Browsing by discipline "Erityispedagogiikka"

The aim of this study was to describe difficulties in kids self-regulation and define multiple things that cause it in day care interaction situations. The research questions are 1. How difficulties in self-regulation appear in interaction, 2. What are the causes that effect to self-regulation, and 3. What pedagogical methods are applied concerning self-regulation in day care groups in this research. Stress is closely related with self-regulation. When faced with a stimulus, people become alerted. That elevates stress level and calls for self regulation. Self-regulation is considered as dependent on circumstances and interaction. Difficulties in self-regulation often coexist with difficulties in peer relations. People have inborn abilities to regulate emotions and behavior, but self-regulation skills are also learned in interaction with others. Human is considered to be pro-social by birth, and to be favoring helping others. Interventions concerning self-regulation has been developed, to enhance pedagogical sensitivity among day care teachers. Pedagogical sensitivity reduces stress and helps children to self-regulate. Two day care groups from Helsinki participated in this research. Research groups had children with special needs integrated. The data was collected by videotaping and observing the interaction in normal daily activities in spring 2015, two days in a row. Interesting clips were chosen from the videotapes to be shown to day care teachers together with the interviews. In interviews, the teachers commented about the situations from the videoclips and answered open questions about self-regulation. Observations from the videotapes and transcribed interviews were analyzed according to methods of qualitative content analysis. According to research findings, difficulties in self-regulation appear in interaction with unique ways. Children seem to have their own individual ways to react in face of a stress and in need of self-regulation. Difficulties in self-regulation appeared in behavior merely described with three concepts: ”fight, flee or freeze”. Difficulties were either active and extraverted, or passive and introverted. The causes that effect self-regulation in this research were distinctive and dependent on the situation. Children had very different abilities to face day care interaction situations. Self-regulation was effected with multiple, also random causes, and because of that self-regulation cannot be seen linear from its causes and effects. Causes were classified as 1. abilities to regulate, 2. causes that strain and challenging interaction situations. These three causes can be found in all research situations that had self-regulation difficulties. Adult support, well-planned, structured day care environment and customs, that have been formed together, were the main causes that supported self-regulation in this research. In research day care groups self-regulation difficulties were prevented in many ways. Teachers had good knowledge and know-how about self-regulation. To support development of self-regulation in wider perspective knowledge should be increased. Children should have opportunities to train their self-regulation skills in their natural interaction situations, for example, with adult supported play, and interventions that enhance emotion-regulation and interaction skills.

The focus of this study was on kirgergartners' mathematical skills and task avoidance. Previous studies have shown that task avoidance is not a stable child characteristics in kindergarten-aged children, but may begin to stabilize during the first school years. Task avoidance has been shown to be linked to mathematical skills during the first school years. Furthermore, task avoidance behavior in kindergarten-aged children has been shown to be linked to slower acquisition of mathematical skills in the course of school years. his study examines the prevalence and stability of task avoidance in kindergarten-aged children. Moreover, it was studied how children's task avoidance was linked to mathematical skills and their development during the kindergarten year. The study was a longitudinal study (N = 235), where kindergartners' mathematical skills, more precisely, the mastery of relations and number sequences, were evaluated by The Early Numeracy Test for Toddlers three times during one school year. In addition, task avoidance was evaluated by teachers in the first and last measurement points using the following variables: diffidence, difficulties in motivation, difficulties in attention, tension and cooperate difficulties. The data was analyzed by quantitative research methods. The kindergartners were divided into three groups based on the level of their task avoidance behavior: no problems (N = 128), some amount of problems (N = 86), lots of problems (N = 19). The children with most task avoidance behavior had weaker mathematical skills than the others in the beginning of kindergarten. Those belonging to the lots of problems -group improved the most during the kindergarten year, reaching the skill level of those with less task avoidance characteristics. The belonging to a task avoidance group was relatively stable during kindergarten, especially within the lots of problems -group. According to the results, children's task avoidance should be monitored already in kindergarten to ensure the earliest possible support in terms of both task avoidance and mathematical skills. Further studies are needed to form a reliable overview on the developmental relationship between task avoidance and mathematical skills in children below school-age.

