Browsing by Title
Now showing items 122-141 of 3628
-
(2023)All people who are involved in teaching or tutoring of some sort need to update their competences every now and then. This also applies to teachers. According to a report conducted by Gun Oker-Blom, Swedish- speaking teachers participate to a lower degree in in-service training than Finnish-speaking teachers. In international comparisons, Finnish teachers’ participation in in-service training is lower compared to other countries. Finnish teachers also report that they are less satisfied with the in-service training they participate in than teachers in other countries. Research has also shown that teachers feel that the in-service training offered does not meet the needs of the teachers and that the in-service training does not contribute to their professional development. The aim of this study is to examine Swedish-speaking teachers experiences of in-service training. The goal for this study was therefor to describe teachers’ participation in in-service training by answering three research questions. The study used qualitative methods. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with seven teachers. The teachers had worked between three and thirty years and they were all qualified teachers. The teachers worked in grades 1-6. To analyze the transcribed interviews, inductive content analysis was used. The results of the study showed that teachers viewed participation in in-service training as a way to develop as a teacher. Personal interest to learn new things and peer support were weighing factors for teachers to participate in in-service training. The teachers felt that participation in in-service and developing their skills is something that is a part of their job. When it came to the school leader’s role in teachers’ participation in in-service training, the teachers believed that it should be the principal’s job to encourage teachers to participate in training. Teachers also believed that the principal should have a clear picture of which kind of training individual teachers need but also what kind of in-service training the school needs as a whole
-
(2014)The goal of the research was to examine how a beginner learns when he/she joins a new community. As theoretical context I used Jean Lave's and Etienne Wenger's theory about Communities of Practice, according which learning will occur when a beginner gradually turns into a full member of the community. The research problems were: how and what team members talk about, how they build and maintain culture in the community and what kind of a significance it has for a beginner's ability to learn. I collected the research material through observing and recording speech during practice and games of a women's floorball team in autumn of 2013. In addition I interviewed three players. Two of whom were beginners and one that had played floorball for several years. The material was analyzed by using methods of discourse analysis. The research material shows that the players' views about learning process of a beginner and what influences it is similar to Lave's and Wenger's ideas. It was seen as very important for learning for the beginner to be able to observe and gradually attend activities in the community of practice. For this to be possible the beginner has to be committed to the community and on the other hand the community has to give the beginner justification to attend all common activities. According to results the community which was in the focus of my research should give a beginner more space and opportunities to attend conversations between team members to be able to create the best possible circumstances for the beginner to learn. The results of the research are adaptable to any kind of community of practice.
-
(2016)Background. Birth asphyxia is a pathological state that occurs if fetal gas exchange is disrupted for an extended period of time during delivery. Prolonged birth asphyxia causes brain damage and can even lead to death, but which in mild and moderate cases causes motor and cognitive disability. One of the brain regions often damaged is the hippocampus, which is known to play a major role in memory processing. Thus, damage to the hippocampus may in part explain the long-term cognitive consequences of birth asphyxia. In the neonatal brain hippocampal network activity is discontinuous, dominated by sharp waves and oscillatory bouts, of which the former are thought to be important for memory consolidation in the adult brain. Later in development sharp waves exhibit fast oscillations called ripples that organise hippocampal activity after learning. The aim of this thesis was to establish how sharp wave signalling in the neonatal hippocampus is affected by birth asphyxia. Methods. A rat model developed at the Laboratory of Neurobiology, University of Helsinki, was used to study birth asphyxia and a putative therapeutic strategy. Neonatal rat pups aged 5-8 days were used in the study. These animals were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups: naive control, sham control, asphyxia, and graded restoration of normocapnia. Hippocampal network activity was measured in vivo under urethane anaesthesia using local field potential (LFP) recordings 24 hours after the asphyxic insult. Sharp waves were detected and analysed in terms of event counts, timing, size, shape and ripple properties. Results and conclusions. After asphyxia, sharp waves occurred more frequently within clusters than in isolation. In addition, sharp wave ripples were detected for the first time during early neonatal development. In asphyxiated animals, the number and magnitude of detected ripples was statistically significantly decreased. Interestingly, animals that underwent graded restoration of normocapnia after asphyxia were no different from controls, suggesting a protective effect of the treatment. The abnormal SPW development after birth asphyxia may form a mechanism contributing to the emergence of cognitive deficits.
