Browsing by department "Department of Teacher Education"

In this study, I examine how consumers choose wine. The research questions are as follows 1. What factors in general affect wine buying? 2. What factors influence choosing wine in the store environment? 3. What is the significance of responsibly consuming in choosing wine? The research background consists of research on wine-making, its environmental impact, as well as wine-labelling. This framework also includes the wine choosing- and consumer behaviorism theories. Previous research has shown that wine choosing is affected by price, country of origin, taste descriptions, as well as the labelling. The data consists of seven research subjects, of whom five were women and two men. The subjects were between 29-70 years of age, six subjects lived in the Helsinki metropolitan area and one in central Finland. The data were collected with the thinking aloud protocol, in which the subjects report their wine selection process by speaking aloud. All the wine selecting was done in the Alko store environment. The recorded data was transcribed, after which it was structured with content analysis to fit the research questions. The analysis highlighted the researcher's abductive reasoning, where the collected data and the theoretical framework alternated to answer the research questions. My research shows that wine consumption is social: it is consumed in everyday life, as a socializing drink, and in combination with food. The main wine selection factor is time. When there is little time the subjects either chose a familiar product, or ended up impulsively for a colorfully labelled product. With more time, the subjects spent more time on comparing products. Independent comparisons made in the selection process were aided by the Alko product information cards. They contain information about the price, flavor descriptions, as well as taste type classifications and food symbols. Alko customer service is valued and needed especially if you're looking for wines to pair with food. Sustainability and ecology did not largely influence wine selection. Except for organic wines, the subjects had incomplete knowledge in different wine growing methods and the associated labelling. In general, it can be stated that the less the consumer had knowledge of the label entries, the more frustrated they were, when there were several entries. All the subjects were, however, interested to know more of the entries. It seems that the information given by the Alko information cards and customer service, affect the customers attitude towards the different entries.

Objective. The objective of the study was to describe the parents' perceptions on liability and safety issues concerning physical education in schools. The liability issue arose 2013 due to a certain accident that occurred during a school PE lesson. The discussion on the matter culminated when OAJ (The Trade Union of Education in Finland) considered whether accident-prone sports should be banned in schools. This study examined the parents' views on who or what is liable and which factors affect the division of liability among these instances. The challenges in teaching PE have been analyzed by e.g. Poutala (2010), Hakala (1999) and Segercrantz (2001). In their Master's Thesis Kainulainen and Tikkanen (2002) have looked at the due process rights of teachers and at how teachers would operate in the case of a hypothetical accident. This study researches how parents view a similar situation and whom they consider liable in it. Method. Five parents of comprehensive school pupils were interviewed for the study. During the interview the parents reported their views concerning the special characteristics of PE defined by Poutala (2010). These characteristics include supervision, problems with grouping, illnesses and the hazards they cause, equipment and clothing as well as transfers to the location of the lesson. The parents also analyzed two accidents taking place during PE lessons and pondered on liabilities there. Results and conclusions. In the parents' point of view one person alone is not liable at schools. The liability was perceived to divide among the teacher, the pupil, the classmates, the parents and the provider of education. The age and skills of the pupil as well as the possible risks of the sport were seen as contributors to the division of liability. The parents saw that the riskier the sport, the more liable the teacher was. The special characteristics of PE were not seen as problematic. When it comes to grouping during PE lessons the parents viewed that pupils could study in mixed groups with boys and girls throughout primary school. A minority of those interviewed thought that pupils ought to transfer to the location of the lesson with the teacher and that if the pupil knows the way, they could go home independently from the location of the lesson. Some of the parents would allow pupils to be left without the teacher's supervision in the case of a group division during lesson. This study provides an insight onto how parents view the safety issues and the division of liability in the teaching of physical education. With the help of this study teachers are able to liken their views to those of the parents'.

