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Objectives. Narrative means a way of report, understand and structure a lived experience. It is an important mean of self-expression and interaction and people use it to share information with each other. The ability to narrate appears when child becomes an active participant in fantasies, stories and actions related to himself. Children with speaking disabilities often use communication books or other equipment as an alternative or augmentative mean of communication. Their possibilities to narrate can be more limited than speaking children, due to several reasons. This study describes the characteristics of augmented narratives that are formed with communication books. This study also describes how the characteristics of narratives differ when the elicitation method is changed. Also the role of communication partner and communication aid is discussed. Methods. Study consists of two physically disabled 13 to 16-year old boys who used communication books as a alternative mean of their communication. The research material was gathered during the spring of 2014. The material consists of video recordings of examinees performing three kinds of narrative assignments. The video material was transcribed and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in the contexts set by the research questions. Results and conclusions. Macrostructure of the narratives produced by communication book varied. Most diverse narratives filled the characteristics of a perfect narrative whereas the most compact narratives mainly focused on describing individual events. The narratives were mainly short and use of grammatical function words was scarce. Expressions of cohesion was mainly scarce and monotonous as its best. Narratives of children communicating by AAC-means differ from ones of children developing normally and expressing themselves with speech especially on microstructures' behalf. These results support and complement previous research. Further research is important to achieve a sufficient perception of particularities of augmented narratives so that the communication aids can be developed to better support the language development and expressional needs of these children.

Aims. In this study the purpose is to describe physical, psychological, and social learning environment in three early childhood special education groups. This study is based on sociocultural theory where the development and learning of the child is seen to happen in the interaction between the individual and the environment. (Vygotsky 1978; Rogoff 2003, 2008). The aim of this study is to reveal how the learning environment supports the inclusion and peer interaction of child with multiple developmental disabilities. Methods. The approach to this study was ethnographic as the aim was to develop a diverse understanding of the learning environment. The data for this study was collected with LEANS- assessment scale (Strain & Joseph 2004, translated by Suhonen 2004) from three early childhood special education groups and by interviewing special education teachers. Data was also collected from documents regarding the organization of the teaching. In the analysis of the LEANS assessment scale qualitative and quantitative analysis where combined. Propositions in the LEANS assessment scale were evaluated with a five-step Likert- scale. Quantitative analysis was completed by reporting the mean of the propositions. Qualitative analysis was completed by describing the structure of the contents in the propositions. The interviews of the special education teachers were analysed with theory-guided content analysis. The two previously mentioned research materials were supported with documents including the organization of the teaching and by comparing the interpretation of the physical, psychological, and social learning environments. After the analysis of each research material the whole data was analysed with dialogic thematization which enabled the construction of the themes of the learning environment. Findings and conclusions. The themes of the learning environments were created by the dialogic thematization. These themes where: the construction of the physical and immaterial material in the learning environment, sustaining the emotional well-being and positive atmosphere, and supporting and reinforcing the individual skills and peer interaction. The fulfilment of the inclusion and peer interaction of child with multiple developmental disabilities is seen as a multidimensional process which requires the presence of physical, psychological, and social learning environment. High-quality elements can be identified from the construction of the learning environment. However successful inclusion and peer interaction in the learning environment requires the awareness of the efficiency of these elements from the early childhood educator. This highlights the role of the early childhood educator in high-quality learning environments.

