Browsing by discipline "Erityispedagogiikka"

The specificity of children's behavior and children considered as special have been raised in school discussions as the cause of deteriorating learning outcomes, causing problems with teachers' time use and preventing teaching of the so called majority of children in primary school. Naming a child special affects the way and place of his/her teaching and therefore it is necessary to look at the definitions and discourses of special behavior. The purpose of the thesis was to find out how the behavioral problems and a child with a behavioral disorder named in many ways is constructed in expert articles and to examine the specificity of behavior using the social disability model of disability research. Sahlin's cultural model was used as a way to study the change in the discipline of special education together with changes outlined through paradigms. The study highlights the discourses special pedagogy experts have built on the specificity behavior of a child in the book series “Childrens’ Special Care and Education in Finland” over seven decades. These discourses are considered in the context of changes in special education and paradigms of special education. Critical discourse analysis was used as a research and analysis method in the study. The material of the study consisted of the texts of the thirteen editions of the book “Childrens’ Special Care and Education in Finland”, dealing with behavioural disorders. The textual material was analyzed by thematizing the medical, disability or feature related definitions of these texts, as well as the definitions of the social construction and creation of specificity according to the theoretical background of the research. After the thematizing, the selected text samples were analyzed for how the causes of specificity are localized and what is the child's position in them, and the discourses formed by these were named. These discourses were also examined in the context of changes in special education and the paradigms of special education. The research showed a hegemonic discourse based on psycho-medical interpretation, which at different times defined the child's position as a victim of the child's psychological and biological structure and as achild who is not mentally adaptive. Parallel and intertwined discourses were also built on a hegemonic discourse. The discourses of the specificity of behavior in the material reflected changes in the paradigms of special education and special pedagogy and the cultural reproduction of the category of specificity. According to the study, the discourse based on psycho- medical interpretation is the hegemonic discourse of the “Special Care and Education of the Child in Finland” book series, in which the child’s position is a child with internal pathology. The discourses of the material and the child's positions reflect changes in special education and in the paradigms of special education, as well as the cultural structure of the discipline.

It is essential to listen and pay attention to the youth in matters that concern them. The right to be heard is written down in the UN’s Declaration of the Rights of the Child and Finnish national curriculum. However, the right to be heard is not wholly implemented at schools and this is especially true in the case of the young who attend special education. By listening the young more attentively could the school institution be better prepared to create school that can educate more diverse bodies of students and be more inclusive. School experiences correlate with educational decisions that the youth make and positive school experiences correlate with contentment with their lives. In addition, the experiences that the young have at school can be seen to be connected with the development of their identities that is one of the main developmental tasks in youth according to life-span theories. Identities can be studied using the narratives that people tell about themselves. The narratives that people create about themselves are part of their narrative identities through which people give meanings to their experiences in form of narratives. The purpose of this study is to examine what a ninth-grade student in special education tells about herself in her school narratives and examine how her narrative identity appears in the narratives. One ninth-grade student attending special education was interviewed for this study. The narratives that were formed in the interview were examined with narrative analysis through which a comprehensive narrative of the school experiences of the interviewed student were constructed. The narratives were also examined using analysis of the narratives with which core themes of the narratives were searched for and formed. The research showed that the narrative, that the interviewed student constructed, was a growth narrative of herself, in which she depicted her changing school motivation and behavior through comprehensive school. In the narratives her attitude towards the school was mainly negative because of her challenges with behavior and learning in primary school. However, her attitude changed completely when she moved to the upper levels of comprehensive school. The central themes in the narratives were growth, future, sports, and others as resources and impediments, through which she constructed meanings for her experiences. The narrative identity of the student appeared to be positive and her outlook for herself and for her future were optimistic which is reflected in the narratives of her overcoming the hardships at school. In the narratives the interviewed student found ways to maintain her well-being, for example, using sports and her family’s support. The narratives of the interviewed student mainly coincide with the statistics of the school experiences and future prospects of Finnish youth. Moreover, the experiences of the interviewed student agree with the results of previous research that showed that students in classroom special education were more content with special education classes than general education classes. According to the previous research the attitudes towards school deteriorated at the beginning of upper levels of comprehensive school that is completely the opposite what happened in the narratives of the interviewed student. Therefore, it is vital to listen to the young so that it is possible to prevent negative school experiences.

