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Objectives. The social role of children has been established over the years and the strengthening of children’s participation is strictly based on international human rights obligations such as the Constitution Law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Several theorists such as Hart (1992), Shier (2001), Lundy (2007) and Turja (2011) have also defined children’s participation creating different models. Although the importance of children’s participation and hearing children’s opinions are emphasized in several studies and reports (E.g., Karlsson, 2012; Stenvall, 2021; Turja, 2011; Weckström, 2021), it is not always implemented appropriately. The aim of this study is to describe children’s participation experiences and opportunities to participate in decision making. This study focuses on children in ECEC and in 6th grade in three municipalities with different demographical locations and population. Another purpose is to examine the role of adults in participation through children's narratives. In particular, the research makes use of Lundy's (2007) and Turja's (2011) participation models, where participation is seen as a multidimensional entity. The research focuses on the experiences of children in ECEC and children in the 6th grade of primary school to see how age affects those participation experiences. In addition, the review considers the effects of geographical location on the realization of equal participation. Methods. This thesis has been done as part of a sub-study belonging to a larger multidisciplinary research project that was commissioned and funded by the Ministry of Education: 'Multidisciplinary research project on the effects of demographic trends to education' and the sub study 'Equity, children's rights, and the child impact assessment.’ This study was carried out in workshop interviews with children and the data was analyzed using theory-based content analysis. Results and conclusions The data revealed many factors strengthening and weakening children's participation. The results of this study are linked to environments and communities. Children's participation is formed, and it culminates in community and respectful interactions.

The new Finnish curriculum (FNBE, 2014) calls for active and engaging learning that supports students' agency and active role in their own learning. It emphasizes creating meaningful contexts that interrelate also with students' out-of-school interests. Research shows participating with organized out-of-school activities has a positive relation to school grades. In addition, it seems that school engagement is low among Finnish 6th graders (Salmela-Aro et al., 2016). However, little is known of what currently interests Finnish pupils and how their topics of interest are related to academic well-being. This study explores the topics of interest and interest-driven participation and further, their relation to school engagement, school burnout and grades (GPA) of 6th graders. The study was part of Mind the Gap project (Academy of Finland #265528) and the participants (n=735) were 6th graders from Helsinki. I conducted content categorization of the whole sample that showed a rich variation of interests, largest categories being sports (43.8%) and arts (27.9%). The quantitative analyses looked at the intensity and form of the activities. I identified three interest profiles with two-step cluster analysis: Organized team participators, Informal individualistic participators and Intensive participators. The Organized team participators were most interested in team sports. They reported high school engagement, low burnout and high GPA whereas Informal individualistic participators had lower school engagement, high GPA and moderate school burnout. They were the most interested in music and arts. Intensive participators, who were especially interested in social interaction, were engaged to school, but had higher levels of burnout and the lowest GPA. The results indicate lack of supporting interest-driven participation in schools: only Intensive participators were almost as active inside as outside of school. It may be difficult for teachers to adopt new practices that call for supporting interest-driven participation. However, it would be important to use students' personal interests to bridge between school world and students' lives and to promote student agency and support school engagement.