Objectives. The aim of the study was to investigate the connection between epistemic beliefs, work engagement, and workaholism, and their appearance in different organizations. In addition, the study tested the functionality of the new instrument for measuring epistemic beliefs that was adapted for working life. The research was related to the research carried out by a group of educational psychology postgraduates at the University of Helsinki. The group examines the organizational renewal opportunities and management in different operating environments. The aim of the group is to produce new information for the processes of transformation of organizations and management development opportunities. Methods. The research material consisted of the data that was collected for the doctoral dissertation of Terhi Nissinen. The participants of the study were the staff members of three medium-sized organizations (n = 195) from large Finnish population centres. Educational and technical organizations were examined in the study. The data was collected using an electronic Organizational Renewal -questionnaire. Respondents included supervisors and employees. Factor analysis served as a pre-analysis for regression analysis, Kruskal-Wallis -test, and Spearman correlation coefficient. Results and Conclusions. The staff experienced work engagement about twice a week. Among the staff, there was thinking and activity associated with workaholism once a week. A positive correlation was found between work engagement and workaholism. In the study epistemic beliefs related to collective knowledge creating, fact-centeredness and unchanging mindset were observed among staff. These depicted three different epistemic orientations. Some of the epistemic orientations were related to the work engagement and workaholism. A positive correlation was found between collective knowledge creating and work engagement – as well as with workaholism. The organization was not connected to the link between work engagement, workaholism and epistemic orientations. Organizations should be aware of the differences between work engagement and workaholism, and specifically promote positive diligence, work engagent. The research about epistemic beliefs can promote organizations' ability to develop well-being at work in a new way.

The objective of this study was to observe the ways in which young people indicate disagreement in asynchronous online discussions. The analysis is focused at how argumentative online discussions are constructed, the ways in which the speakers indicate disagreement and the attributes and functions of those disagreements. One area of the analysis is the context in which the disagreements appear: in what part of the conversation they appear, how other speakers react to them and which types of disagreement appear side by side in one turn. The conversation analytic view of turn-taking and the constructions of turns work as a background for this study. The data for this study was collected from an online discussion forum targeted at young people, named Demi.fi, from which I chose three discussion threads on the same subject: the diversity of genders and gender equality. These threads had 344 messages altogether, and in 261 of them the speaker indicates disagreement. I approached the data through qualitative research, utilizing the method of conversation analysis. I started by locating all assessments and the disagreeing turns connected to them, and after that I categorized the types of disagreements and analyzed the more specific functions of these categories. The conclusions of this study tell that in these three argumentative discussion threads, the speakers indicated disagreement in ways that can be divided into seven categories: statements, the challenging questions and their answers in question-answer adjacency pairs, accusations, the negative emotional reactions of the speaker, irony, misunderstandings and concessions that have attributes of both agreements and disagreements. Each of these categories had their own specific attributes and functions. Statements were the most frequently used disagreements in the discussions, but direct, emotional disagreements were rather frequent as well. Disagreements were usually indicated by negatively evaluating the assessment or the persona of the other speaker, but they could also be indicated by challenging power hierarchies by – for example – turning the other speaker into a laughing-stock. Because disagreeing second turns were much more frequent than agreeing second turns, it's justified to say that in the context of an argumentative online discussion, the otherwise popular belief of agreeing being preferred turns out to be dispreferred. The conclusions give teachers an opportunity to understand the ways of disagreeing that are typical for young people. This also enables the guidance towards respectful, constructive argumentation.

The aim of this master`s thesis was to study which kind of experiences of a sense of belonging, students with special needs have in their school. The students studies take place both within a special education classroom, as well integrated to basic education classrooms. The subject of the study is approached with the next questions: 1. How do student`s relationships to teachers and to students, create experiences of a sense of belonging, 2. Which things prevent the student from experiencing a sense of belonging, 3. How does the school climate influence the student`s satisfaction of being at school. The previous studies show that student`s relationship to their teacher, relationship to other students, and behaviour modification, create experiences which deliver a sense of belonging to students with special needs (Juvonen 2006). Studies have also found that an inclusive school climate, can affect positively to the sense of belonging of students with special needs. This is a qualitative phenomenological research. For this study, five secondary school students with special needs were interviewed on their experiences regarding a sense of belonging. The data was collected by semi-structured theme interviews. The collected data was analysed with theory-based content analysis, which was mainly based on Juvonen`s (2006) theory about a sense of belonging. The results of this study show that all the students with special needs, who participated, experienced a sense of belonging for their school. The results were similar to previous studies which show that the positive experiences of the teachers, assistants and students, created experiences of a sense of belonging to the student with special needs. The results of this study suggest that the school where these five students with special needs study, was inclusive. This is convergent with previous studies, which show that inclusive school climates can affect positively on the sense of belonging of the students with special needs.