In previous studies it has been found a connection between pupils' school success and the quality of home-school partnership. The aim of this study is to map perceptions of parents of school-age children about home-school partnership. Furthermore this study will canvass practices of partnership that are practical or need to be improved from parents' viewpoint. The theoretical framework of this study is made up of Epstein's (1987, 1992, 1994) model overlapping spheres of influence and the six major types of partnership activities. The data of this study is collected via web-survey, which purpose was to map pupils and their parents' viewpoints to support the improvement of basic education in the research city. The questionnaire was answered by 3859 parents and 1252 pupils. The survey consisted of background questions, structured questions and open-ended questions. This study is a mixed methods study which has both quantitative and qualitative part. At the quantitative part of the study the sum of the variables have been formed by factor analysis and then examined with different background variables using analysis of variance. Qualitative data is analyzed by deductive content analysis. Epstein's (1992, 1994) six major types of partnership activities is used as a framework for analysis. At the end quantitative and qualitative part will integrate as meta-inferences. In this study parents' perceptions of the interaction between home and school was positive. Also their knowledge about student welfare team was quite good. Parents' view of home-school interaction was statistically significant related to pupil's grade. The knowledge about student welfare team was statistically significant related to pupil's grade, mother's education and pupil's support level. Partnership activities that belong to the basic obligations of school communication, for example informing and personal meetings, gathered both most compliments and most developmental proposals. Parents view home-school partnership important and they hope investment for its improvement.

The purpose of this study is to examine supervision experiences of special education teachers and how supervising affects their ability to carry on in their duties and how their pro-fessional development. The main reason for this subject was the lack of previous studies on the matter and also my own history in the field of supervision.Working as a teacher in special education is often very taxing and for the employees because the work itself requires buil-ding individual relationships with students in a work environment as hectic and yet bureauc-ratic as schools are. Special education teachers are taking care of students and children who are in the most vulnerable positions of society and need the most care and affection in their lives. But who cares for the teachers themselves? Professional supervision is the key in supporting special education professionals in their daily life both mentally and professionally. Regular and accessible supervision services should be viewed as the primary method to se-cure the well being of the special education teachers, which in turn would help to maintain a healthy workforce in the field. The study was conducted as online research through social media. The background survey and research invitations were conducted in the Erityisopettajat Facebook group. The actual study was then conducted in closed Facebook group called “Erityisopettajien pohdintaa” by interviews of the focus group of seven (7) special education teachers. The materials gathe-red from the studies were the analysed by using content analysis methods. The final results of the conducted research enforced my understanding that supervision should be instituted as a regular part of the support structure of special education professi-onals. Based on the results the study, the accessibility of supervision varies a lot between workplaces. The availability of supervision appears to depend mostly on the employers un-derstanding of its benefits for the employee and the work environment itself. The survey succeeded in covering both the good and the challenging parts of special education. The fi-nal conclusion from the study is that the teachers in special education felt that the supervisi-on as a direct impact on their well being and professional development.

Objectives. Support for learning difficulties has not been made available to students in an equal manner in different parts of the country. Earlier research shows that there are regional differences in the percentages of comprehensive school students receiving support, as well as in the forms of support made available to them. The purpose of this Master's thesis was to study how many ninth grade students participating in the Learning to Learn Assessment in 2012 had received support for learning during the past academic year in different parts of Finland. Another objective was to analyse the realisation of educational equality, i.e. whether there are regional or municipal differences (between urban, semi-urban and rural municipalities) in the support made available to students. Methods. The Learning to Learn Assessment was carried out in spring 2012. A total of 7,222 ninth grade students from different parts of Finland participated in this assessment. Among the participants, 4% were recipients of intensified support and 7.9% recipients of special support. Five task categories developed for the Learning to Learn Assessment were included in the present study. The material was analysed by variance analysis in order to identify possible geographical differences. Results and conclusions. The study discovered regional differences in the definition of recipients of general support. With regard to general support, there were significant regional differences. Intensified support and special support were made available to students least frequently in the regions of Lapland and Southwest Finland. There were also differences between the regions in how effectively they employed the different levels of support included in the three-tier support system. The results indicate that large, urban municipalities in particular have succeeded in amending their support system faster than semi-urban and rural municipalities, and they have also succeeded in re-evaluating students' needs for special support.There were also differences in the use of the individually adjusted syllabus as a form of special support. Using the individually adjusted syllabus may lead to less ambitious learning objectives and weaker learning outcomes, possibly also negatively influencing students' pursuit of further study.The present study concludes that although there are regional differences in the availability of support, it seems that there are no differences between students: students receiving support are similar when it comes to their academic performance and learning to learn competence.