OBJECTIVES. Oral foreign language skills are an integral part of one's social, academic and professional competence. This can be problematic for those suffering from foreign language communication apprehension (CA), or a fear of speaking a foreign language. CA manifests itself, for example, through feelings of anxiety and tension, physical arousal and avoidance of foreign language communication situations. According to scholars, foreign language CA may impede the language learning process significantly and have detrimental effects on one's language learning, academic achievement and career prospects. Drawing on upper secondary students' subjective experiences of communication situations in English as a foreign language, this study seeks, first, to describe, analyze and interpret why upper secondary students experience English language communication apprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. Second, this study seeks to analyse what the most anxiety-arousing oral production tasks in EFL classes are, and which features of different oral production tasks arouse English language communication apprehension and why. The ultimate objectives of the present study are to raise teachers' awareness of foreign language CA and its features, manifestations and impacts in foreign language classes as well as to suggest possible ways to minimize the anxiety-arousing features in foreign language classes. METHODS. The data was collected in two phases by means of six-part Likert-type questionnaires and theme interviews, and analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The questionnaire data was collected in spring 2008. The respondents were 122 first-year upper secondary students, 68 % of whom were girls and 31 % of whom were boys. The data was analysed by statistical methods using SPSS software. The theme interviews were conducted in spring 2009. The interviewees were 11 second-year upper secondary students aged 17 to 19, who were chosen by purposeful selection on the basis of their English language CA level measured in the questionnaires. Six interviewees were classified as high apprehensives and five as low apprehensives according to their score in the foreign language CA scale in the questionnaires. The interview data was coded and thematized using the technique of content analysis. The analysis and interpretation of the data drew on a comparison of the self-reports of the highly apprehensive and low apprehensive upper secondary students. RESULTS. The causes of English language CA in EFL classes as reported by the students were both internal and external in nature. The most notable causes were a low self-assessed English proficiency, a concern over errors, a concern over evaluation, and a concern over the impression made on others. Other causes related to a high English language CA were a lack of authentic oral practise in EFL classes, discouraging teachers and negative experiences of learning English, unrealistic internal demands for oral English performance, high external demands and expectations for oral English performance, the conversation partner's higher English proficiency, and the audience's large size and unfamiliarity. The most anxiety-arousing oral production tasks in EFL classes were presentations or speeches with or without notes in front of the class, acting in front of the class, pair debates with the class as audience, expressing thoughts and ideas to the class, presentations or speeches without notes while seated, group debates with the class as audience, and answering to the teacher's questions involuntarily. The main features affecting the anxiety-arousing potential of an oral production task were a high degree of attention, a large audience, a high degree of evaluation, little time for preparation, little linguistic support, and a long duration.

Objectives. In many families, housework is a daily topic of discussion and controversy. Although working life has changed, households have become more prosperous, and technology has become as a help in housework, there are still many household chores that need to be done. Women are still primarily responsible for doing housework, in addition to their own gainful employment. Spouse and children often play an assistant role. The same division of labour is also evident in girls’ and boys’ housework. Girls do a lot more housework than boys. The purpose of this study was study young people’s attitudes towards housework. Are young people required to do housework, and if so, do they agree to do it? How does the division of labour affect family relationships? Doing and not doing housework is an emotive topic. The views of young people on how they perceive their own roles and those of their carers as active agents in households are worth hearing. The research questions are: 1. How do young people feel about participating in housework? a) How does housework appear in family relationships? b) What do young people think about their own household skills? 2. How do young people feel about their own roles and the roles of adults in their family in taking part in housework? Methods. The quantitative material consisted of the answers to an e-questionnaire. The answerers were 55 ninth grades from an upper comprehensive school. The answers were processed using the SPSS program. The analysis used averages, cross tabulation, and Pearson’s correlation. Some of the results were tested with an even t-test and a chi-square test. Results and conclusions. Many young people are involved in doing housework because of their own choice. They also think that it is their duty. In their opinion they have good skills and they manage doing housework well. Girls do a lot more housework than boys and have a more positive attitude. Most young people find that the adults in their family take good care of the home and this makes them feel secure. Everyone agrees that doing housework is everybody’s responsibility. In home economics education it is important to strengthen the equal division of labor in housework. Particularly boys need to be encouraged to rely on their own abilities and to understand their role as an equal, responsible family members and not just a mom’s or wife’s helper.

Aims. The aim of this study was to identify different profiles of social media use among Finnish 9th graders (N=833), and to compare these profiles on academic well-being measured as schoolwork engagement and school burnout. Furthermore, the aim of this study was to compare these profiles on the Big Five personality traits and gender. The research of connections between social media use and academic well-being among adolescence is limited, and this is presumably the first research to combine personality traits, social media use and academic well-being in adolescence. Methods. The theoretical framework was the demands-resources model and the DC-DDR-model (Developmental-Contextual Model of Digital Demands and Resources). The profiles of social media use were formed on a two-step cluster analysis. In the clusters, social media was described by social activity and hanging out, information-oriented activity and creative activity, which were measured determining the type and amount of use. Differences on academic well-being and personality traits between each profile were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Differences on gender were analyzed using chi-square test of independence and cross-tabulations. Results and conclusions. The two-step cluster analysis identified four clusters, and the profiles were named as following: the profile of low social media use (23.3 %), the profile of versatile social activity (28.1 %), the profile of unilateral social activity (18.1 %) and the profile focusing on learning, information seeking and creativity (30.5 %). The profiles differed in terms of both schoolwork engagement and school burnout. Boys more often than girls belonged to the profile of low social media use, which also highlighted the lowest school burnout. Schoolwork engagement was reported to be highest in the profile focusing on learning, information seeking and creativity and lowest in the profile of unilateral social activity. Moreover, school burnout was reported to be highest in the profile of versatile social activity, which was characterized by high social activity and hanging out in addition to high social media use in other aspects. The profiles also differed in all the Big Five personality traits except agreeableness, and openness to experiences showed to be the most be distinguishing personality trait. The profile focusing on learning, information seeking, and creativity reported the highest amount of openness to experiences but also highest neuroticism, while the profile of unilateral social activity reported the highest amount of extraversion and the lowest conscientiousness. Regarding these results, individual differences in personality traits should be taken into consideration, since connections between social media use and academic well-being vary from adolescent to adolescent. This contributes to better understanding of adolescent's individual needs and the use of social media which promotes academic well-being.