-
(2016)The main subject of this Master Thesis is to study the importance created by the expat parents towards schools which operate abroad and serve Finnish language studies for expat children. This research is strongly theory based, where parenthood, Finnish-expats and the dimensions of Finnish-schools operating abroad is studied. The main goal has been to understand the meaning of Finnish-schools abroad to expat-families. There is only limited amount of previous studies concerning Finnish-schools abroad, so there has been a clear research gap. The topic was investigated by electronic surveys, where parents could freely tell about their experiences and feelings about the Finnish-schools abroad, under the guidance of the researcher. This research is qualitative in nature and the research method has been hermeneutic. Data was collected from 11 parents, whose children study at Amsterdam's Finnish School during the spring 2016. On top of that, researcher has been present in Amsterdam's Finnish School in order to understand the topic better. The results from the study are in with the research questions. Parents felt that the importance of Finnish School is mainly social, for both themselves and for the children. Finnish School was seen as a social environment, from which it was possible to find Finnish-speaking friends and also to communicate in Finnish. Cultural and linguistic education was also part of the results but it was seen less important than the social-aspect. It was also found that parents do a lot of voluntary work for Finnish School and everyone wanted to participate to these activities. It can be seen from the results that the importance of Finnish School to parents is very high. Through the Finnish School the Finnish-culture and language could be maintained through the whole family and the school also provided peer support. These were also aspects, which help Finnish-expats to maintain their mother-tongue and to cherish their cultural identity, within both children and adults. Finally, it could be concluded that investing to Finnish Schools and maintaining those schools is very important part of supporting the Finnish expats.
-
(2016)The purpose was to study handmade underwear and their making in 2010's Finland. The study examined features of handmade underwear, which include the range of underwear types, the structure of underwear and the aesthetic style of underwear. The study also aimed to understand craft enthusiasts motivations for making underwear, both relating to underclothes themselves and to general values and attitudes. The theoretical viewpoints examined in the study were processes and meanings of making crafts, DIY-culture as well as styles, history and meanings of underwear. The research strategy was qualitative case study and it was based on data triangulation. Both the features of handmade underwear and the motivations for their making were examined with photographs and texts published in the Internet as well as qualitative questionnaire responses. The visual and textual data was collected from two sewing-related Facebook-groups and individual blogs and the data consisted of 65 photographs and 122 files that included text or both photographs and text. The questionnaire responses were collected using online questionnaire and the final data included 51 responses. The data was analyzed by using content analysis with theoretical approach and Atlas.ti 7.5.10 was used as a software tool in the analysis. Making underwear by hand could be seen as a small phenomenon among craft enthusiasts on the Internet. Underwear types examined in the study were bras and underpants for women, men and children. The structures and materials of the handmade underwear were mainly similar to industrially made ones. However there was more diversity in the aesthetic styles of the handmade underwear. The most frequent aesthetic styles were colorfulness, use of different types of printed fabrics, use of recycled and leftover materials as well as playful, joyful and humoristic expressive style. The most important motivations for making underwear were related to the clothes themselves, the most common reason being need for fit and comfort. Furthermore quality of the product and need for individual look were motivations that relate to the product. Motivations that relate to values and attitudes were economic benefit, ecological and ethical reasons, fulfilling craft enthusiasts lifestyle and aiming at self-sufficiency. The economic and ecological values were seen in utilization of leftover materials, which was a common motivation for making underwear. According to this study the making of handmade underwear appears to have influences of DIY-craft, which includes aspects of individuality, consumption and taking responsibility of one's own needs.
