Browsing by study line "Class Teacher (education)"
Now showing items 101-120 of 126
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(2020)Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Objectives. Previous research has shown that considerable challenges can be found regarding gender within physical education in schools. These challenges can be especially problematic for people who struggle with strong gender incongruence. The mission of this thesis is to describe, analyse and interpret gender dysphoria experiences during physical education in school. The goal of this thesis was to increase awareness and discussion regarding gender diversity and gender dysphoria within the educational field. In addition, this thesis endeavoured to shine light on the experiences of those dealing with gender dysphoria in physical education. The goal was that PE -teachers could learn to acknowledge this group of students to further allow for better equality and gender awareness within physical education. Methods. The research material was provided by interviewing five individuals aged 18-49 who had experienced gender dysphoria during primary and middle school. The research material was gathered during the Fall of 2019 using the semi-structured thematic interview method. The gathered interview material was analysed with an interpreted phenomenological analyse method. Results and conclusion. The results showed that those interviewed had various participation roles with their physical education experiences. Part of those interviewed actively participated during PE -class, whilst others tried their best to stay unnoticed. In addition, those interviewed felt the heightened emphasis of the body problematic, due to the exposure of one’s figure. Experiences during physical education were strongly tied to others participating during class, who were one’s peers and the PE -teacher. Peers could possibly have a positive or negative affect on one’s experiences during PE -class. The research results also showed that the majority of those interviewed suffered from either verbal or physical abuse and/or discrimination during physical education lessons. The results also showed that locker rooms and differentiating teaching practices were central themes when those interviewed reflected on practices that emphasized binary gender roles. Those interviewed experienced locker rooms to be problematic due to feelings of not belonging, revealing one’s body and teasing. Segregated PE -classes proved to be problematic among those interviewed due to the emphasize on binary gender roles, which could be seen in what sports were chosen for physical education, what pedagogical choices were made and what material was used.
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(2020)Aims. Previous studies have shown that student assessment is a significant part of a primary teacher’s work, and it may take as much as half of a primary teacher’s working hours. Despite all that primary teachers’ perceptions of assessment literacy have hardly been studied neither in Finland nor abroad. Instead, primary teachers’ assessment literacy has been examined through different competencies. In the context of this thesis, I will construct my theoretical framework around Atjonens (2017) definition of assessment literacy and also around outlines of competencies of assessment literate teacher presented by Atjonen (2017) and Bookhart (2011). I will also be examining the classroom assessment training in teacher education both in Finland (Atjonen, 2017) and the United States of America (Stiggins, 1999). The aim of this Master’s thesis was to examine perceptions of assessment literacy of primary teachers teaching in grades 1–6. This study, therefore, aims to construct an overall picture of the perceptions of assessment literacy of primary teachers through the following research questions: 1) What kind of perceptions of assessment literacy do primary teachers teaching in grades 1 to 6 have? What kind of competencies do primary teachers attach to the concept of assessment literacy? 2) Do teachers' personal perceptions of assessment literacy and competencies attached to it match the ones presented in research literacy (Atjonen, 2017; Bookhart, 2011)? Methods. This thesis was carried out as a systematic literature review because the personal perceptions of assessment literacy of primary teachers have hardly been studied. The literature review consisted of a total of 18 research articles conducted around the world. The articles mainly covered the primary teachers' perceptions of student assessment. The data included eight qualitative, five quantitative, and five mixed-method research articles. The data were collected in one week in October 2020. In support of the data collection, precise entry and exclusion criteria were defined. Also, a critical assessment was carried out for each original research article to ensure the high quality of the material. A databased narrative synthesis was used in the analysis of the data. Results and conclusions. The review data showed that primary teachers' perceptions of assessment literacy are based on five main themes: the nature of the student assessment, primary teacher's assessment literacy as competencies, contextual factors, an understanding of personal assessment literacy, and developmental needs. Also, the perceptions of primary teachers were found to be limited and fragmented, and the level of assessment literacy was poor. Based on the results of this thesis, it appears that the primary teachers' perceptions of assessment literacy are in some way linked to the level of their assessment literacy. Limited and fragmented perceptions and a poor level of assessment literacy are probably partly the result of assessment teaching received during teacher training. In other words, assessment teaching in teachers' education does not seem to provide future classroom teachers with the necessary skills to carry out high-quality student assessments.