Studying by activity areas is less examined topic in the field of special education. Students’ educa-tion can be arranged by activity areas if the pupil is unable to meet the subjects’ objectives. There are five activity areas: communication skills, social, motor, cognitive and day-to-day skills. These areas have retained their form for tens of years, while the core curriculum has been updated. Because of that, it was necessary to find out what the teachers think of it. The need for this research was created through the InTo -project. The project was justified e.g. by the lacks in the activity areas curriculum. It was possible to notice perspectives in teachers’ conceptions, which related to equality. The purpose of this study is to interpret, through the conceptions of the teachers who are working with the activity areas curriculum, how the activity areas curriculum embodies equality. Equality has been examined via both teachers’ and pupils’ perspectives, reflecting it to activity areas curriculum. I examine the equality of activity areas curriculum from four perspectives: The curriculum as a tool for teaching, the teaching goals of the student, the recognition of diversity of the pupils in the activity areas curriculum and the teacher’s role as an interpreter of the curriculum. My material consisted of 18 interviews from teachers who work with activity areas curriculum. The interviews were conducted during the spring and autumn of 2018 in four different Finnish municipalities. My re-search is a qualitative study. I used phenomenography in the analysis of the data. To visualize my results, I adapted Attride-Stirlings (2001) thematic network system. The results showed that, according to the teachers’ perceptions, the activity areas curriculum needs to be sharpened and concretized. Its areas of activity are good, but it is not functional teachers working tool. The role of the teacher in the activity areas education includes a great deal of power and responsibility because of the different possibilities to use and interpret curricula. The students’ goal-oriented learning is not secured through the current activity areas curriculum, as it is challenging to find goals from it because of its generality. Goals are also developed under teachers’ consideration. The results also showed that the inclusion of the spectrum of pupils in the activity areas curriculum is challenging.

My thesis is set in the vocational special education institution, where I researched development of working life competences of students with special needs during two school years. My goal is to find out, what kind of working life competences students have in different period of studies and what kind of influence competences may have to students' employment after studies. In my thesis I also think about how existing working life competences support and insufficient working life competences prevent to reach the work and how to support and develop insufficient working life competencies. The reform of the vocational education and training became valid in the beginning of year 2018 and it will change the vocational education and training in Finland. In my thesis I reflect this reform on the vocational special education. The qualitative research was focused at a small group of special education students, in the first research year seven students and in the second year five students. My research is an ethnographic research, because at the same time when I collected my data I worked as a teacher in the research field. I collected my data by observing and keeping a diary of my observations and discussion with students and workplace instructors. I made inquiries to students, one interview to one workplace instructor and collected other material. I made analysis with the content analysis. Making themes in the analysis I used competence classification of Evers, Rush and Bedrow, where working life competences are separated to managing self, communicating, managing people and tasks and mobilising innovation and change. Working life competencies of students developed best during on-the-job-learning period in the workplace. Students of the vocational special education institution didn't reach all fields of working life competencies which could have supported their employment. Insufficient working life competencies should be identified and support and guidance to students must be offered. During working life periods should be schooldays when students can get support from teacher and own study group. It is the institution's mission to make sure that learning in the workplace is along goals and student gets enough guidance. In the workplaces there should be enough workplace instructors, who are capable to guide students with special needs. The reform of the vocational education and training offer possibilities but include also threats. There should be chances for every young student, although student with special needs does not represent the ideal student of the reform: quickly graduated and employed.