-
(2007)In this research the technical functionality, quality and demands made on endurance runners' running suits in winter conditions were studied. The aim was also to find out how smart clothing and wearable technology are adopted in endurance runners' practise. Referring to previous studies the subject was approached in the theoretical part by studying the profile of endurance running, sports wear and the technology to wear as well as the smart clothing from the point of view of endurance running. The basis of subject was the interest of smart materials and the connection between technical structures and functionality. In the science of handicrafts smart clothing is rarely researched which made it even more interesting for the author. This research was carried out by the principles of the usability research. Usability means the suitability of product to its intended meaning. In the research both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Researched persons were active competitive long-distance runners and also the long-distance runners doing it as a hobby, 35 male and 12 female runners. User information was gathered by the internet forms which mainly was based on the multiple choices but also included few open questions. Gathered information was considered by using both quantitative and content analysing methods. The functional long-distance running practice suit in winter conditions consisted of layered look which considered the possibilities of functional and smart materials. The Practise suit was humid transformable, easy care and light also comfortable to wear. These suits were hoped to be more functional than the current ones. The future running suit was described to not to feel or notice during running. It will not be too tight or sweltering. The functional abilities of clothing materials were believed to be developed further more. Even if the new technical materials are adopted for the running suits the technology to wear is not even though half of the researched runners used pulse indicators. The runners hoped the technology to wear to change more invisible and easier to use. Some of the runners wished the technology to wear to be integrated straight to the clothes which would reduce the number of devices carried with while running. The rare use of Polar Adidas AdiStar Fusion practise system and some other similar systems for endurance running was surprising. According to the results the smart clothing would not make a big brake through in the near future. In the point of view of the researched persons developing of clothing materials was a good and necessary thing, but integrating too much technology to the hobby smears the main purpose of sports and focuses wrongly on the metres and others minors .
-
(2023)The use of smartphones in a school context involves two intertwined social realities, official and unofficial, that are often at odds with each other. In a formal context, school is about taking care of social educational responsibilities related to education and upbringing. On the other hand, school is also an important social world between young people, largely consisting of informal activities. Teachers best see the struggle between these opposing social realities and the importance of students' smartphones as part of it. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to describe, analyse and interpret teachers' experiences of smartphones and their different uses in the classroom environment. The study examines teachers' experiences of the formal and informal use of smartphones and the way schools approach the use of phones. In addition, teachers' different attitudes towards smartphone use will be examined. The thesis is qualitative in nature and its research material consists of interviews with six secondary school teachers. The study utilises phenomenographic research orientation, which makes it possible to study variation in teachers' perceptions. As a key result of the study, four types of attitudes were found in teacher interviews that reflect their different attitudes towards smartphones in the classroom. The types of attitudes were smartphone favourable, -unfavourable, -indifferent and -uncertain. Different attitudes were found towards the official and unofficial use of smartphones, the monitoring of smartphones and the future vision of smartphones. In addition, the material revealed different ways in which teachers relate to the general guidelines concerning smartphones in schools.
-
(2014)There is very little research on the effects of memory illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) on the linguistic performance of congenitally deaf sign language users. With spoken language users the effects of AD are often first found in semantics and pragmatics. Deteriorated naming skills are often an early symptom of AD. As the disease progresses the linguistic skills are widely affected and communicating becomes difficult. When studying sign language users results have shown that people with AD have corresponding difficulties of comprehending and producing signed language as spoken language users with Dementia have with spoken language. The aim of this research was to study how two Finnish Sign Language (FSL) users with AD perform in object and action naming tests. The participants were evaluated with the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and the Action Naming Test (ANT) in two consecutive years. Of each performance, the researcher recorded the total score, the number of immediate answers, the time the participant spent on the task and how the answers were given. An analysis of naming errors was made. As a result it was noted that both object and action naming skills of the participants deteriorated as Dementia progressed. Action naming skill were less affected than object naming skill. The participants made more errors and gave less immediate responses in the BNT than in the ANT. Both the signed responses and the method of answering varied with the FSL users with a memory illness: the answers were given either in varying signs, by speaking only or by both speaking and signing simultaneously, or with signs created spontaneously in test situation. Most of the errors were Other errors, especially "I don't know" –answers in both tests. As a result of this study it is clear that there is a need for assessment tests which have been translated into sign language, since the existing naming tests are not necessarily suitable for testing signed language users without a culturally-sensitive translation. This study is the first longitudinal study in Finland focusing on evaluating Finnish Sign Language users with Dementia and the changes in their linguistic skills. It is also one of the first studies internationally on the linguistic changes of sign language users with a memory illness.