Participation and social modes of thinking - An intervention study on the development of collaborative learning in two primary school small groups This study explores the thinking together -intervention programme in three primary school classes. The object of the intervention was to teach pupils to use exploratory talk in small group collaboratory learning. Exploratory talk is a type of talk in which joint reasoning is made explicit. Research has shown that exploratory talk can improve mathematics and science learning, argumentative skills and competence in reasoning tests. The object of this study was to investigate the theory of social modes of thinking which the intervention program is based on. I tried to find out how the thinking together -intervention programme suits the Finnish context. Therefore my study is part of an international research project of interventions that have been implemented for example in Great-Britain and in Mexico. One essential drawback in former research made on thinking together -approach is that the nature of participation has not been studied properly. In this study I also examine how the nature of participation develops in small groups. In addition to that I aim to develop a theoretical framework which includes both the perspectives of the social modes of thinking and the nature of participation. The perspective of this study is sociocultural. The research material consists of video recordings of collaborative learning tasks of two small groups. In groups there were pupils of age groups 9 - 11. I study the nature of participation using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative methods include for example IR-analysis method and counting of turns at talk and words. I also use qualitative content analysis to analyze both the nature of participation and social modes of thinking. As a result of my study I found out that the interaction of the other group was leadership based and in the other group the interaction was without leadership relations. In both groups the participation was quantitatively more symmetrical in the end of the intervention. In the group in which the interaction was leadership based the participation of the pupils was more symmetrical. Exploratory talk was found more in the group without leadership relations, but in both groups the amount of exploratory talk was increased during the intervention. Leadership based interaction was further divided into interaction of alienating and inclusive leadership according to how symmetrical the participation was in the dialogue. Exploratory talk was found only when the leadership was inclusive or the interaction was without leadership relations. The main result of the study was that the exploratory talk was further divided into four subcategories according to the nature of participation. In open and inclusive exploratory talk all group members participated initiatively and their initiatives were responded by others. In closed and uneven exploratory talk some group members couldn't participate properly. Therefore it cannot be said that exploratory talk guarantees symmetrical participation. The nature of participation must be investigated separately.

According to sociocultural learning theory a child develops and learns in social interaction with his or her learning environment. The social dimension of the learning environment in the early childhood education is related to child's need to become a member of the peer group. In group-based early childhood education this need shall be ensured as the group develops. Earlier research shows that social interaction of the learning environment either limits or promotes children's learning. The aim of this study is to find out if there is any correlation between group development and the quality of the learning environment in the early childhood education. In this study, the learning environment contains the physical, social and didactic dimensions. The theories behind this study are Tuckman's stages of group development (1965) and Koivula's research of children's sense of community and collaborative learning in day care center (2010). In this study, the quality factors of the learning environment were defined according to ECERS-R. The research questions were: Is there any correlation between group development stages and (1) the quality of the physical dimension, (2) the quality of the social dimension and (3) the quality of the didactic dimension of the learning environment in early childhood education? In this secondary research I used the quantitative data collected (spring 2015) by the Orientation project led by docent Jyrki Reunamo in the University of Helsinki. The material is extensive (n>2000). The children in this research were mostly in groups of 14 to 24 children. The difference between the age of the youngest and the oldest child in the group was between 0 to 5 years. The statistical methods of this research were the Cronbach's alpha, the partial correlation, the Spearman's correlation and the cross-tabulation. As expected, the group development correlates with physical, social and didactic dimension of the learning environment in early childhood education. E.g. basic care situations were more peaceful, social interaction was more effective, children's linguistic participation was richer and play was longer-lasting in later group development stages than earlier stages of the group development. The structure of the group shall be taken in to account.