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(2021)Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract The research aims to examine class teachers’ experiences of the Hungarian-based Varga–Neményi method in first grade mathematics teaching. According to the Finnish education curriculum (2014), the task of mathematics in grades 1–2 is to develop students’ logical, precise and creative mathematical thinking. In response to these goals, the Varga–Neményi method offers an experimental and student-centered approach to the teaching of mathematics. Exploring the advantages of the method can provide an understanding of the significance of the method as well as encourage new teachers to use the method. On the other hand, examining the challenges of the method can help in developing the method and addressing the possible problem areas. The research was conducted using qualitative research methods. The data was collected using thematic interviews with five class teachers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The data was analysed following the principles of thematic analysis. The Varga–Neményi method was seen as a useful teaching method in the first grade. The main advantages of the method turned out to be the student-centeredness, students’ positive mathematical image and factors related to learning and teacher’s work. On the other hand, the challenges were initiating with the method, subject didactics, arduousness of the method and factors related to the learning materials. The results were in line with the results of previous studies. However, the research increases the understanding of the overall advantages of the method for the learning mathematics and also the challenges that the teacher may face when using the method.
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(2020)YouTube has become the second popular application among children. The objective of this research was to determine why children spend so much time in YouTube and examine children viewpoint on YouTubes’s commercial collaborations and review it by critical media educational point of view. Also, the goal was to research school’s role as a media educator. Classes of first and second graders from Helsinki metropolitan area participated in the research. The material as collected through themed small-group interviews, which had four bigger themes as YouTube’s using, commercial collaborations, criticality and school’s role. There were a total of 17 participants and six interview groups. The data was categorised and analysed by using the content analysis method. Three different content types were identified from the material and they were YouTube’s using, viewpoint on YouTubes’s commercial collaborations and school’s role as media educator. One extra type was identified in children’s interviews, and that was parent’s role. The reason why children adores YouTube is because it is full of entertainment and the diversity it serves. Most of the children involved in this research has use the application for several years and still use it every day for several hours. Children recognise commercial collaborations, but they don’t really understand what they mean in practice. Criticality against influencer marketing was not present. Children don’t talk about YouTube in school with their teachers and school’s media educations don’t seem to reach YouTube.
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(2021)Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine the motivation, goal orientation and perceived motivational climate of figure skating exercises and physical education. In addition, was examined how motivation, especially intrinsic motivation, goal orientation and perceived motivational climate, are connect to each other. Previous studies have shown that intrinsic motivation has a positive connection to figure skaters task orientation and a task-oriented motivational climate. The aim of the study is to strengthen the results of previous studies and to increase information on the motivation of young people in physical education and figure skating practice. Methods. The data collection was carried out through an online survey in December 2020. A total of 182 figure skaters from all over Finland responded to the survey. The goal orientation was measured by the children's version of the Perception of Succes Questionnaire (POQS) (Roberts, Treasure & Balague,1998), motivation was measured by Sport Motivation Scale 2 (Pelletier, Rocchi, Vallerand, Deci & Ryan, 2013) and perceived motivational climate was measured with validated scale by Soini, Liukkonen and Jaakkola (2004). The data was analyzed using the SPSS computer program by using factor analysis, Cronbach alpha value, correlation factors and t-test. Results and conclusions. The motivation of figure skaters was very high. Intrinsic motivation was higher in figure skating than in physical education. There were more task-oriented than ego-oriented, and the most perceived motivational climate was task-oriented. Intrinsic motivation was connected to the task orientation and task-oriented motivational climate in physical education and figure skating exercises. Task-oriented goal orientation and motivational climate have the greatest impact on the development of intrinsic motivation. The ego orientation was linked to extrinsic motivation and the ego-oriented climate. In other words, action that increase ego orientation in physical activity weaken the emergence of intrinsic motivation. Teachers and coaches can support the development of intrinsic motivation by promoting task-oriented goal orientation and motivational climate in action.