-
(2015)Aims. This study aims to find out what kind of views vocational teachers working on second level have about their job, entrepreneurship education and actualizing entrepreneurship education. Previous research has shown many changes in vocational teaching during past decades. Changes in labour market have made entrepreneurship education more significant in education. Research questions are: 1) What kind of challenges does vocational teaching include?, 2) What kind of views do vocational teachers have on entrepreneurship education? and 3) How is entrepreneurship education part of vocational teaching? Methods. Data for this study was collected by semi-structured interviews during spring 2010. Five second level vocational teachers working in South Savo were interviewed. One of the interviewees no longer worked on second level education. Research material was analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Results and conclusions. Teachers experienced two kinds of challenges in their work. Firstly challenges rose from heterogeneity among students and big role of "raising" the students (e.g. good behaviour). Secondly challenges were caused by changes in work and lack of resources. Entrepreneurship education was viewed as necessary and beneficial, and it was part of teaching in forms of learning contents, teaching methods and learning environments. As a term entrepreneurship education was viewed problematic since it is often misunderstood as entrepreneur education (how to be an entrepreneur). For entrepreneurship education to be implemented in all teaching, should the aims and practices of entrepreneurship education be clarified to all teachers.
-
Ammatillinen osaaminen ja täydennyskoulutus : tiedon ja osaamisen leviäminen osallistujien välillä (2009)The goal of my research was to describe how adult students perceive professional knowledge and know-how, and how these diffuse among a group of students during a continuing education program. The goal was also to research the meaning of shared working life experience in improving the professional know-how of the students. My research is positioned in the field of supporting environments for adult learning with an emphasis on interaction between students in social networks. The participants of my research were 31 adult students taking part in continuing education program at the time of my study. I gathered the research data using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative network enquiry led me to do 9 theme interviews. I analyzed the data using a network analyzing program and a content analyzing method. I examined the whole community of students, the home groups of four students and the main actors who were central for the community. The analysis focused on the distribution network of professional knowledge and know-how, the distribution network of social support and the network of reciprocal interaction. Professional knowledge and know-how that diffuse between adult students in continuing education, is mostly hands-on tips and occupational experience. The factors that promote the distribution of professional experience and know-how are structural ones and factors that emphasize co-operation relationships. The structural factors are participation in adult education and in home groups and also organizational arrangements of learning. The factors that emphasize co-operation relationships are encouragement and doing learning assignments together. The central distributors of professional know-how are adult students who have long working life experience. The meaning of the diffusion of professional experience and know-how for improving professional know-how of a single adult student is in developing his professional identity and adding his social capital. In the social interaction networks, which I studied, more relations exist inside the home groups than between them, which is congruent with earlier researches. My research can be utilized by using its research methods and emphasizing its results in adult education planning and guidance.
-
(2022)This qualitative study examined professional agency during teacher studies in the context of part time special education. The study aims to answer following questions: How does professional agency occur in the context of practical training in teacher studies? What kind of dimensions does professional agency consist of and how do these dimensions relate to each other? Agency can broadly be described as an ability to act intentionally defined by autonomy, will, freedom and choice. Professional agency occurs when professional subjects make choices, use their possibilities to influence and take a stand in ways that effect their work and professional identities. Professional agency is implemented purposefully, and it is defined by dynamic factors of the workplace. Professional agency does not occur merely as accommodation to external demands but also as realistic and critical understanding of personal boundaries and acting in accordance with them. Professional agency has been suggested as a tool for teachers to face educational reforms as it has been seen to enable cultivation of new work forms. Previous research claims that teachers’ agency should be defined in more detail. Teacher training and first years at work are significant phases in cultivating professional agency, yet research in this context is narrow. In addition, Finnish studies regarding part time special education are few. Research material consisted of 13 reports written by teacher students. Reports were produced as a part of the compulsory practical training in the pedagogical studies of special education teacher training between spring 2020 – fall 2021. The study was conducted using qualitative theory driven content analysis. In the context of special education practical training professional agency manifested in four dimensions that were agency in the workplace framework, agency in the immediate social community, agency as identity work and agency as emotional work. Furthermore, professional agency occurred in two levels, community level and individual level, within which agency has divergent goals. At the community level professional agency appeared to aim for a functional work community and pupils’ learning. At the individual level it appeared to aim for teacher students’ professional development and personal wellbeing. Results suggest that interaction in the immediate social community and emotional factors are central to the enactment of professional agency. Results are in accordance with previous studies that claim professional agency to manifest in the framework of dynamic factors at both community level and individual level. The results of this study suggest that more research on the relation between community and individual level as well as on the importance of immediate social community and emotional factors are needed.
