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This thesis examined the strategies in multiliteracy used by children in their interpretation of multimodal texts through peer dialogue. The thesis builds upon a sociocultural approach to meaning-making in interaction. According to new, broader perspectives on literacy, our so-cially and culturally shaped messages take ever more complex forms, which means that we also require mastery of complex literary skills in our meaning-making. This places new de-mands on pedagogical practices and on research to be considered. The development of multiliteracy skills in children is one of the objectives included in the Finnish national curricu-lum, which means that more knowledge of how multiliteracy can be enhanced in different contexts is needed. This study is influenced by theories within the research on multiliteracy as well as on previous research on emergent literacy among young children. The goal is to demonstrate emergent multiliterate processes of meaning-making expressed by young chil-dren in their interpretation of text through peer dialogue. The results may have an impact on the planning of pedagogical practices and materials used for the promotion of equal opportu-nities among children in the development of multiliteracy. The research was conducted with qualitative, unstructured, interviews in the form of text-dialogues. The participants were 40 children from a Finnish-speaking preschool. The children were 3 to 6 years old at the time. The text-dialogues that were filmed, showed the children working in pairs with the guidance of an adult interviewer, interpreting infographic posters. The dialogues were analysed with a qualitative thematic analysis and categories for the analysis were formed according to previous research on multiliteracy. The multimodality of the meaning-making expressed by the children was considered in the analysis, which gave a more nuanced picture of their processes. The results presented in the thesis suggest one way of relating emergent literary processes of young children with concepts of multiliteracy, as well as tools for closer examination of different forms of meaning making that young children express when interpreting multimodal and informative texts. The children in the study used complex multiliterate resources and strategies in their text-dialogues, which supports earlier theories of emergent readers as capable interpreters of varying text-sources. The meaning-making of the children was dynamic and transformative. The infographic posters used in the text-dialogues created a multiplicity of combinations of textual modalities, which enabled the children to assess the texts from many different perspectives.

Aims. This qualitative study explored a phenomenon of epistemic communality around a Twitter hashtag. The primary aim of the study was to explore communal epistemic production on the Twitter platform, especially in the context of a mutually shared hashtag. The study explored the peer-production of knowledge and epistemic structures in the context of a specialist domain collaborating in the open Web. The secondary aim was to explore how Twitter functions as a platform for networked expertise and as a public agora for practitioners' expert discourse. This nascent mode of cultural production leads to the development of expert cultures on Twitter and in the open Web. This creates new contexts for informal collaborative learning and cultral production potentially answering some of the competence challenges presented by the 21st century. Methods. The hashtag #okfest was launched for the 'Open Knowledge Festival' conference held in Helsinki, Finland (17–22.9.2012). The participants of the study were open knowledge practitioners who participated in the hashtag discourse of #okfest on Twitter. All public tweets containing the string '#okfest' were collected as data. Tweets were analyzed with qualitative thematic analysis exploring the epistemic contributions either included in the tweets or as hyperlinked attachments. Results and conclusions. The analysis indicated how the hashtag was appropriated to serve as a node of communal knowledge sharing beyond mere reporting from the conference. The analysis observed six themes of communal knowledge building in the hashtag space. The communal epistemic activities in #okfest were likened to the properties of a community of practice (Wenger, 1998). A network of practitioners engaging in a mutual domain creates a dynamic 'social learning system' combining social interaction with the production and dissemination of knowledge. The study yielded a novel theoretical concept of 'expert microblogging', recognized as a significant genre of cultural production in a specialist domain on Twitter and in the open Web. Finally the Twitter platform was ascertained as a site for the manifestation of cultures of networked expertise.

The purpose of this study is to increase scientific understanding of children's conceptual change in computational thinking during a summer school intervention. With a mixed method approach of self-report questionnaire and interview, the investigation highlights modern children's knowledge, beliefs and understanding of as well as attitudes, emotions and motivations towards computers, programming and artificial intelligence. Think-aloud –tasks are also used to investigate children's computational thought processes. The SRQ data with an intervention group (n = 28) and a comparison group (n = 21) was analysed with repeated measures and independent samples t-tests, MANOVA and ANCOVA, with the pretest condition as covariate. The data revealed a change in the intervention group's conceptions about embedded cyber-physical systems and the application of computers in different industrial and artistic fields. A slight shift towards a strong AI –mindset was discovered in the intervention group through the SRQ. The interviews for the intervention group (n = 6) and two comparison groups (n = 4, material comparison n = 4) reinforced this conclusion and showed a strong enhancement of computational thinking attitudes and perspectives in the intervention group in contrast to the comparison groups. The computational skills were found to be tightly knit to level of mathematical understanding, and didn't change notably during the summer school intervention.