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(2019)The purpose of this study was to describe, analyze and interpret what kind of experiences and what contact with the use of Satukantele (a traditional Finnish instrument) is to linguistic skills, to creativity and musical action of pupils, and to pupils` other activities in school. Research is a qualitative case study in a first-class special education group. The theoretical framework of the thesis presents earlier studies of music connections to learning and other activities and human well-being. In addition, the development of reading and writing skills, teaching methods of reading and challenges of learning to read are considered. This first study included eight firstgraders in a special education group and a special education teacher. During the study, the pupils participated in eight Satukantele classes designed and driven by the researcher during spring 2019. In the sessions, the pupils invented their own texts and composi-tions, which were then adapted to a single finished work. The texts were adapted to the tone by syllables. The finished works were played and sung together during the Satukantele studies. At the beginning of every class pupils first played ready-made notations (Leikkinuotti) to increase the understanding of the reading direction and ensure motivation and concentration. At the be-ginning and end of the study period, syllable analysis of the first-class autumn evaluation materi-al was carried out from the LukiMat test, the analysis of which aimed to gain an understanding of linguistic skills during the study. At the end of the study, students and teacher were inter-viewed. The interview material was transcribed and analyzed by material-based content analy-sis. The topics highlighted in the interviews were supported by the findings of the study journal and the mean of the answers in the LukiMat-tests. Based on the results of the analysis of the material, three themes emerged: 1. Satukantele as a Learning Tool 2. Satukantele as a Produc-er of pleasure and 3. Satukantele as the Enabling Creativity and Own Thinking. In this study, the use of Satukantele was connected with learning to play the instrument itself, learning musical lit-eracy and reading direction, gaining an experience of success, enabling the pupil's own creative activity (inventing), producing positive emotional experiences, and strengthening linguistic skills. In particular, the results of this study related to pleasure and creative activity were in line with previous music-related studies.
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(2021)This study was a case study on the use of simulation games as a teaching method in Finland. The goal of the study was to determine in what way do the possible theoretical benefits of simulation games as a teaching method manifest in the context of an empirical try-out in Finland’s elementary school system. The method in question is popular among Anglo-Saxon countries, yet it has not achieved a notable foothold within a Finnish teaching context. Based on a theoretical overview simulation games could increase student engagement, activation and socialization when properly utilized as a teaching method. The actual empirical phase of this study was conducted as a simulation game lesson to a certain 6th grade class of 21 students in Helsinki. The actual simulation game was planned to simulate the democratic process and decision-making phases of the Finnish parliament in accordance with the national curriculum of 2014’s civics studies curriculum. After the simulation game lesson feedback was collected from 19 students with a quantitative survey. Six students were selected to be qualitatively interviewed based of the survey results. The result is research material for theoretical benefits for simulation games that has been collected using a mixed methods approach. The quantitative material was analysed for averages and frequencies. The qualitative material was processed via content analysis. Based on the quantitative survey all three possible benefits were present during the simulation game lesson. According the qualitative results students found the engagement factor of the game itself central to the simulation game experience. A sense of agency was also considered to be an important factor. Working together was a cross-sectional theme of simulation games, yet it was not reported to be centrally significant. Based on the results, simulation games can be a positive experience for students in regard to agency, autonomy and social skills.