-
(2022)The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine professional agency in self-managing work teams. The developmental processes focusing on work stress the ability to manage own work, therefore assessing these possibilities is essential to comprehend the ability of individuals and organizational structures to enable these demands. The theoretical framework is based on examining flexible and agile organizational structures, which emphasises self-management and self-managing teamwork as a focal part of the way flexible organizations operate. Furthermore, the theoretical framework consists of the theory regarding professional agency. The understanding of professional agency is based on a subject-centered socio-cultural approach. The research questions are 1) how do the interviewees describe their professional agency and 2) what kind of themes occur in self-managing teamwork that support professional agency? This thesis is a qualitative interview study, and the research material consists of eight employees’ interviews who work in self-managing teams. The analysis was carried out as a theoretically guided content analysis, in which the material was categorized as central themes. The results showed how professional agency in self-managing teamwork was described by directional factors, participation and inclusion, as well as the development of work and competence. The results also indicated how self-managing teamwork supported professional agency by the themes of developmental mentality, power structures, and the quality of work community dialogue. The interviewees had good opportunities to influence their work and participate in decision-making, but these were determined by the employees’ unprompted actions. Therefore, self-managing teamwork can be interpreted to support professional agency. However, taking in account the context-specific nature of self-managing teamwork and the complex nature of professional agency, further research is required to consider varying work communities.
-
(2022)Aims. The goal of my thesis is to find out how teachers teaching in vocational education and training (VET) understand inclusion in their own practices and how, according to their under- standing, inclusion is realized in different learning environments. For a long time, efforts have been made to introduce the principle of inclusivity into the education system, which is used to try to dismantle the paradigm of special education. However, inclusion is most often studied in the context of basic education, and the discussion about inclusion in the context of VET is not as lively. However, the same international and national obligations also apply to VET, so research would be equally needed in this context as well. Methods. The research data is part of the Governance for Inclusive Vocational Excellence (GIVE) project. The target group of this partial study consisted of 13 teachers from VET, whose thematic interviews formed the data. The themes of the interviews included the definition of inclusion, its appearance in practices and as an object of evaluation, as well as in documents and strategies. The data was analysed using phenomenography and abductive analysis. Results and Conclusions. Teachers understood inclusion through the ideals presented in official documents and through the implementation of laws and degree structures. However, many inclusive practices were found in the teachers' descriptions, especially through the preparation of personal competence development plan (PCDP) and the provision of support. For the most part, the teachers did not know how to verbalize these practices as part of inclusion. This could possibly be because there is not enough discussion about inclusion in VET, or that inclusion is spoken of under some other name, such as personalisation, participation, accessibility or support and guidance. The teachers hoped for a joint time to develop and unify various inclusive practices in both educational institutions and workplaces in order to create a common operating culture and develop inclusive structures. This is also strongly related to the development of the teachers' own competence, for which more support and sharing of competence was hoped for, as well as a stronger link to practical work.
