There has been some variation in study methods and results across studies, study samples have been rather small, and the relationship between prenatal stress and child temperament is still not fully understood. Timing of prenatal stress has also been emphasized, but there have been only few studies of its effects on child temperament. This longitudinal study aimed to determine whether maternal prenatal stress is associated with mother- and father-rated temperament of 6-month-old infants. The study also assessed whether timing of prenatal stress or concurrent parental stress influence the associations. Methods. This study is a part of a broader, multidisciplinary Prediction and Prevention of Pre-eclampsia (PREDO) -project. The current study sample consisted of 2197 children and their parents, who were recruited from maternity clinics at weeks 12 + 0 to 13 + 6 of gestation. Mothers filled a stress-self-report questionnaire (the Perceived Stress Scale) biweekly throughout pregnancy, a total of 14 times. Mothers (n = 2197) and their spouses (n = 1235) rated temperamental characteristics of their about 6-month-old child with the Revised Infant Behaviour Questionnaire. The associations between prenatal stress and infant temperament were analyzed using linear regression, controlling for multiple perinatal and sociodemographic confounders and for concurrent levels of maternal and paternal stress. The mediation effect of maternal concurrent stress was analyzed using the Sobel test and the moderation effect using the one-way ANOVA. Results and conclusions. Higher maternal prenatal stress predicted both mother- and father-rated higher negative affectivity and lower orientating regulation, but not extraversion in 6-month-old infants. Mid- to late pregnancy stress had the strongest associations to these traits. Maternal postnatal stress moderated and partly mediated the association to negative affectivity and mediated the association to orientating regulation. Prenatal stress was significantly associated with negative affectivity only in the group of mothers who experienced lower prenatal stress. Nevertheless, even after controlling for concurrent maternal/paternal stress, the association between prenatal stress and both mother- and father-rated negative affectivity remained significant, but the association to orientating regulation remained significant only as father-rated. The results are in line with the fetal programming hypothesis and add to the growing body of literature about the importance of prenatal environmental factors in infant temperament development.