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(2021)Goal. The corona pandemic during spring 2020 led to closing of schools. Therefor majority of the teachers had to move to distance education. The teachers were in a whole new situation and had to rapidly develop a new way to teach. Co-teaching is an approach becoming more common. It refers to a situation where two or more teachers cooperates. The objective of my study is to figure out how the teachers who were working as co-teachers executed distance education during Spring 2020. Furthermore, I study possible advantages and challenges the teachers experienced from the co-teaching in the distance education. My goal is to add knowledge and understanding of the foundation pillars of co-teaching and distance education through this study. Methods. I sent an e-mail to ten co-teachers where I asked their willingness to participate in my study and three teacher pairs were willing to be a part of my study. Therefor there were three cases in my study. Materials were collected with pair interviews and the theme interview was selected to be a survey. As an analysis method I used the content analysis. Results and conclusions. All Teacher pairs considered it most reasonable to divide their pupil into two separate groups. Each pair had about an hour lasting virtual study hall in a day through video conference. After this the lines were left open so that for example the pupils who needed support were able to stay and work with teacher's assistance. In all three cases the benefits from work pair were mainly the same. Some of the found advantages were divided responsibility, the colleague's support and work stress relief. Challenges due having a work pair were minimal. The reason can be the fact that the interviews were carried out in a pair. One case brought up the occasional disagreements and additional work through work phone. One case experienced that here had been some challenges with communication and it had lead to a few misunderstandings. However, all the teacher pairs emphasised that none of these challenges were a threshold question.
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(2020)Applying the narrative approach in research has had an increasing interest in the field of educational science. This approach takes into account humans’ natural tendency to produce stories as a part of structuring information. Telling stories is considered to arise from two basic human needs, which are to understand who am I? and what is the world like we live in? Narrative teaching means to organize teaching in a way that pupils may produce narratives about the subject being studied as a part of their learning process. This may lead to meaningful learning, when the theme being studied is unified into the students’ life and life story. This thesis intended to review fictional storytelling in learning an abstractive concept. As the subject has not been studied through the framework of narrative teaching, the thesis evaluated what kind of context storytelling creates for learning. This context was called story world. In addition, this research examined what perspectives the structure of the story creates related to the studied theme. Story structure was examined through the aristocratic basic structure: the beginning, the middle, and the end. This thesis was conducted as a qualitative case study. The data was gathered in November-December 2019 in a Southern Finnish school from a multidisciplinary teaching period which was handling equality. The material was formed of six fifth graders’ written film scripts which were stories about equality. In addition to these narratives, the same six students’ interviews were used in the analysis. The film scripts were analyzed with narrative analysis and plot structure analysis. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed with material-based content analysis. In this case, the “story world” appeared as a state, where it is possible to experiment and observe consequences and contemplate meanings in the protection of the fictive and imaginary environment. Secondly, it appeared as a state that supports flexible change in perspective though the created characters. Lastly, it also enabled observing matters in the students’ own experiences through the mirrored phenomena. The structure of the story seemed to produce different perspectives to review equality. In the beginning stage, equality was observed through problems that are related to it, by pondering when problems occur and why it is worthwhile to aim for change. In the middle stage, it was evaluated what can be done or needs to happen to make change. The perspective in the ending lead to observe how equality manifests itself when it is materialized. The benefit of story writing is that it creates a narrative perspective about concepts at hand, where the concept’s meaning is reviewed through everyday life situations and as a continuous phenomenon.
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(2021)My thesis is based on the text Sivistysporvarille hommia (2016) which is written by Saara-Sofia Sirén who is a Member of Parliament. In my thesis, I analyze how Saara-Sofia Sirén speaks about the Finnish school system. My thesis discovers educational discourses which have been prevailing in the history of Finnish educational discourse. Educational discourse is produced everywhere and Saara-Sofia Siréns text is part of that discourse. The main parts of educational discourses have been related to change and progress demand. Jari Salminen contends the main reason for this is that the world is constantly changing and the school system needs to respond to this. Political decisions related to the school system are made in parliament. Therefore, a Member of Parliament has a special speech position related to her authoritative position. At the time when the text was published Saara-Sofia Sirén was also a member of the Education and Culture Committee and that also creates credibility in the educational discourse which she embodies. For that reason, the question I ask in my thesis is ‘’How Saara-Sofia Sirén speaks about Finnish school?’’ ’’ and which kind of tools rhetorical analysis gives when examining the speech. My research material for the thesis is the text Sivistysporvarille hommia which is written by Saara-Sofia Sirén, member of parliament. The text is published in Ajatuspaja Toivo’s issue Paluu tulevaisuuteen (2016). The rhetorical analysis shows that in Saara-Sofia Siréns educational discourse education came to the center of epideictic discourse. Epideictic discourse comes out through several rhetorical ways. The rhetorical tools are for example ethos, logos, pathos, style, and order of the arguments. In Saara-Sofia Siréns educational discourse progress discourse seems non-alternative. One of the key rhetorical tool in this subject is logos which seeks to rationalize the idea of a changing world in which the school system must also be strongly involved. The author’s speech on equality and the individual discourse has typical features of the neoliberal discourse that have emerged for previous educational research. Behind several arguments is the emphasis on the economy, which is veiled behind persuasive speech and common preliminary agreements.