Objectives. Comprehensive schools in Finland apply a common core curriculum (POPS), that is largely based on a constructivistic concept of learning. The core curriculum is described as child-centered. Different alternative pedagogies, such as Montessori pedagogy, Steiner pe- dagogy and Freinet pedagogy, are applied in only few Finnish comprehensive schools. These alternatives function in the Finnish school system applying the same core curriculum and they have there own historical premises. This study focused on Montessori pedagogy. The research question of this study is practical: How can you apply the basic principles of Mon- tessori pedagogy in comprehensive school's core curriculum? Methods. The theoretical part of the study describes the princples of the core curriculum and Montessori pedagogy. The aim was to find comparable contents from both materials. In Montessori pedagogy the comparison was focused on the concept of cosmic education, es- pecially the 6-item definition given by Grazzini. In the core curriculum, the description of transversal competence areas was chosen to be compared. The comparison was done by analyzing the differences and similiraties between the texts. The results of the analysis were complemented by interviewing three professionals involved in the application of Montessori pedagogy within the Finnish core curriculum. Results and conclusions. According to the study, the concept of cosmic education can be readily applied considering transversal competences as objectives of the core curriculum. The const- ructivistic concept of learning in the core curriculum is compatible with the premises of Mon- tessori pedagogy. The main difference when applying Montessori pedagogy was found to be the sensitivity phase -based, non-linear view of the learning process and the more pronoun- ced emphasis on child-centered thinking. According to the interviews there were no obstacles in using Montessori pedagogy to achieve the goals of the core curriculum. Moreover, Mon- tessori pedagogy could offer new development opportunities to the Finnish comprehensive school. According to this study both the core curriculum and Montessori pedagogy share child-centered thinking and an understanding of transversal competence areas, both useful themes for further education development and research.

The question of essential capacity provided the backgrounds for this study. What can real capacity mean in contemporary society characterized by the crisis of ethics. The aim of the study was searching for moral intelligence – to discuss morality in relation to intelligence. A further aim was to understand certain changes related to both of these conceptions, which was supposed to open some possibilities to reflect on moral intelligence. The view of the study was eclectic and multiscientific. Morality was represented through the views of Z. Bauman's Postmodern Ethics (1993) and S. Hellsten's In defence of Moral Individualism (1997). The synthesized concept was the possible current morality. Intelligence was more closely understood as emotional intelligence in D. Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: why it can matter more than IQ. The method of the study was constructed to meet the needs of the aims. The method applied was philosophical approach, which included systematic analysis. The argumentation was summarized in six theses. Theses five and six discuss the special justification of moral intelligence from two directions: moral (I part) and intelligence (II part). The questions were: 1.1 What is the meaning of individual moral capacity in Bauman's postmodern ethics? 1.2 What is the meaning of individual moral capacity in Hellsten's moral individualism? And 2 What is the meaning of emotions concerned with decision making and sensible behaviour in Goleman's emotional intelligence? From the perspective of postmodern ethics, individual moral capacity was proved to be central, since it actually is the basis of the morality found in responsibility. From the perspective of the moral individualism, individual moral capacity was proved to be central to society, since its existence and development are connected with liberal democracy and its legitimation. Both of these views on the possible current morality emphasized that human moral capacity is not only rational but consists of emotions and moral impulses, too. From the perspective of the emotional intelligence, emotions were proved to be part of every human action, which thus questions pure rational intelligence. Since the concept of intelligence expresses individual sensible behaviour, the moral based on responsibility and the central meaning of individual moral capacity were considered to be the justification for regarding individual essential capacity as moral capacity too. Since moral was proved to be linked to individual capacity rather than universal rules, it was presented that moral has in this sense come closer to intelligence. Correspondingly, since intelligence as emotional intelligence expressed the change in understanding rational and irrational elements, and since it can, in a certain way, be a conceptual link between moral and intelligence, it was interpreted that, in this way, intelligence approaches the concept of moral. Essential capacity was summarized as sensible bahaviour, in which moral responsibility is realised and which consists of an impact of both reason and emotion. This study clarifies the argument that essential capacity is, in addition to intelligence and its implementation with emotional intelligence, actually individual moral intelligence and its fulfillment. Thus, in a changing information-society, education meets again one of its original challenges – the difficult task of moral education.

The purpose of this thesis is to study practitioners' perceptions on internationalization of teaching. The aim was especially to identify and investigate the themes inside practitioner's descriptions of international teaching. The practitioners that are considered in this study are teachers and academic developers in university context who develop and practice both teaching and internationalization. Their perceptions were studied by asking: how is international teaching described by developers of teaching? In previous literature, the meaning of internationalization is often seen as unclear. Two solutions are: trying to capture a common definition or accepting the different interpretations on internationalization. In previous studies, the internationalizing environment in universities has often been described as globalizing, which requires changes in universities and its duties. Simultaneously, universities' internationalization is considered as an original and essential characteristic of universities. According to the previous literature, I expected to obtain different descriptions of international teaching and its importance. The chosen methods were used to collect descriptions on internationalization and identify the themes that were discussed in these descriptions. Six interviews were implemented where international teaching and universities internationalization was discussed by use of predetermined themes and assistance questions. The collected data was analyzed by use of thematic analysis. As a result of the analysis, six themes were recognized from the descriptions of university teachers and academic developers on international teaching. These themes were categorized as either international interaction or international content. Both international interaction and content were described as desirable goals but were also recognized as problematic. Additionally, international teaching was described as a response to the changes in the globalizing environment and as a defining characteristic of universities. The results of this study can be used as tools for thinking and as framework for understanding international teaching and universities' internationalization.

