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Objectives. The purpose of this study is to find out the views of early educators and vegan parents on how veganism is considered in early childhood education. The subject is approached through veganism, considering all aspects of it. Veganism as a way of life becomes primarily visible in the child's diet, but in addition to diet, lifestyle includes other choices based on ethical values, such as clothing and craft materials, songs, games, and fairy tales as well as trip destinations. All of these can come forth when a child starts an early childhood education. Methods. Research is a qualitative semi-structured interview study. The survey interviewed structured, semi-structured and open questions questionnaires on early childhood educators and vegan parents, their views on veganism and how it has been taken into account in early childhood education. A total of 35 early childhood educators and a total of 32 Vegan parents, 29 of whom were vegans, responded to a questionnaire. Results and conclusions. Both respondents based on food from veganism. The Vegan parents also highlighted other aspects of veganism what they would like to see in early childhood education. In the form for early childhood educators, knowledge of other aspects of veganism was limited, but the diet was often recognized and compared to other special diets. Vegan parents hoped for more information on different lifestyles for early childhood education and believed that veganism would be considered in other activities in early childhood education if early childhood educators were more aware of it.

Aims. The aim of this study is to add knowledge about how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the working life of newly graduated university students and on the relationship between them and their employers. In this study, the COVID-19 crisis is compared with previous economic crises during recent centuries. Previous research shows that newly graduated university students’ opportunities in working life have been affected by economic crises. The psychological contract is used as a theory to find out how the relationship between employers and employees has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Method. Seven newly graduated university students participated in the study. They had completed a master’s degree in Educational Science during the spring and autumn of 2020. The study used qualitative research methods and the material was collected through semi- structured interviews. The empirical material was analysed with theoretical content analysis. Both the empirical material and Rousseau’s (1995) theory of the psychological contract guided the analysis. Results. The results showed that the COVID-19 crisis affected the working life of the newly graduated university students and the relationship between them and their employers. The COVID-19 crisis had an impact on the companies in which the informants worked by affecting: their employment contracts, career opportunities, tasks and working methods. The opportunities for career development and permanent employment were experienced as affected by the COVID-19 crisis. This contributed to fixed-term employment being the most common type of employment among the newly graduated university students. The COVID-19 crisis had also affected the relationship between employees and employers. The informants experienced feelings of uncertainty and ambiguity but also concurrently a more open communication. Uncertainty and ambiguity affected the image of the employers as safe and reliable. Due to distance work, the communication between the employers and employees became more open, which strengthened their relationship. The results showed that most of the informants had a balanced or relational psychological contract.

The goal of this thesis is to create an anti-bullying model with primary school children. The core idea of the model is to narrow the inequality between the bully and his victim and to encourage students to stand up for themselves when facing bullying. Previous research has offered similar anti-bullying models but the model I have developed, The Verbal Self-Defence Model, differs from other approaches especially due to its humoristic nature. Because the humoristic approach to bullying has not been previously studied, I chose Grounded Theory as my method. I carried out a standardised preparatory questionnaire to all sixth graders in a school in Helsinki of which a group of 15 students were selected to the group interviews. I conducted the group interviews in three parts, each of which lasted 45 minutes. I collected the data by open sampling after which I studied the literature on the subject while simultaneously analysing the interviews. In the interviews the sixth graders and I investigated what kinds of humoristic answers can be used in bullying situations. We ended up with five categories after which the amount of categories reached its saturation point. One thing the interviews revealed was that a part of students do not talk back to their bullies because they do not want to give the bully the satisfaction by being provoked. The literature review revealed that The Verbal Self-Defence Model includes elements from three different models in which the ability of the victim to stand up for himself is strengthened yet offering something new due to its humoristic approach. From the literature I also found support for my hypothesis that witty comments and humour might calm the bully by changing the balance of power and the frame of interpretation. The five categories of verbal self-defence are: comeback, self-defence, laughing at yourself, sarcasm and random comeback. Students can apply these categories when practicing the skills of humorous self-defence. These skills can be practiced, starting from the first grade, by playing the four adaptations of the serving game, each having a different difficulty level. Before the serving game, a five-point bulletin is presented to the children whose aim is to prevent the forming of inequality of power between students.