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(2020)The aim of this Master’s Thesis is to research teachers perceptions on the development of expertise and the role of collective-efficacy within those perceptions. The focus is on different teachers at different points of their careers and on how expertise development and collective-efficacy’s role within that are viewed by teachers themselves. The theoretical background of the research is largely based on prof. K.A. Ericsson’s expertise theory and prof. A. Bandura’s theory on self-efficacy and related collective-efficacy. Previous research has shown that collective-efficacy has a positive effect on, for example, teacher self-efficacy and student learning. The data of the research consists of two groups of three teachers. One group of teachers consisted of experienced special education teachers and one of classroom teachers at early points of their careers. The data was collected through semi-structured group interviews where Bandura’s theory on collective-efficacy was used largely as the basis of question setting. The research was conducted qualitatively, and the data was analysed using phenomenographical content analysis. The analysis is data-based, but theory guided the research due to its effect on the interview question setting. The results of the research indicated that expertise development and the role of collective-efficacy was viewed quite similarly by the two groups. The development of expertise could be divided into the following sub-groups: expertise as continuously shaping, areas of development and expertise, realisations, and student group. Collective-efficacy and its relationship with expertise could be divided into the following sub-groups: feedback and learning, discussion, exchange of teaching practices, leadership, sense of community and overall wellbeing. This suggests that there are similarities in the way the topic is viewed by different professionals within the teaching profession. The more experienced special education teachers’ descriptions can be characterised as specific in nature. The class education teachers described the topic in both general and specific ways. As a practical implication, more information from the topic could be added to teacher-education curriculum to increase student teachers’ knowledge regarding the subject.
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(2021)The aim of this study was to find out how classroom teachers who teach physical education support task-oriented motivational climate in the 5th and 6th grade physical education classes in a primary school in Helsinki and what are the challenges in the climate creation. The theoretical framework of the study is based on previous research on self-determination theory, goal orientation theory, and motivational climate – all having an impact on pupils’ exercise motivation. Epstein's (1989) Target model was used as a basis for studying the task-oriented motivational climate of teachers. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study using the content analysis method. The data was gathered in semi-structured thematic interviews that were guided by a complete interview framework. Five classroom teachers teaching physical education were interviewed and the collected data was analyzed inductively and deductively per research question. The results show that the classroom teachers of the studied primary school supported task-oriented motivational climate in physical education classes in each of the six areas of the Target model. As challenges, the classroom teachers experienced low perceived competence by pupils, problems related to pupil behavior, the impact of social status and external challenges caused by the operating environment, such as insufficient exercise facilities. The findings show that teachers’ activity in physical education classes mainly support pupils’ basic psychological needs and enable the creation of a task-oriented motivational climate despite the above-mentioned challenges
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(2020)Purpose. The aim of this thesisis the development of the Cognitive Affordances of Technologies Scale (CATS) instrument. The purpose of the instrument is to is to map different cognitive affordances of learning indifferent technology-enhanced learning environments. The instrument is used to developand improveeducationand learning modules.In this thesis, dif-ferent groups are not compared, but it is explored what different learning environments offer for learning. Theoretical framework. Cognitive affordances are offerings in the environment that everyone interprets from their own perspective. Technology-enhanced environments include blended learning environments and Virtual Reality (VR)-enhanced learning environments. In a previous study building on the CATS instrument, the instrument was only used in an observational study and it contained seven categories and 41 items. Methods. Students from four European universities and employees of one Finnish company filled inthe modified CATS survey. Data collected from all participants (N = 134) were used in the development of the instrument. In testing the instrument, e.g., factor analysiswas applied. The main groups were blended learning and VR-enhanced learning. Findings and conclusions.The new instrument has six categories and 27 items. Participants of the main groups reported having experienced the most affordances in the categories Inquiry-Based Learning and Discourse/Dialogic Learning. Hence, it seems that the blended learning environment afforded similar cognitive affordances of learning as VR-enhanced learning environments. This finding is not entirely surprising, as based on the literature, VR can be interpreted as part of blended learning.In context of educational implementation, exploring the learning environments by affordances could clarify the roles of different technologies in learning environments in future research.