Goals. Reading comprehension is thought to be a complex, transactional process of generating meaning from text. Although the research of comprehension has been extensive, the study of reading comprehension in the intellectually disabled has gained less traction. However, it seems that reading comprehension in the intellectually disabled is affected by the same underlying processes as in other groups, and some of them appear to be able to benefit from reading comprehension interventions.. The goal of this Master’s Thesis was to develop material suitable for teaching reading comprehension to students with ID. The focus of the research was to study the reading comprehension of ID students and to determine whether the material was suitable for instruction. Methods.The research was conducted as a mixed methods design. The participants were 6 special education students from years 6‒9; of which five had a confirmed diagnosis of ID. The participants used the material with researcher direction for 6 weeks, and their reading comprehension skills were tested pre- and post intervention. The participants were observed during practise period and testing, and they contributed by expressing their own opinion of the teaching material. Results and conclusions. The research indicated that the reading comprehension skill of the participants was below the mean for first grade students. During the practise period the reading comprehension skills of two of the participants increased, and they were able to answer with more length and accuracy in a free recall test. As a group, the participants appeared to regard the teaching material positively, and they were able to complete most of the exercises when offered support. However, one of the exercises proved to be difficult for all of the participants to master. The conclusion ot the present study is that the material may benefit some students with ID, but requires further development. The testing of the intellectually disabled participants also proved challenging, which may indicate a need for research into tests suitable for students with ID.

The purpose of the study was to examine university students and recent graduates with reading difficulties. The aim was to explore what factors have contributed to the students and recent graduates applying for university studies despite their dyslexia. The aim was additionally to study strategies and means of compensation used by the students, their experiences with support received from the educational institutions, and the educational paths the students had taken. The hypothesis was that dyslexic students have had a slower and more laborious educational path than other students. Previous research on the subject has shown that dyslexic students have used a large variety of study strategies and compensatory measures, and family support, in particular, has played an important role in the study path. Timing of the dyslexia diagnosis has also affected the course of education. The study is a multi-case study with thematic interviews using narrative analysis. The research material consisted of seven theme interviews, which were transcribed and organized using the atlas.ti program. Narrative, chronologically progressive accounts were produced of the interviewees' educational paths. The narrative analysis of the material was based on the compilation of materials founded on twenty themes and examination of the narrative reports. The educational paths of the interviewees formed two clear groups. In one group, education progressed directly from primary school to high school and university. Students in the second group experienced long breaks in education and all did not attend high school. Almost all interviewees were diagnosed after elementary school, but the material does not indicate that the education process suffered from a late diagnosis. Not all interviewees needed support for their study paths because of dyslexia. On the other hand, certain students would have needed support but had not received enough. The interviewees had a variety of learning strategies and means of compensation. The study confirms that teaching early learning strategies and early implementation and design support would support dyslexic pupils. Family support was an essential resource for the interviewees during their educational paths.

The purpose of this research was to study how the assessment of mathematical difficulties appears in Finnish comprehensive schools from the viewpoints of general and special education teachers. Approximately 20 percent of students have different types of mathematical learning difficulties. This can be a risk factor for social exclusion. Careful assessment and recognizing the nature of the mathematical learning difficulties is important, so that the students can be provided with appropriate support early enough. This research gives information about assessing mathematical learning difficulties from a practical level concerning assessment tools, methods and plans for assessment. Teachers were also asked to describe the issues that raise the concern for mathematical learning difficulties. The data were collected by using a web-based survey. Teachers (N = 105) from 17 Finland's regions answered. Mixed methods were used in this study, in which both qualitative and quantitative approaches were combined. The relation of assessment tools and assessment methods into teacher's assigned post was analyzed with Chi-square -test and Mann Whitney's U-test. Qualitative data was mainly analyzed by using content analysis. The results of this study indicate that the practices for assessing mathematical learning difficulties were widely dependent on teachers. They used a wide range of assessment methods and practices for getting information about mathematical learning difficulties. When teachers became concerned about student's mathematical learning, they seemed to pay a lot of attention to different kinds of problems in cognitive skills. Based on the results, it seems that the general education teachers carry especially qualitative assessments, which is complemented by diagnostic assessments. These are usually done by special education teachers. Non-standardized measures for mathematical skills were used more than standardized measures. Forty-four percent of the teachers had a plan to guide the assessment of mathematical learning difficulties. In summary, teachers, in multi-professional co-operation, are aiming at getting a diverse perspective of student when assessing mathematical learning difficulties. Perhaps, by defining the national guidelines for assessment or developing teacher training could lead to more consistent ways to assess mathematical learning difficulties.