The written skills of Finnish become essential for the secondary school students studying Finnish as a second language and literature (F2). Even though they learn the oral skills of Finnish primarily by communicating with their Finnish-speaking coevals, they will need the written skills after finishing secondary school when proceeding with their studies. When teaching the written skills of Finnish, it is important to focus on the relevant issues to enable the language skills to develop in the desired way. In this study I examine the verbs used in the stories of F2-students. I am also aiming to illustrate the changes of the verbs between the various levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). By examining these changes, I can investigate what kind of verbs indicate into better written skills of Finnish. I examine the verbs in two aspects: semantically and morphosyntactically. This study was conducted as a qualitative research, utilizing the principles of linguistic text anal-ysis. As my research material I used Cefling-corpus, which included stories of secondary school F2-students. The stories are placed in CEFR rating in the levels A1–B2. From these 114 stories I gathered 1814 verbs in total. I categorized them semantically by the classification created by Anneli Pajunen (2001). This classification consists of primary-A-verbs, that describe concrete states of affairs, primary-B-verbs, that represent more abstract conditions, and secondary-verbs that evaluate and proportion the relation between the primary-verbs. In addition, I categorized the verbs morphosyntactically i.e. by their grammatical mood, tense and person mood. I also in-vestigated the use of verb phrases and the negative verb. According to this study, the usage of the verbs seems to have a strong connection with the lan-guage skills of the student. However, the remarkable factor in the evaluation of the writing skills was not only the semantic class of the verb, since the shares of primary-A-, primary-B- and sec-ondary-verbs in different CEFR levels did not change linearly. More value was given to the use of the verb in different situations. Especially on the lower levels of CEFR, the students stuck to the simple verbs that were familiar to them, instead of using verbs specific to the situation. These verbs were typically used clumsily to indicate something that would have been more natural to express with a more specific or complex verb. Based on the material the more complex and spe-cific verbs or the abstract and diverse use of the verbs did indicate for higher writing skills and more fluent text. Teaching the verbs and their derivations as a bunch could be an effective way to expand the vocabulary and written expression skills of the student. Regarding the morphosyn-tax, the quantity of verb phrases, negative verb and the usage of the grammatical mood of the verbs did not seem to have a clear connection with the CEFR levels. However, it seems that alt-hough the students evaluated to levels B1–B2 write more accurately than the pupils on levels A1–A2, they also observe the conventions of the text type of a story more firmly. This can be seen as a high usage of imperfect and a coherent way of referencing. Perhaps utilizing the genre skills more while teaching the verbs would result in learning that would be based on the real-life situations of using the language.