This study investigated the processing of morphologically complex words in early childhood. Words are morphologically complex if they consist of more than one morpheme, the minimal meaning-bearing units of language. Previous studies indicate that there are two distinct routes used in the processing of morphologically complex words. Some words are stored in memory holistically and processed through these full-form memory traces. Other words are decomposed into their constituent morphemes, with morphemes and rules guiding their use forming the basis of processing. Research with adults has indicated that derivations are processed through their full-form memory traces, while inflections are decomposed into their constituent morphemes. However, research on neural mechanisms of morphological processing in early childhood is still missing. This study aimed to investigate whether children process morphologically complex words in a similar fashion to adults. Twelve 3–4-year-old Finnish-speaking children with normal language development took part in the study. Event-related potentials were extracted from the 64-channel EEG data. The focus was on mismatch negativity (MMN), which is associated with, among other things, automatic processing of language. Activation of full-form memory traces and syntactic processing tend to elicit distinct patterns of MMN responses. Moreover, the MMN has recently been used to demonstrate differences between processing of derivations and inflections. Inflected pseudowords elicited stronger MMN responses than real inflected words. This pattern of MMN responses is typical of syntactic processing. Therefore, the results indicate that inflections were processed syntactically, via morphological decomposition. In contrast to previous studies with adults, no difference was observed between MMN responses to derivations and inflections. Overall, these results suggest that children process inflections but not derivations in an adult-like manner. This can be taken as evidence for early development of syntactic processing and slower, more experience-dependent development of full-form memory traces

Previous studies have shown that there is a link between personal achievement goal orientation, intrinsic motivation and teams motivational climate in youth sports The purpose of this study is to investigate what kind of relationships can be observed between players' goal orientation and team motivational climate in children's and adolescents' football teams. The second objective is to examine what differences in goal orientation and motivational climate can be detected between teams by grouping respondents by gender, age and team level. The aim is also to investigate the goal orientation profile groups that respondents form and to analyse the ranking of team players in these groups and the relationship between goal orientation profile groups and team motivational climate. The survey involved 94 respondents (72 boys and 22 girls) aged between 9 and 17 years (average age 12.67 years). Responses were collected via an online questionnaire between April and May 2021. All respondents belonged to the same football club in Southern Finland. Differences between groups were examined using the non-parametric Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. K-means cluster analysis was used to form achievement goal orientation profile groups. Statistically significant correlations between the different dimensions of goal orientation and motivational climate were found in the data. Statistically significant differences were found between gender, age groups and between teams at different levels. Three groups of goal orientation profiles were identified from the data: task-oriented, task- and achievement-oriented, and disengaged. The links between goal orientation and motivational climate were also reflected in the team-level analysis of players' goal orientation profiles and the motivational climate within the team. Task orientation and task climate were strong throughout the data, but perceived autonomy was rather weak. Based on the results, it would be worthwhile to investigate what means could be used to support perceived autonomy.