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(2021)Previous studies show that offspring tend to educate themselves to the same educational level as their parents, and that the child's family background and living conditions maintain the cross-generational continuity of education. Studies show that parent’s academic education predicts child’s academic education. Previous studies have shown that the perspective of agency can be used when examining educational pathways. Agency refers to an individual’s change-oriented activity. To see oneself as an active agent is central to agency. The purpose of this study was to understand the creating of a educational pathway from the perspective of agency. The aim of this study is to examine what structural and cultural conditions shaped the interviewees whilst growing up. In this study I interpret how did the interviewees engage with these conditions. I interpret the creating of a educational pathway from the perspective of agency. The study was carried out as a case study and the analysis was done with theory-based content analysis. The research consisted of six interviews and they were analyzed by using Archer’s (2003) theory of mediation between structure and agency. The interviewees study at or graduated recently from university. They come from low educational backgrounds. The interviews were carried out as theme interviews in December 2020. The educational pathway was affected by the way the interviewees reacted to their conditions through deliberations and actions. The interviewees recognized opportunities for development in failures and chose to develop themselves. Agency seems to affect individual’s possibilities to come to university from a low educational background. Recognizing the opportunities to choose and being able to pursue one’s goals signify the importance of agency.
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(2021)Goals. The aim of this study was to investigate how first and fourth graders’ parents perceive functional home-school collaboration, and find out whether there are considerable differences between the first and fourth graders’ parents perceptions. The following research questions were asked: 1) How do the parents of first graders describe functional home-school collaboration? 2) How do the parents of fourth graders describe functional home-school collaboration? 3) Do the parents’ perceptions in different grade levels differ? Functional home-school collaboration is meaningful for students, parents, as well as their teachers, highlighting the need to investigate the matter. Methods. The study is a qualitative study, in which a phenomenographic approach was used to analyze and interpret research data. The data were collected using an online survey, which was distributed through two Facebook groups, each consisting of people living in a specific district in Helsinki. The questions in the online survey were mainly open questions. 45 parents took part in this study. The collected data were analyzed by forming units of meaning from the parents’ answers. These units of meaning formed subcategories for a further, deeper analysis. Results and conclusion. The results of the study showed that functional home-school collaboration consists of 1) regular and active communication and dissemination of information, 2) open and quick communication, 3) trust and respect between the parents and the teacher, and 4) positive collaboration, including shared goals. The perceptions of functional home-school collaboration did not differ between the first and fourth graders’ parents. The needs, thoughts, and expectations of the parents about functional home-school collaboration were rather similar between the two groups of parents.