Objectives: The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health has developed a method of Change Workshop to promote occupational well-being in organizations. Change Workshop is based on the activity theory and developmental work research methodology. The aim of this study was to analyse the emergence of an expansive learning cycle in the Change Workshop and to ascertain what share interventionists and participants have in the learning process. The second objective was to analyse the developmental cycle of one developmental project called "Annual Clock" during the different phases of the Change Workshop. The Annual Clock was developed as a tool to distribute work load among persons in different Services. Methods: The research data was from a Change Workshop conducted for the Finnish Forest Centre during 2012-2013. The Change Workshop consisted of five sessions each lasting about three hours and which were attended by 12-25 persons and 2-3 interventionists. The Change Workshop sessions were videotaped and audio-recorded. Transcriptions were made from video and audio recordings. There were a total of 1,190 speaking turns. Thematic analysis was applied to analyse the transcriptions. Since the first objective of the study was to examine the emergence of an expansive learning cycle (questioning, historical- and actual - empirical analysis, modelling, examination of the new model, implementation of the new model, reflection on the process and consolidating the new practice), so these formed part of the coding. This was supplemented by some additional codes based on the data: non-expansive learning, organizational issue, Change Workshop method and off-topic or non-related issue. Each speaking turn was first analysed to ascertain if it could represent any phase of the expansive learning cycle. If this was the case, a closer analysis was made to decide which phase in the expansive learning cycle. Quite a number of speaking turns were classified into several classes of expansive learning cycle, e.g. including elements of questioning, the prevailing situation, analysing the actual empirical situation and modelling. If the speaking turn did not indicate any traces of expansive learning, it was coded under the other headings: non-expansive learning, organizational issue, Change Workshop method or off topic (non-related) issue, and only in one of these headings. Since one speaking turn could be coded under several subcategories of expansive learning actions, the number of discursive elements was 1,378. In addition, a distinction in coding was made between interventionists and participants (except for the off-topic). For the analysis of the developmental cycle of the Annual Clock, a separate table was constructed by collecting all the speaking turns including the word "Annual Clock" and all such disturbances expressed in which the Annual Clock provided a solution. Results and conclusions: Expansive learning comprised 52% of the discursive elements. The learning process proceeded mainly according to the expansive learning cycle, but some of the learning actions, such as questioning, historical, actual-empirical and modelling, appeared throughout the Change Workshop process. The consolidating phase was not discovered during the Change Workshop, but was discussed in an evaluation meeting of the Change Workshop process two months later. The share of participants in discursive elements was 60% and the share of interventionists 37%. In the expansive learning category, the share of discursive elements by the participants was 81% and the share of interventionist was 19%. The Annual Clock as a germ cell appeared already during the first Change Workshop meeting, but it was mentioned not at all in the assignment for the second Change Workshop meeting, whereas afterwards the Annual Clock was again appearing in the discussions and the development of the idea continued according the expansive learning cycle until the 5th Change Workshop meeting.

Design embraces several disciplines dedicated to the production of artifacts and services. These disciplines are quite independent and only recently has psychological interest focused on them. Nowadays, the psychological theories of design, also called design cognition literature, describe the design process from the information processing viewpoint. These models co-exist with the normative standards of how designs should be crafted. In many places there are concrete discrepancies between these two in a way that resembles the differences between the actual and ideal decision-making. This study aimed to explore the possible difference related to problem decomposition. Decomposition is a standard component of human problem-solving models and is also included in the normative models of design. The idea of decomposition is to focus on a single aspect of the problem at a time. Despite its significance, the nature of decomposition in conceptual design is poorly understood and has only been preliminary investigated. This study addressed the status of decomposition in conceptual design of products using protocol analysis. Previous empirical investigations have argued that there are implicit and explicit decomposition, but have not provided a theoretical basis for these two. Therefore, the current research began by reviewing the problem solving and design literature and then composing a cognitive model of the solution search of conceptual design. The result is a synthetic view which describes recognition and decomposition as the basic schemata for conceptual design. A psychological experiment was conducted to explore decomposition. In the test, sixteen (N=16) senior students of mechanical engineering created concepts for two alternative tasks. The concurrent think-aloud method and protocol analysis were used to study decomposition. The results showed that despite the emphasis on decomposition in the formal education, only few designers (N=3) used decomposition explicitly and spontaneously in the presented tasks, although the designers in general applied a top-down control strategy. Instead, inferring from the use of structured strategies, the designers always relied on implicit decomposition. These results confirm the initial observations found in the literature, but they also suggest that decomposition should be investigated further. In the future, the benefits and possibilities of explicit decomposition should be considered along with the cognitive mechanisms behind decomposition. After that, the current results could be reinterpreted.