Aims. The present research examines care workers’ motivation and work commitment in a Finnish social and health care organization. The aim of the study was to investigate the current state of the employees’ motivation, work commitment and the self-determination theory’s basic psychological needs, and their relation to effort in work and to the intention of leaving the organization. Moreover, the study also examined the relationships between motivation, commitment and basic psychological needs. Motivation was divided to intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation based on intangible rewards. Work commitment included affective and normative professional commitment, colleague commitment, customer commitment and affective, normative and continuance organizational commitment. Method. This investigation was carried out with a survey which was composed using several former inquiries developed to measure motivation and dimensions of work commitment. The voluntary survey was sent to the target group employees by email. In total, the survey collected 600 answers which meant that the response rate was 30%. The data was analyzed using correlation, cluster analyses and structural equation modeling. Results. The care workers intrinsic motivation and professional commitment, colleague commitment and customer commitment were quite strong. All the dimensions of the organizational commitment and extrinsic motivation were in turn quite weak. The effort on work was evaluated to be strong and especially the sense of competence, intrinsic motivation, affective professional commitment as well as customer commitment played a meaningful role in it. In addition, there was some intention to leave the organization among the employees and according to the results the sense of autonomy, affective professional commitment and affective and normative organizational commitment reduced the intention to leave. The study clarified that the basic psychological needs of the self-determination theory are interconnected, not only to intrinsic motivation, but also to affective work commitment. The sense of autonomy was quite strong but because it had a direct as well as an indirect effect on the intention to leave, it was suggested that the organization should work on strengthening it more. Furthermore, the sense of competence can explain the conclusion made from the analyses of the study that extrinsic motivation based on intangible rewards supports intrinsic motivation. The results showed that care workers’ motivation and work commitment can be strengthened with diverse possibilities to influence and with positive feedback.

The earlier studies have shown that the intrinsic motivation has a strong connection with the learning results of the mathematics. Objective of this pro gradu was firstly to analyse the connection of the sixth grade girls and boys' of the school success, to study mathematics at school and at informal learning environment, which in this case was Math & Art exhibition based on STEAM-model. Secondly the connection of the relative autonomy experience of the girls' and boys' was studied in connection to interest in mathematics at school and at mathematics exhibition. Thirdly and last it was studied how autonomy experience was connected to plans to continue education at the upper secondary school or at the vocational educational institution. The target group of the pro gradu thesis was the 256 sixth grade pupils of the comprehensive school (134 girls and 122 boys) from a medium size Finnish municipality. A questionnaire was applied. The differences between the groups were examined with a one-way analysis of variance. The connections between the variables were tested with a correlation coefficient. In the analysis IBM SPSS Statistics 25 -software was used. The main results were that the interest to study mathematics at school was higher among the higher achievers but at the mathematics exhibition there were no differences between the lower and higher achievers. The exhibition seemed to succeed in levelling down differences which are related to the school success. The experience of the relative autonomy (RAI) correlates with interest in studying mathematics at school, especially among girls. The boys were more interested than girls in continuing at the vocational school, and girls at the upper secondary school. The connection of school success and going to the upper secondary school was stronger than going to the vocational school. The success of the boys at school was more tied up with the plans than that of the girls. The more the pupil regarded himself as autonomous furthermore the more they wanted to go on after the comprehensive school to the upper secondary school. This connection was stronger on the boys.

Aims. The purpose of this thesis was to examine what kind of achievement goal orientation groups can be found in the context of non-formal, job-related online learning, and how the discovered groups differ from each other in perceived costs of online learning and in assessment of work organization’s supportive learning culture. The study’s context offered a unique application to the goal orientation profile research, as the examined type of learning was non-formal learning, or more specifically, non-formal online learning related to work. This study contributes to building an understanding of motivational processes among people in working life and presents practical implications for the development of online learning practices and materials so that those would be more encouraging and supportive to a wider audience of learners. Methods. The research data was collected by an online questionnaire during January and February 2021. Altogether, 170 individuals from Europe and North America, working in different roles and fields, participated in the study. The participants were classified into goal orientation groups by utilizing a person-oriented approach and Two-Step cluster analysis. To examine in-between group differences, analyses of variance (ANOVA) were performed. Results and Conclusions. Four distinct goal orientation profiles were identified: learning-oriented, success-oriented, performance-avoidance-oriented, and avoidance-oriented. Learning-oriented differed from the other groups in perceived costs, as they assessed the online learning costs to be significantly lower. In organizational learning culture, avoidance-oriented evaluated their work organization to have a less supportive learning culture than the rest of the groups. After further examination of the study results, it was found that performance and avoidance goals seem to be connected to higher perceived online learning cost, while mastery goals seem to be related to an assessment of a more supportive organizational learning culture. Based on these findings, this study also presents practical implications in the latter part of the paper. All in all, the results indicate that understanding and knowledge of different motivational patterns is crucial for the development and expansion of non-formal, job-related online education.