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(2020)The objective of this thesis is to examine, if the number of pupils receiving intensified support and special support has connection on the learning motivation of academically gifted pupils and pupils with above average reasoning abilities, and whether there are differences between these groups. In addition, the effect of gender on learning motivation was studied. The MetrOP material collected in 2011 and 2014 has been used as material for the thesis. In 2011 the answers were collected from pupils in the 7th grade, and in 2014 from pupils in the 9th grade. The pupils were from the 14 municipalities of the Helsinki metropolitan region. The sample set are pupils (N=5353), who were in classes, where there was data available on both intensified and special support pupils. In the thesis there is comparison on the differences between the learning motivation of academically gifted pupils (N=260), and pupils with above average reasoning abilities (N=281). This comparison was made by dividing the pupils in groups, where either there were no pupils requiring support (group 1), there were two or fewer pupils requiring support (group 2), or there were more than two pupils requiring support (group 3). The differences in learning motivation was compared by one way variance analysis using eleven different motivational variables. The effect of the number of intensified and special support pupils on the learning motivation of gifted pupils was studied separately. According to the results of the thesis, over half of the academically gifted pupils, and pupils with above average reasoning abilities were from classes that had no pupils requiring support on them. The number of pupils requiring support had a correlation on the learning motivation of both academically gifted pupils, and pupils with above average learning abilities. Especially in group 2 there were negative connections to pupils in group 1. The pupils in group 2 were more avoidance oriented, ego-oriented, performance oriented and believed more in chance and natural abilities in results when compared with pupils from group 1. The number of pupils requiring intensified support had a connection to the learning motivation of gifted pupils. There was no such correlation between the number of pupils requiring special support and learning motivation of gifted pupils. Gender had a measurable effect in learning motivation, where males were more susceptible to changes in the gender structure than females. The results are interesting, as the number of pupils requiring intensified support had an effect, but the number of pupils requiring special support had no effect on learning motivation. As a point of future research, it would be interesting to look into the effect of education level of parents on the learning motivation of pupils.
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(2020)In a changing world, as we face new and surprising challenges in our daily lives, we need the ability to look to the future. The bigger the changes, the harder it is to anticipate the future. However, the future will not only happen, but it is made through decisions and choices. Agency combines awareness of the past and its typical perspectives. At the same time, it is oriented towards the future and the ability to imagine alternative futures. Despite the uncertainties, agency manifests itself as the ability to contextualize past habits and images of the future. Agency thus combines the effects of different time dimensions, both the perceptions and values formed in the past and the expectations and fears of the future. Attitudes towards the future thus reveal an individual's thoughts about his or her own position and opportunities in society. The purpose of this study is to look at how young people talk about the future and what meanings they give to the future in their speech. In addition, the aim is to methodically identify the ways in which young people talk about the future and to analyze the structure of agency in identified ways of speaking. The study was carried out by using phenomenographic method and discourse analysis to identify meanings given for the future. The research material was future-themed essays (n = 53) written by 16–18 years old high school students. They were written as preliminary tasks for the voluntary course in 2018 and 2019. Interpretations of meanings resulted different ways of talking about the future as a result of the analysis. The descriptions formed from these were further interpreted theoretically from the perspectives of agency, and generalizations about the most typical ways of talking about the future were formed. At the same time, the description of the method was a result and a basis for further work. Other results provided descriptions of both the ways of future speech and the linking of agency to these. Linear, scenario-based and desired futures were identified as ways to talk about the future. In the linear way the emphasis was on the past, knowledge, and current trends. Instead, the scenario talk built the future on new types of solutions as well as alternatives based on discontinuities. Desired futures, on the other hand, were the most subjective ways to see the future, and they were based on values, desires, and dreams. Examination of agency in future speech showed that speech style is important in terms of agency skills. Analysis of the three most typical combinations of speech patterns provided more detailed information on how speech can be used to understand the relationship to the future. The three types were named as “realists”, “executors”, and “utopians.”