Children’s and adolescents’ well-being as well as school well-being has been a headline on many news recently. The aim of this study was to examine compulsory school students’ perspectives on school factors that have influenced on their school absenteeism. The aim of this study was also to view student’s perspectives on the support the school has offered them. The aim was also to find out what kind of support the adolescents would consider to be effective in preventing absenteeism. Many researchers have done research on truancy but only few studies have focused on students’ perspectives on truancy. This research was conducted as a theme interview. Research material consisted of five theme interviews from compulsory school students that have been absent from school and school is concerned on their school absenteeism. Themes covered school aspects from a wide range. Themes covered also student’s views to their school absenteeism. The research material was analysed by using content analysis. Results from this study indicate that school bullying is one of the major reasons behind school absenteeism of the interviewed adolescents. Interaction with teachers play also an important role. Only one of the adolescents interviewed stated that her absenteeism is due to her own motivation. The results show that school has not offered enough support against or preventing bullying. The results concerning support in school matters other than bullying vary from not getting enough support to getting all the support student could ask for. Results from this study show that students hope the school to act stronger in preventing school bullying. Also schools should place more effort on the school atmosphere and the interaction between students and teachers. Strengthening school engagement and preventing school bullying could help reduce school absenteeism.

The differences between Finnish schools have been small compared to other countries in in-ternational comparisons. In contrast, the differences between classes have been remarka-ble. These differences have also been discovered to grow over years and thereby differenti-ate learning results of pupils. Potential reason for the differences is that the pupils of different performance level and background are divided into classes unevenly. In Finland, pupils re-ceiving special support are increasingly being taught inclusively in general education class-rooms instead of separate special classes. One objective of this study is to find out if the proportion of pupils receiving intensified or special support is related to the average perfor-mance of the class. The main objective of this Master’s Thesis was to find out whether there were differences between classes in performance and motivation, and which factors explain the possible variation. In addition to the proportion of pupils receiving intensified and special support, this study takes into account the proportion of pupils with immigrant background and the educational background of pupils’ mothers. The research data was part of the Centre of Educational Assessment’s Learning to Learn Assessment data from 2016. The participants of this study consisted of 1888 6th graders in 95 classes in one municipality in Southern Finland. The performance of the pupils was measured by their average grades in theoretical subjects and their performance in logical reasoning tasks. Motivation was assessed by a goal orientation questionnaire. Variance components analysis and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. This study discovered differences between classes in their average grades and perfor-mance in reasoning tasks. There were also smaller differences between classes in learning orientation and achievement orientation. According to this study, the higher education of the pupils’ mothers and the proportion of Finnish-speaking students in a class predicted higher grades and performance in class-level. Surprisingly, the proportion of pupils that received special support had a positive connection with the average grade of the class. However, it was not connected to the performance in reasoning tasks at class level. The proportion of pupils receiving intensified support was not connected to performance in class-level.

In this research I examined in what way the transversal competence areas included in the core curriculum are compatible with the education arranged by the activity areas. While the core curriculum is being renewed to suit the changing world, the role of the education arranged by the activity areas has remained the same for decades. There are, however, similarities between the transversal learning and the education arranged by the activity areas. They both aim at supporting comprehensive growth and development and neither of them functions inside the limits of separate subjects. The aim of transversal competence learning is the pupils´ growth as personalities and citizens in such a way that they recognize their own strengths while education arranged by the activity areas helps them to act independently in their lives. My material consisted of 22 interviews of teachers who taught by the activity areas. The interviews were collected during the spring of 2018 in four cities in different parts of Finland. I analysed the material utilizing analysis based on thematic networks. I executed my study as a qualitative research. The results showed that it is possible to make use of the ideas of transversal competence learning in a versatile way in education arranged by the activity areas. Multiliteracy, ICT competence, working life competence and entrepreneurship were emphasized in the material because in these areas of learning there seemed to be an obvious contradiction as to their suitability to education by the activity areas. In the light of the definition of the core curriculum and the results of research, these three areas of learning can be made use of in education arranged by the activity areas. Documenting the suitable methods in the core curriculum would be important as well as teachers´ further education. I noticed that teachers experienced the contents of transversal competence learning and learning by activity areas being alike. In teachers´ opinion taking care of oneself, managing daily life, interaction and expressing oneself are the most important areas of transversal learning. Teachers also presented integration and inclusion solutions they used in transversal education. In addition to this they talked about participation and its realization in the framework of transversal. competence. They also expressed doubts as to the possibilities of transversal competences and their appropriability.