The aim of this study was to describe the social integration of Finnish school age children with special needs. The term social integration means children's friendships, relationships with classmates and friends, children's perception and acceptance by classmates and friends (Koster ym. 2009, 135). The purpose of this study was to build the model of social integration for Finnish children with special needs and also study different perspectives of social integration and factors effecting into those. Previous studies have shown that pupils with special needs are less popular, lonelier, less accepted and they have less friends in school (f. ex. Pijl ym. 2008, Szekeres 2014, Pijl & Skaalvik, 2010). On the other hand, it has been shown that pupil with special needs is as often a group member and is as often outsider as other children (Avramidis, 2010). The research was a quantitative survey study and the research data was collected with association how support guardian of children with special needs. 107 guardians took part in this study. The research data was analyzed by SPSS-computer program. Exploratory factor analysis, correlation and analysis of variance were used as analysis methods. The model of social integration was not completely in-line with previous studies. This study showed that friendships and interactions with friends, problems with peer relationships, acceptance by classmates, interaction with classmates during free time as well as loneliness and difference were major parts of the model of social integration. This study showed that children with special needs had some friends, they didn't have statistically significant problems with peer relationships and they are relatively well accepted by their classmates. Despite friendships and acceptance, the children with special needs didn't have so much interaction with classmates during free time and they felt loneliness and difference. Especially the children with special needs and with special support in school had challenges to create interaction with friends outside school. The children with behavioral challenges observed had more problem with peer relationships compared to the children with delays of development.

This study examined the use of audiobooks as a support to high school studies. An inquiry was targeted to the special education teachers working in high schools. They were viewed to have an expertise both in high school studying and in special education. This study examined the familiarity of audiobooks produced by the special library Celia to the special education teachers. It also surveyed the teachers' views about special learners' possibilities to benefit from the use of audiobooks, the use in different subjects and in different study phases. The special education teachers were also asked, why the audiobooks are much more used in primary school than with the high school studies. The use of audiobooks has earlier been studied in Finland in primary school level. According to Kuismanen and Holopainen (2013) 95 % of students felt that the use of audiobooks benefited their studies. The students felt that they learned easier by listening and that they understood better. Students liked the opportunity to read by themselves, without the help of any others. Most of all audiobooks were used in history and in biology. (Kuismanen & Holopainen 2013, 23, 52.) In this study the research material was collected using a web-inquiry. It was answered by 33 special education teachers. The questionnaire included claims and multiple-choice questions. The answerers were also given opportunity to clarify or complete their answers or otherwise comment the subject in question. The research material was analyzed by using descriptive statistical methods. Almost all teachers were familiar with audiobooks produced by Celia. 90 % of those teachers, who were familiar with audiobooks, had recommended the use of the audiobooks to students. Beside visually impaired students, the use of audiobooks was considered beneficial to the students with dyslexia or with special language impairment. Audiobooks were considered useful especially when preparing to exams or to the matriculation examination. It was thought to lighten the burden of studying. When asked why audiobooks are less used in high schools than in primary schools, the special education teachers supposed mostly that the costs of audiobooks were a problem after other book expenses. On the other hand, they also thought that the reason was the ignorance of the audiobooks.