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli dialogi-teorian näkökulmasta tarkastella verkkokeskusteluissa tapahtuvaa asiantuntijuuden kehittämistä. Tutkimuksen metodinen lähestymistapa on lähinnä keskustelunanalyyttinen ja siinä keskitytään pääasiallisesti verkkokeskustelujen dialogisen rakenteen ja etenemisen selvittämiseen.Dialogia keskustelumuotona käsittelevät teoriat sekä dialogin kehittymistä kuvaava neljän keskustelukentän teoria muodostavat tutkimuksen teoriataustan. Tutkimuksella pyrittiin vastaamaan seuraaviin kysymyksiin: 1. Missä keskustelukentissä asiantuntijuuden kehittäminen tapahtuu verkkokeskusteluissa? 2. Miten siirtyminen keskustelukenttien välillä tapahtuu? 3. Mitä dialogisia toimintatapoja verkkokeskusteluissa esiintyy? 4. Miten dialogin symmetria toteutuu verkkokeskusteluissa? 5. Minkälaisia tiimienvälisiä eroja verkkokeskusteluissa esiintyy keskustelukenttien, dialogisten toimintatapojen, dialogin symmetrian suhteen? Tutkimuksessa käytetty tutkimusmenetelmä rakennettiin aikaisempien verkossa tapahtuvan dialogin tutkimiseen käytettyjen menetelmien sekä dialogin kehittymistä kuvaavan keskustelukenttäteorian pohjalle. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin johtamisen erikoisammattitutkintoon valmistavaan koulutukseen kuuluvista verkkokeskusteluista. Tutkimushenkilöt olivat sivistystoimenjohtajia, opetuspäälliköitä ja rehtoreita (12 naista, 12 miestä). Tutkimuksessa analysoitiin yhteensä 10 keskustelua, jotka sisälsivät 340 viestiä. Verkkokeskustelut jakautuivat koko koulutusryhmän keskusteluihin sekä koulutusryhmästä muodostettujen neljän eri tiiminkeskusteluihin. Tulokset osoittavat, että dialogin kehittymisen kannalta verkkokeskusteluissa eniten ongelmia aiheuttavat keskustelujen symmetrisyyden toteutuminen ja yhteisen ymmärryksen luominen. Erityisen vaikeaksi verkkokeskusteluissa osoittautui taustateorian mukaiseen luovaan, virtaavaan dialogiin pääseminen. Tutkimustulosten perusteella voidaan todeta, että asiantuntijuuden kehittämiseen pyrkivän, dialogi-teorianmukaisen verkkokeskustelun synnyttäminen on vaikeaa ja vaatii tietoista dialogin taitojen harjoittelemista.

The study examines one case of students' experiences from the activity in a collaborative learning process in a networked learning environment, and explores whether or not the experiences explain the participation or lack of participation in the activities. As a research task the students' experiences in the database of the networked learning environment, participating in its construction, and the ways of working needed to build the database, were examined. To contrast the students' experiences, their actual participation in the building of the database was clarified. Based on actual participation, groups more active and more passive than average were separated, and their experiences were compared to each other. The research material was collected from the course Cognitive and Creative Processes, which was offered to studentsof the Department of Textile Teacher Education in University of Helsinki, and students of the Departments of Teacher Education Units giving textile education in Turku, Rauma and Savonlinna in the beginning of 2001. In this course, creativity was examined from a psychological and sosiocultural context with the aim of realizing a collaborative progressive inquiry process. The course was held in a network-based Future Learning Environment (Fle 2) except for the starting lecture and training the use of the learning environment. This study analyzed the learning diaries that the students had sent to the tutor once a week for four weeks, and the final thoughts written into the database of the learning environment. Content analysis was applied as the research method. The case was enriched from another point of view by examining the messages the students had written into the learning environment with the social network analysis. The theoretical base of the study looks at the research of computer-supported collaborative learning, the conceptions of learning as a process of participation and knowledge building, and the possibilities and limitations of network-based learning environments. The research results show, that both using the network-based learning environment and collaborative ways of studying were new to the students. The students were positively surprised by the feedback and support provided by the community. On the other hand, they also experienced problems with facelessness and managing the information in the learning environment. The active students seemed to be more ready for a progressive inquiry process. It can be seen from their attitudes and actions that they have strived to participate actively and invested into the process both from their own and the community's point of view. The more passive students reported their actions to get credits and they had a harder time of perceiving the thoughts presented in the net as common progression. When arranging similar courses in the future, attention should be paid to how to get the students to act in ways necessary for knowledge building, and different from more traditional ways of studying. The difficulties of students used to traditional studying methods to adapt to collaborative knowledge building were evident on the course Cognitive and Creative Processes.