Objectives: Eating together, commensalism, has lately been a common subject in a public conversation. There are concerns about the disappearance of the habit of eating together. The discussion about disappearing includes also a longing for the past. The phenomenon of eating together has strong meaning nowadays: it was one of the main themes while Finland was celebrating 100 years in 2017. There are only few previous studies about the history of eating together in Finland. The main aim of this study is to find out, how of eating together is changed from the past to nowa- days and how it is seen in present day. Research questions are: · What kind of eating together is has been in Finland´s 100 years of independence? · What kind of experiences older people have about eating together? · How eating together is seen in Finland in the 2010s? Methods: The first dataset was collected through qualitative group interviews from six pen- sioners and the second dataset was collected from newspaper articles. The interviews were audiorecorded and transcribed into written form. The journal data were collected from Helsingin Sanomat between 1.1.2010-31.12.2016. The both datasets, the inter- views and written journal data, were analyzed with the qualitative content analysis. Results and conclusions: Interviewees had only a few memories about eating together in their childhood. Family ate together because it was practical. When interviewers lived family life with their own children they were appreciated family meals and tried to eat together with family. However, work and hobbies challenged the possibilities of eating together. Nowa- days, in older age, interviewees long for eating together. The data from newspaper articles reveals that eating together is comprehended as important, but endangered. Besides the wor- ries, there are new viewpoints, such as relaxing and getting people together to share the common meals. The results followed earlier studies about Finnish eating. Results showed finns appreciate eating together but at the same time they worried about losing it.

The aim of this study is to clarify how mixed reality technologies can be adapted to teaching and learning of craft. Mixed reality is mixture of different realities, both virtual and real realities. Terms such as virtual reality, augmented reality and augmented virtuality are usually associated to mixed reality. Earlier studies have shown that mixed reality technologies will help learning situations which are impossible or impractical to conduct in the real world. Virtual learning environment has the potential to increase learner’s motivation and create multi-sensory experience. Using mixed reality technologies in teaching can be challenging, because it will change the traditional teaching methods and bring new technologies into the classroom. This study adapted the features of future oriented case study. The theoretical framework of the study consists of mixed reality, virtual learning environment and its affordances as well as theories of teaching and learning of craft. In this study, the mixed reality test in which four Craft teachers participated was designed and implemented. During the test, teachers were introduced to weaving assignment in a virtual reality learning environment with HTC Vive virtual reality system. After the test, teachers filled out a questionnaire where they evaluated the weaving assignment through virtual learning environment affordances. In the questionnaire teachers were also asked about their own attitude towards mixed reality technologies and its possibilities in craft education. At the end of the test teachers par-ticipated in a semistructured interview, which aimed at finding more ideas how to use mixed reality technologies while teaching pupils towards holistic craft process. The results of the study stated that mixed reality technologies have potential benefits for craft education. Mixed reality technologies were seen to have potential to help pupils to learn design skills as well as spatial knowledge while designing 3D-models for further production. Mixed reality technologies can also help pupils in the production and documentation stages. Teachers emphasised the pupil's role as a content creator and the importance of the learning content around the new technology. Furthermore, teachers believed that mixed reality can make impossible learning situations possible and create multi-sensory experience. Mixed reality can also increase pupil’s motivation and bring pupils into the learning topics which might not be otherwise interesting.

The purpose of this study was to examine the professional identity of teachers through their lifehistorical narratives. The study relied on theories of teacher’s professional identity and autobiographical memory. The study aimed at examining what kind of past life experiences lay the foundation for professional identity from the earliest memories of childhood. Further, the study aimed to examine how teachers describe the appearance of past life experiences in their concurrent professional identity. Thus, the study combines perceptions of time with those of the past, the present, and possibly also the future. The study relied on narrative methods. Narrativity was evident in my research through the research approach, the means of data acquisition, and the analysis. Four teachers working in different fields were selected to participate in the study. Some of the teachers had several years of experience working as a qualified teacher while some had only a short period of work experience from recent years. The data was collected by using semi-structured theme interview where the focus was on themes related to previous life experiences and professional identity. The data was analysed by using the analysis of narratives. Past experiences that lay the foundation for teacher’s professional identity were felt to include experiences related to searching professional direction as well as previous teachers. Further, the appearance of past experiences in the professional identity was experienced through the views of teaching and learning, values, and the basis of teaching and educational work. The study showed the importance of previous life experiences for laying the foundation of teachers’ professional identity but also for how past experiences appears in teachers’ concurrent professional identity.