This master’s thesis includes two sections: the present summarizing report and the article manuscript. The purpose of the study is to explore the benefits of an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)-based intervention course to university students’ well-being, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The COVID-19 pandemic has decreased university students’ well-being and increased their risk of burnout. The declined state of student well-being calls for measures in exploring ways of promoting student well-being and preventing study-related burnout. The intervention course aimed to increase students’ psychological flexibility and organized studying skills, as means to positively impact their well-being and studying. A total of 189 participated in the study in the spring of 2021. Students’ risk of burnout was measured pre- and post-intervention, to statistically define whether students experienced that the course impacted their risk of burnout. To explore the course benefits in depth, students’ written reflective reports post-intervention were analyzed using abductive content analysis. The results were statistically compared according to the risk of burnout group assigned pre-intervention. The results showed that the intervention course led to a positive change in students' risk of burnout. The content analysis revealed seven main categories of benefits of the course: 1. improved general well-being, 2. improved self-knowledge, 3. increased psychological flexibility, 4. improved study practices and study motivation, 5. increased self-compassion, 6. gained peer-support, and 7. improved organized studying. These benefits were experienced by students regardless of their initial risk of burnout. The study highlights the potential of ACT-based intervention courses in improving the well-being and studying skills of university students, suggesting a need for further research on burnout prevention through such measures. The prospective publication channel for the research article manuscript is Research in Higher Education by Springer.

Objectives. This article-based master’s thesis explores the use of ChatGPT in educational settings. Previous research on human-LLM remains scarce, and most literature addressing the use of GPT in educational settings is theoretical and lacking empirical evidence. The new technological developments, however, urge for a deeper understanding of its novel dynamics for the development of efficient and safe AI-systems. Consequently, our study aims explore the use of a novel guided interaction design for modeling users’ information foraging behavior when navigating GPT-generated content and the role of Computational Thinking Skills in shaping such behavior. Methods. Conducted with nine educational researchers in a doctoral-level AIEd course, our research used editable prompt templates and keywords to structure the prompt crafting process. We modeled and analyzed participants’ interactions with ChatGPT in terms of exploration (to generate and explore various information landscapes) and exploitation (to delve deeper into a specific landscape). Additionally, we conducted the Computational Thinking Scale survey. We employed descriptive statistics to describe participants’ foraging behavior, and network analysis to explore the relationship between foraging behavior and Computational Thinking Skills. Results and conclusions. Our results suggested that Algorithmic Thinking and Creativity might encourage exploitation behavior, leaning more on AI-generated information rather than pre-defined design elements. Furthermore, including participants' interests in the interaction design seemed to foster a shared conceptual space in prompt construction. This approach encouraged the use and combination of diverse interests for content creation, as opposed to relying solely on individuals' interests. Our findings also suggested that exploitation prompts are predominantly driven by GPT-generated content. While this seems to add value to AI-generated content, it raises concerns about potential overreliance, especially in educational settings. The article, entitled ‘Exploring the Use of GPT-4 when Generating Personalized Case Scenarios for Higher Education.’, follows the guidelines of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education.

Despite that curiosity is beneficial for learning, researchers found that it is declining among adolescents. The aim of this thesis is to identify the prominent environment facilitators for youths’ curiosity from an Ecological perspective that includes both family and school. To further understand the developmental effects, two age cohorts (10-year-old and 15-year-old) were compared. In total, 5482 Finnish students (3034 aged 10, 2448 aged 15) from the OECD Survey on Social-emotional Skills were chosen and their family and school factors related to basic psychological needs were surveyed (autonomy, competence, relatedness). Using Complex Two-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling, results demonstrated that (1) parents’ criterion-referenced evaluation, relations with both parents and teachers were associated with youths’ curiosity, whereas autonomy support was not; (2) parents’ criterion-referenced evaluation played the primary role in younger youths’ curiosity, but its effect was much smaller in the elder cohort; and (3) relations with teachers was a vital driving factor for elder youths’ curiosity, though its effect was weaker on the younger. Findings extend the literature by identifying the prominent need-based supporting factors in different age periods for youths’ curiosity facilitation.