Tutkimuksen päätarkoitus oli hahmottaa verkko-opetuksen arvoja ja arviointia luokanopettajan näkökulmasta. Teoreettisena viitekehyksenä oli mediakasvatus ja didaktiikan käsitys opetus opiskelu oppimisprosessista. Didaktisena perustana käytettiin Kansasen ym. (2000) opettajan pedagogista ajattelua, Lahdeksen (1997) didaktiikan kehämallia sekä Uljensin (1997) opetus opiskelu oppimisprosessia. Lähtökohtana oli luokanopettajan arvioinnin kautta pohtia opetuksen, opiskelun ja oppimisen sekä tieto- ja viestintätekniikan yhtymistä koulukontekstissa. Tutkimuksen pääongelmat olivat: 1) Minkälainen oli luokanopettajan käsitys verkko-opetuksen toteuttamisesta? 2) Miten luokanopettaja arvioi verkko-opetusta? Myös ensimmäistä pääongelmaa lähestyttiin arvojen ja arvioinnin näkökulmasta. Menetelmänä käytettiin teemahaastattelua. Teemahaastattelun teemoja jäsennettiin Gallinin (2001) sosiokulttuurisen verkko-opetuksen arviointimallin sekä Tellan ja Mononen-Aaltosen (2001) mediakasvatuksen monitasomallin avulla. Aineistonkeruussa kahdeksan helsinkiläistä luokanopettajaa vastasivat lyhyeen kyselyyn, jonka jälkeen heitä haastateltiin välittömästi. Laadullisen aineiston analyysissä teemoiteltiin aineisto, ja tämän rinnalla rakennettiin aineistolähtöistä analyysiä. Näiden vuorovaikutuksesta syntyivät tutkimuksen johtopäätökset. Keskeisinä tuloksina tutkimuksessa nähtiin luokanopettajan verkko-opetukseen liittyvien arvojen kaksi eri näkökulmaa: (A) opetus opiskelu oppimismenetelmien ja -tulosten arvonäkökulma sekä (B) ns. kasvatuksellinen ja koulukulttuurin arvonäkökulma. Arvonäkökulmien pohjalta hahmotettiin johtopäätöksissä erilaisia tasoja luokanopettajan opetuksen, opiskelun ja oppimisen arvioinnista, kun tieto- ja viestintätekniikka on mukana prosessissa. Kaksi tasoa tarkennettiin verkko-opetuksen arvioinnin fokuksiksi, jotka olivat (1) teknologinen ja (2) tavoitteinen fokus. Teknologisessa arvioinnin fokuksessa (1) arviointia hallitsee huoli oppilaasta ihmisenä. Arviointi liittyy joko siihen, että oppilaan on opittava perustaidot tieto- ja viestintätekniikassa ja ymmärrettävä Internetin mahdollisuudet, tai siihen, että opettaja pyrkii suojelemaan lapsia Internetin uhkilta ja liialliselta altistumiselta esimerkiksi digitaalisille peleille. Verkko-opetuksen tavoitteinen arvioinnin fokus (2) nojaa siihen, minkälaisia tavoitteita luokanopettaja yleisesti asettaa opetukselleen, vaikka tieto- ja viestintätekniikka ei liittyisikään prosessiin. Fokuksen taustalla on myös mediakasvatuksen näkökulma tieto- ja viestintätekniikan opetuskäyttöön, jolloin keskeistä on, että opetuksen suunnittelu ja arviointi ei lähde teknologiasta käsin vaan didaktiikasta ja pedagogisista arvoista. Verkko-opetuksen arvioinnin fokusten voidaan nähdä täydentävän toisiaan. Fokusten varioinnissa voidaan puhua luokanopettajan kohdalla todellisesta mediataidosta, joka ulottuu yli ammatillisen pätevyyden aina opettajan henkilökohtaiseen kehittymisen kaareen.