The purpose of my previous research (minor laudatur thesis, year 2005) was to clarify how the comprehensive school and the Steiner school approach the special education pupil as well as to examine what sorts of similarities and differences there are between the Steiner education and special education. Through my thesis I also attempt to examine how the ideologies/intellectual worlds and teachings of the Steiner school and the comprehensive school could be combined and brought closer to one another as well as how the best parts of both schools could be combined in order to take advantage of them in both schools. The research was implemented as a review of literature. At the beginning of my research the ideology and development of inclusion, integration and inclusive upbringing are examined as the basis for the next chapter, in which the concept of man is examined from the viewpoint of special education. I discuss the idea of man on the basis of four central principles. These principles are human dignity, integrity, the right of self-determination and participation in life and society. The fourth chapter provides a detailed introduction to the concept of man from the viewpoint of the Steiner education. First the points of departure and bases of value of the Steiner education are discussed, and then on the basis of these the idea of man and man's different aspects of being in the Steiner education are discussed, as well as the development rhythms and the seven year stages of the child. I examine the differences between these two educations by comparing their ideas of man. The Steiner education is based on Steiner's educational views and the concept of man, upon which these views are based. The concept of man guides the raising and education of the child and is thus also strongly connected to how the special education pupil is approached in the Steiner school. I consider the fourth chapter to be of particular importance for the reader because it is there that I discuss the concept of man of Steiner education as well as the development rhythms of the child, among other things. Without becoming acquainted with the concept of man of Steiner education it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to understand methods used in approaching the special education pupil, such as temperament training and form drawing. The concept of man of special education also creates the basis for how a pupil requiring special support is approached in the comprehensive school. The fifth chapter discusses methods used in approaching a pupil requiring special support in the Steiner school. The sixth chapter discusses methods used in approaching a pupil requiring special support in the comprehensive school. At the end of this research I attempt, on the basis of the comparison between these two educations, to disclose the similarities and differences of them in approaching the special education pupil. I complemented my minor laudatur thesis by taking in account the 3-phased support model.

Objectives. The subject of this study is special education students in musical instrument teaching. The task is to find out instrument teachers' thoughts of different types of learners and their teaching, teachers' views on their abilities to teach special education students and what kind of support teachers possibly need in teaching students with special needs. The main questions of this study are: 1. What kind of views musical instrument teachers have of different types of learners. 2. Do instrument teachers have qualification to teach students with special needs? 3. What kind of support musical instrument teachers possibly need to teach special education students. Methods. This is a quantitative study, and the data is gathered by using a survey. The study was supplemented with qualitative material by giving the answerers an opportunity to tell about their thoughts of the subject also in their own words. 60 instrument teachers in different parts of Finland answered the survey. The survey was made in the fall 2014. The analysis was made by using Microsoft Excel 2008 and IBM SPSS 22.0 Statistics programs. Results and conclusions. Based on this study, musical instrument teachers views about different kinds of learners are mainly positive or neutral. There were no such factors in the teachers' attitudes and views of disablement and difference that would hinder them in teaching all kinds of students. The majority of answerers has taught special education student at some point and viewed it positively. Yet the teachers do not have a strong confidence in their own or their colleagues' ability to teach students with special needs. Main reason to this seems to be a lack of education. Yet the majority of the teachers are ready to teach 1-2 special education students also in the future if required. In this they wish the most to get consultation from a special education or music therapy specialist. Secondly they wish to get professional guidance and short training. The third wish in their answers was support from colleagues and the principal. They also wished co-operation with the parents. As a conclusion, musical instrument teachers would need education, instructions and support from specialists, principals and colleagues and co-operation with parents, in teaching special education students.

The Objective. The objective of this study is to find out, how to improve students´ interpersonal skills and create positive interaction in the class using solution-focused thinking and methods. The objective of this study is also to observe and clarify above mentioned development process through analyzing the connection between theory and practice. It is also my intention to improve and deepen my solution-focused and pedagogical thinking. Methods. This is an autoethnographical study, in which I study the effectiveness of the solution-focused methods on the interpersonal skills of a student group through my own memories retrospectively by reflecting, analyzing and interpreting. The research data consists of my memories supported by written notes, photographs and drawings. In this study I describe, analyze and interpret the effectiveness of solution-focused thinking and methods on the target group, which consists of a special class that I taught for two years. In the first year there were six and in the second year eight students in the class. The analysis and the interpretation are not separated to their own sections but make a continuous part of the study. The research questions are: 1. How to develop positive interaction among students using solution-focused methods? 2. In what way did solution-focused thinking and methods benefit the student group of this study? Results and Conclusions. According to my experience, the interpersonal skills of this student group developed significantly using solution-focused thinking and methods. The atmosphere and the interaction in the class became positive through solution-focusing and co-operation. I also feel that my solution-focused and pedagogical thinking improved and expanded and the connection between theory and practice became clearer.