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(2021)The purpose of this thesis was to find out how social and emotional learning occurs in the practical theories of classroom teacher students and graduated classroom teachers. The aim was to examine what kind of factors, related to the social and emotional learning, occur in the practical theories of the first class students, the 3th to 5th class students and graduated classroom teachers. In addition, the aim was to examine whether there are any similarities or differences in between the factors that are related to social and emotional learning amongst the participants of this thesis. Furthermore, the aim of this thesis was to understand what are the sources of the practical theories that are related to the social and emo-tional learning. This thesis is a part of a research project led by Karlsson and Pitkäniemi (2011). The aim of this re-search project is to analyse the practical theories of the teacher students. The material of this thesis consists of practical theories of the 1st and 3th to 5th class classroom teacher students and graduated classroom teachers. Students’ practical theories are based on the material collected for a research pro-ject done by the University of Eastern Finland in 2017 and 2019, whereas the practical theories of graduated teachers have been collected via an E-form in 2020 - 2021 as a part of my thesis. My thesis is a qualitative and phenomenographic study. The research analysis has been presented in tables. The results of this thesis indicate that there are factors that are related in the social and emotional learning in the practical theories of the classroom students and graduated classroom teachers. The main factors in the practical theories, related to emotional learning, were the teachers’ social and emotional competence, emotion regulation, social abilities and self-knowledge. There weren’t distinct differences with regards to the social and emotional learning in between the practical theories of students and the graduated teachers. The respondents’ own experience was the main source in all materials related to the social and emotional learning in practical theories. Teacher education as the source for the practical theories was emphasized more often in the practical theories of the first class students than amongst the other respondents.
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(2021)This study has been carried out in the form of an article. Objectives. Previous research has shown that the reasons for employees attendance on MOOCs differ from other participants. There are multiple reasons for this which vary from course to course. Participants also experience the effects of the courses in differently, but many participants have described them professionally useful. Utilization of the skills learned in the MOOC course are also influenced by the extent to which the employer and work community support the application of new skills. The purpose of this study was to find out why people in the working life attend MOOC courses in the ICT-field and what kind of impacts participants report on the courses. In addition, the way in which employer support is related to the reasons for attending the course and the perceived benefits of the course was also investigated. Methods. The data collection of the study was carried out with an online survey in 2019. The respondents were employed course participants (n = 589). The analysis of the data was carried out by qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis of the open-ended answers to the questionnaire was performed with a theory-guided content analysis. From the answers to the multiple choice statements of the form, five factors were formed by exploratory factor analysis, which described the reasons and effects of participation in the course. Further analysis of the data included two-stage cluster analysis and analysis of variance. Results and conclusions. The reasons for participants to attend the course were divided into six categories: interest, understanding, benefit for work, promotion of studies, recommendation from others, and flexible execution. The effects experienced by the participants were also divided into six categories: increased understanding and learning of new skills, benefits in current work, benefits in studies, increased study of the topic, career benefits, and increased interest. A quantitative analysis of the data showed that the participants could be divided into a profile of the four beneficiaries through clustering. Widely supported and recognized by the work community, the effects were felt to be more significant than those that utilized working time and were not supported in relation to career advancement, career plans and work or study.
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(2021)Finnish students with an immigrant background get lower learning results compared to their native peers. According to previous research, home-school collaboration has a significant impact on students’ school performance. Therefore, this study is interested in the experiences foreign parents have with home-school collaboration, how home-school collaboration manifests in practice and what kind of suggestions do foreign parents have to improve the quality of home-school collaboration. Hornby’s (2000) model for parental involvement will act as the theoretical background for this study, as it illustrates what kind of needs and contributions parents have regarding collaboration with the school. This research was conducted as a multiple case study. The data was gathered through interviews with and was analysed by a deductive content analysis. A total of six parents took part in the study. Three parents spoke Farsi as their mother tongue, two spoke Bengali and one spoke Dari. The interviews were conducted in the parents’ mother tongue and when needed, an interpreter was present. The foreign parents’ experiences with home-school collaboration regarded how the school pays attention to the needs and wishes of the parents. In the positive experiences which the parents’ mentioned, the school had been able to take notice of the parents’ needs. However, in the negative experiences the school had ignored parental needs. The lack of attention to parental needs were also reflected in the parents’ suggestions for improving home-school collaboration, as they mentioned their wish for schools to take more into consideration the needs and wishes of parents. The results of this study make apparent how the school is unable to utilize the contributions of foreign parents’ contributions. Additionally, they do not attend to the needs of foreign parents. One way to improve home-school collaboration with foreign parents, is to utilize the resource of multilingual advisors as this way at least the language barrier between home and school would be removed.
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