Today information and communication technology allows us to use multimedia more than ever before in e-learning materials. Multimedia though can increase cognitive load in learning process. Because of that it cannot be taken granted what kind of learning materials should be produced. This paper intended to study the diversity of e-learning materials and the factors related cognitive load. The main purpose was to study the multimodality of the multimedia learning materials. The subject of this study is the learning materials on the web site "Kansalaisen ABC" published by YLE. Learning materials in the web site were approached from three different perspectives. The specific questions were: (1) What kind of form features are used in the representations of the learning material? Are certain form features preferred over others? (2) How do the cognitive load factors take shape in learning materials and between the forms? (3) How does the multimodality phenomenon appear in the learning materials and in what ways are form features and cognitive load factors related to multimodality? In this case study a qualitative approach was used. Analysis of the form features and the cognitive load factors in learning materials were based on content analysis. Form features included the specification of a format, the structure, the interactivity type and the type of learning material. The results showed that the web sites include various representations of both verbal and visual forms. Cognitive load factors were related mostly to visual than verbal material. Material presented according to the principles of cognitive multimedia theory multimedia representations did not cause cognitive overload in the informants. Cognitive load was increased in the case of students needing to split their attention between the multimedia forms in time and place. The results indicated how different individual characteristics are reflected by the cognitive load factors.

The objective of this thesis (study) is to find out if a web-based learning concept is effective in a subject matter that is traditionally taught in contact where the core of the learning pro-cess has been direct feedback, individual homework, and correcting student performance. The theoretical background of this survey/study is based on the theories and studies of learning environments, blended learning, and adult pedagogy. In recent years a lot of web-based studying and teaching materials have been created, for example YouTube has many educational videos for specific skills that are available for all. Alongside these kind of medias, entire music education learning environments are starting to emerge. In this study I have examined one of them, a Finnish web-based music school, Rockway. The goal has been to survey what sort of experiences students have had involv-ing the teaching material, user friendliness, and the quality of teaching. The second subject of this study has been finding out how the Rockway web-based learning environment works as part of the blended learning, where information can be acquired through many different channels, or how it works as a sole form of independent music studies. Methods: The research material has been gathered through a web-based e-form, which was sent to users of Rockway.fi in the summer 2017, and the survey ended in March 2018. Alto-gether, 75 Rockway-users answered the e-survey. The research material has been ana-lyzed mainly with descriptively quantitative frequency charts, which the open-ended answer descriptions reinforce. Results and conclusions: The results of the study are encouraging from the view of the web-based music studies development. The students were relatively satisfied with the web-learning service. They felt that they had improved in their instrument skills, and they had received assessment tools for evaluating their own musical skills. The Rockway service was user-friendly. However, a portion of the students emphasized that the web-based in-struction can never fully replace the contact teaching. There is a demand for developing the web-based learning platform that offers more interactive and blended learning environ-ments, where the web-based learning can be blended into contact situations.

Verme is a tailor-made peer-group mentoring method for Finnish educational thinking. It sup-ports the professional development of teaching and education professionals. In this study, a similar methodology was tested as a supportive activity for the development of the kid’s min-istry volunteer team at Suhe church. The study adopted an action research approach. The field research lasted from October 2017 to May 2018, during which the first cycle of action research was carried out and the next cycle was started. The team’s peer-group met three times and the activity was evaluated and further developed based on the participants’ expe-riences and views. The entire team-of-six participated in the study. Qualitative data collection methods such as particapatory observation, research journal and feedback inquiries were used as part of the research. The main research material was obtained using a focus group method and that da-ta was supported by the feedback received during the research process. Focus group and feedback materials were both analysed with the inductive content analysis and the SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis was considrered as the theory based approach in the study. The research concluded that the method is sensible to support the team’s work. The benefits of the method were more diverse than those related to the professional development alone. The team voted for the continuation of the method in the autumn term 2018. Based on the participants' experiences and views, the research identified the strengths and weaknesses of the group and the opportunities and threats involved in participating in the group. Based on these, the group's activities were further developed and the next cycle of activity research was primed but not carried out within the framework of my Master's thesis.