This literature review examined tools for addressing overweight and obesity among children in the school environment. The focus was on increasing awareness among teachers and school staff about the negative consequences of these health issues. The model aims to address these issues by establishing comprehensive programs that promote appropriate diet, exercise, and behavioral changes. A systematic literature review was chosen as the method because it was considered the most relevant for answering the research questions. To obtain a complete overview of the subject, a thorough review of various research studies and articles was required. Therefore, a systematic literature review and data analysis were conducted to evaluate the results. All articles are reported and archived within a 20-year timeframe, with material dated between 2005 and 2024. By reviewing 12 articles and statistics from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, the author arrived at conclusions that could be helpful in creating a model for use in schools. The main findings in the research on obesity and overweight among schoolchildren are that these health problems constitute a growing concern, with significant prevalence already at a young age and an increasing trend with advancing age. The studies highlight the need to increase awareness among teachers and school staff about these problems and to develop effective interventions to address them. Additionally, the importance of not only focusing on the problems but also promoting positive mental health and a sense of belongingness among students is emphasized.

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, millaista mediaosaamista luokanopettajat kokevat, että koulu odottaa heiltä perusopetuksen opettajina. Tutkimuksessa tutkittiin opettajan itsenäistä mediaosaamista ja luokanopettajan toimintaa mediapedagogina. Kiinnostukseni tutkimukseen johti minut tarkastelemaan ilmiötä ajankohtaisesta näkökulmasta, sillä opettajien käsitykset myötävaikuttavat heidän opetus- ja ammatillista kehitystään muokkaavaan mediaosaamisen ymmärtämiseen. Opettajien mediataitojen tutkimus on keskeistä koulutusjärjestelmän kehittämisessä, opiskelijoiden mediaosaamisen edistämisessä ja digitaalisen median tärkeiden haasteiden ratkaisemisessa ja johtikin opinnäytetyön kysymykseen. Tutkimusmateriaali on kerätty talvella 2023 haastattelemalla viisi opettajaa. Osallistujavalinnan tekivät osallistujat, joilla oli eri tasoinen kokemus ja osaaminen medialukutaidosta laajemman ymmärryksen saamiseksi. Kolmeen teemaan perustuvat haastattelut olivat avoimia ja joustavia, jotta he pystyivät perehtymään syvällisemmin heidän medialukutaitonsa kokemuksiin. Haastatteluilla kerätyssä aineistossa oli teemoja opettajien omasta mediaosaamisesta ja heidän opetuksensa suhteen. Tämä kirjoitettiin ja organisoitiin. Sen jälkeen aineistoa analysoitiin fenomenografisella, vaiheittain etenevällä lähestymistavalla, jossa tavoitteena oli tunnistaa ja kuvata erilaisia ​​tapoja, joilla luokanopettajat näkevät mediaosaamisensa ja miten heidän käsityksensä liittyvät opetukseen. Tämä edellyttää heidän havaintonsa luokittelua ja ryhmittelyä eri ulottuvuuksiin ja muunnelmiin. Tutkimus tehtiin kvalitatiivisella, fenomenologisella lähestymistavalla. Luokkaopettajien käsitys jaettiin neljään kuvaavaan kategoriaan: jatkuva ammatillinen kehittyminen, tulevaisuus, kriittinen mediaosaaminen ja tiedon arviointi sekä median ja teknologian käytön monimuotoisuus. Tutkimustulosten mukaan luokanopettajien käsitys mediaosaamisensa odotuksista osoittaa mediataitojen jatkuvan kehittämisen ja päivittämisen tarvetta. Lisäksi opettajien mediaosaaminen ja opetuskäytäntö ovat tiiviissä suhteessa. Tietoisena mediaosaamisen odotuksista ja tärkeydestä luokanopettaja voi luoda oppimisympäristön, joka edistää esimerkiksi opiskelijoiden kriittistä media-ajattelua ja tiedon arviointia.