-
Ammatillisen koulutuksen keskeyttäminen ja uudelleen aloittaminen : tarkastelussa nuorten toimijuus (2016)In different sectors of education percentage of school drop outs is highest in upper secondary vocational school even though dropping out has decreased in recent years. When discussed about dropping out, it's essential to recognize when it's about increasing risk of alienation and when it's necessary for individual's life. The purpose of this research it to offer a new point of view that considers life choices and turning points as process that continues individually and multidimensionally. In this research interest focus on agency behind dropping out and situational actors that lead to decisions to drop out. The theoretical framework concentrates changes in youth and working life, situational actors behind school drop outs and agency as individual's power to shape their life circumstances by choosing their actions. The research was carried out qualitatively. The data was collected in October 2015 and is based on open interviews that were analyzed using content analysis. In this research nine individual interviews were used. Interviewees were young persons who had quitted at least once in upper secondary vocational school and started another education or got employed after dropping out. Interviews indicated human agency as active operations that contain ability to picture alternative course of actions and possible future outcomes. In narrations agency can be seen as interaction that is strongly combined to time. Decision making is influenced by the past, present and future. As active and planned decision making, narrations show that agency is limited or allowed by structural and social actors that guide individual's actions and decision making. In narrations situational actors that lead to quitting, appeared to be set of various actors that eventually lead to limited agency and quitting school.
-
(2018)The reform of vocational upper secondary education is mentioned to be one of the biggest development project in the field of education in Finland. It targeted to transform and update vocational upper secondary education comprehensively for instance by renewing funding system and reducing the amount of vocational qualifations. My main focus was in the questions of equality in this project and I used Capability approach as a tool for that. Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum have introduced the approach and they argue that societies that are seeking equality should offer the basic capabilities for all citizens. Inequality and deprivation are seen as an outcome of lacking enough capabilities. In Finland the approach is a new way of viewing the aspects of equality in education. One of the goals in this thesis was to figure out what are the capabilities that vocational education has to offer. The field of vocational education is wide. I focused on the viewpoint of young people who are studying vocational upper secondary qualifications. The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine how the changes that influence on younger students are constructed in the speech of reforms development phase and how the capabilities are constructed in the speech, especially the capabilities that vocational education offers to young students. The Ministry of education and culture have launched a YouTube-channel that shares video material on the current projects in education. I used the material on the reform of vocational education as the data of this research. The material includes videos that introduce the guidelines of reform and shared conversation of them. Material also shows recordings from the workshops that were held during the development process. Experts on vocational education were participated in the development phase and the data is based on their speech in recorded workshops. I analysed the data using discourse analysis. As a result I constructed five hegemonic discourses that were improved competence, educational market, individuality, offered abilities and offered possibilities. In these discourses were constructed a future where young students will be able to achieve enough capabilities and better competence, although there were many aspects of equality that weren’t discussed at all. Conclusions of this theses is that equality in vocational education still needs attention.
-
(2021)The purpose of this case study was to research the path to employment from graduating from vocational studies to employment of young people with special and demanding special needs. The aim was also to find out how important the vocational education was to the young people researched in this study from their own perspective. The factors that could be conducive to the employment of the young people with special needs were also studied by interviewing four professionals that were attached to the young people in this research. Previous studies have shown that workplace learning is significant when it comes to the employment of young people with special needs in vocational education. It has also been addressed that young people in general are more interested in entrepreneurship than before. Most of the young people also think the future is in their own hands. Previous studies have also shown that employers think financial support is a good way to foster the employment of the young people with special needs. Four young people that were employed during vocational education or after graduation took part in this research. One of them had participated in vocational education for special needs and three for demanding special needs. In addition, four professionals that were connected to the employment of the young people in this study were interviewed. The professionals consisted of two employers, one work coach and one responsible teacher. All in all, eight persons were interviewed in this study. The study was carried out in a project called Tulevaisuuden Työelämän Starat which was financed by social fund of the European Union. The material consists of eight half-structured theme interviews. In addition, some backround information have been collected from a questionnaire that the young people filled as they were graduating from vocational education. The results of this research show that workplace learning has significance for the employment of young people with special needs. At the same time, the need of special education does not necessarily stand out in working life. The young people in this study feel confident about the future being in their own hands and they worry about general subjects regarding to their future such as accidents or being exhausted from work. Two of the young people that were interviewed in this study were interested in entrepreneurship in the future.
-
(2019)In Finland, no matter what the person’s upper secondary education is, has a right to study in university. Still, it is rare to apply from vocational school to university. For that reason, the phenomenon needs to be examined more clearly. In this thesis the aim is to examine how the university students, who’s earlier educations are vocational education, got interested of university and how they describe their studying in university. The focus is to find out what kind of meanings they give to their life course and what kind of stories they tell. The thesis was done in 2018 and six students participated. The material was collected by narrative interview and the research results were analysed by using narrative thematic analyse method. The focus of the analysis was to examine interviewee’s stories about those moments that they thought was meaningful in getting interested of university. The research results were showing that in the student’s life course had happen some specific moments that were starting to move they closer to university. Those specific moments in their life course did brought their lives to a point that they got interested to study in university. The results were also showing that their road to university has had many different phases and some sad moments too. Students also told that they had felt being outsider because of their educational background and they had doubted how they are going to perform in the studies. The results of the research were found to be consistent with theories that were underlying this research. Especially the Levinson's life course theory of the eras and transitions were part of the results of this study too.
-
(2019)Study delay has been considered a challenge within the vocational education, and the dropout rate is much higher than in college. Limited knowledge of the choices within upper secondary education may lead to an unfitted choice of education which for one may hold up the graduation. The main objective of this masters’ thesis was to find out which factors might hold up the graduation in vocational education. The aim is to examine what are the differences between the students who graduated in time and the students whose studies were considered delayed. The interest was also in finding out which factors are the best to explain whether the studies were delayed or not. The study delay is looked through motivation, the grade point average of theoretical studies in the last year of lower secondary education, sex, native language, mother’s education and special support received in lower secondary education. The research data was part of a research done in collaboration by the University of Helsinki, the University of Tampere, the National Board of Education and the Centre of Educational Assessment. The participants of this study consisted of 6277 vocational education students in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. The research data was collected during year 2014 when the students were in the last year of lower secondary education and in year 2017, three years after the beginning of vocational education. The results discovered differences in special support, native language and motivation between the groups of students who graduated in time and the students whose studies were considered delayed. There was an increased amount of study delay within the students who received special support in lower secondary education and the students whose native language was other than Finnish or Swedish. According to this study, receiving special support in lower secondary education was the most significant factor to explain the detainment of studies. In this study, there was no connection found between study delay and the grade point average of theoretical subjects in the last year of lower secondary education.
-
(2023)Aims. In basic education, students acquire important basic skills that are necessary for success in further studies. Craft competence developed in the craft subject promote not only practical and theoretical knowledge, but also students' awareness and self-knowledge. The study examines the perceptions of vocational teachers about craft competence as school readiness for vocational education and the factors affecting it, such as the need for cooperation between educational levels. Methods. The research data was mainly collected in November 2022 with a online survey from vocational teachers (n=81). The survey was distributed both on social media and directly to vocational schools with research permits. The research was guided by phenomenography due to its nature of exploring perceptions. The answers to the open-ended questions of the survey were analyzed by means of phenomenographic analysis, and as a result, description categories characteristic of phenomenographic analysis were created. In addition, the material was quantitatively analyzed for the attitude statements in the questionnaire. Results and conclusions. Based on the perceptions of vocational teachers, craft competence as school readiness was divided into three descriptive categories: craft knowledge, craft skills, and craft attitudes.These description categories included handcraft skills, theoretical knowledge about craft tools, materials and design among other things, artistic ability, working fluency such as self-directedness, work safety skills and problem-solving and reasoning skills, as well as individual factors such as attitudes, values and motivation. Vocational teachers considered craft competence important, especially with technical craft skills being particularly valued. The level of craft competence was generally assessed as weak, which was also evident from the answers to the open questions. The need for cooperation between the craft subject and vocational education was felt to be important, and the positive effects of cooperation were seen especially as an increase in awareness and the development of skills. Cooperation could be implemented through workshop activities, visits and jointly set goals
Now showing items 122-141 of 3628