The goal of the thesis was to examine 1) whether the special education teachers' and other teachers' educational stances show mutual differences in the areas of classification or categorization, and 2) which kind of imaginal characteristics is it possible to build by using teachers' stances. In the theoretical framework classification or categorization was spread into more specific themes which were automatic thinking, medicalization, separate special education, labeling, social disability studies and social constructionist language. The sense of the thesis was explorative, considering that the concepts of classification or categorization haven't been exactly framed in special educational studies. According to previous research it seems that there exist mutual differences when comparing special educators' and other educators' attitudes concerning the educational system overall. The data was collected in the areas of Helsinki and Turku cities by using an E-questionnaire. Along with the background information the questionnaire included 48 educational claims which were estimated by a Likert scale from 0 to 5. There were altogether N=119 answers gathered from class teachers, special education teachers, kindergarten teachers and special kindergarten teachers. Summaries were counted and explored through frequency analysis in the four occupational groups. Mann-Whitney's U-test was proceeded to answer to the first task of the research. The test's purpose was to examine the differences of summary medians formed by special education teachers' and other teachers' answers. Explorative factor analysis was completed to answer to the second task, to find out which kind of characteristics the correlations between the teachers' answers would reveal. According to the Mann-Whitney's U-test there was discovered that the educational attitudes of special education teachers were more categorizational around theme of medicalization, both in the direct claims (p=.049, r=.19) and the opposite claims (p=.005, r=.30). Also it appeared that the special education teachers' educational attitudes were more categorizational (p=.057, r=.18) than the other teachers' attitudes when supporting the separate special education system. Nevertheless the latest mentioned result wasn't found to be statistically significant. The explorative factor analysis revealed four characteristics, 1) the one being aware of language and against labeling, 2) the one being an aware thinker who demands social equality, 3) the one supporting medicalization and seeing speciality being absolute, and 4) the character positioning against medical culture and individualism.

The aim of my research was to find out the experiences of the teachers involved in an intervention carried out in Espoo schools during the years 2015-2016 based on their descriptions. The research is part of the University of Helsinki's project aimed to find out whether the character strength teaching is appropriate for basic education. Character strengths are a current topic, and paying attention to strengths in teaching has already been mentioned in the new curriculum. Research on character strengths is part of the research of positive psychology and pedagogy. The strengths are originally based on ancient sources, among others the are tology of Aristotle. Researchers C. Peterson and M. Seligman have developed their own VIA philosophy, virtue and strength rating. This classification is also underlying in the character strength teaching. The material of my research was transcribed interviews. Seven teachers from three different schools were interviewed. The intervention included about six months' worth of material for teaching character strengths. As a research method I used discourse analysis. Teachers' speech emphasized the desire to know their students better, pausing and listening to a student. Their speech was very student centered. The teachers had adopted the message of positive pedagogy and character strength teaching. I found several discourses that I named as follows: the discourse of praise, the need for additional education, well-being, good interaction, the need to meet, and the discourses of doubt and challenges. According to my research the teachers felt that the intervention was a success and character strengths are an important area of basic education. As a conclusion I can say that teachers have the need for further training in order to have character strengths permanently as a part of their work. They need new ways of operating and thinking in order to survive in their profession.

The purpose of this master's thesis was to study the ways in which the development of multilingualism of children from different linguistic backgrounds is acknowledged and promoted in Finnish comprehensive schools. Do the schools have common practices or models through which the development of the students' language skills is actively promoted, or is it dependent merely upon the teachers' interest and devotion? And through which means the teachers themselves aim to promote the language development and learning of students from immigrant backgrounds? The theoretical framework of this thesis consists of the theories on language development and multilingualism, of the national core curriculum on teaching multilingual students, and of previous studies on promoting the language development of students from immigrant backgrounds. In this thesis, the subject was approached by studying the views and experiences of teachers. This study aims to describe the means through which the language development of the students from immigrant backgrounds is being promoted, by school cultures as well as by individual teachers, in the Finnish school context. The data was collected by using a web-based questionnaire, to which 16 teachers working in schools in the Capital Region answered. Since the study was qualitative by nature, open questions were used in the questionnaire. For the analysis of the data, content analysis was used. The results of this study indicate that the schools can be categorised according to their school culture, which is either reactive or proactive in regard to promoting the language development of students. Reactive school culture responds only to the inevitable needs regarding the language development of students. Proactive school culture aims see the language skills of the students as a resource. Most of the respondents worked at schools whose school culture seemed reactive. The means of individual teachers of promoting the language development can be categorised into three groups, which are: acknowledging and appreciating the student's language skills, utilising the student's language skills when studying, and co-operation with guardians. Almost all of the respondents mentioned at least one means of promoting the language development of students from immigrant backgrounds. The results of this study can be utilised, when teachers and schools are planning the means in which to integrate the language skills and backgrounds of students into teaching and school culture.

In this Master’s thesis I researched teachers’ experiences on dog-assisted interventions. This thesis’ two research questions were: 1) How dog-assisted pedagogy supports teachers’ professional development and profession as a teacher? 2) What kind of positive effects dog-assisted pedagogy has to pupils’ studying? Frame of references includes inspection of teachers’ profession and inspection of what kind of effects animal-assisted interventions has to child’s mental, social and physical well-being. I explore teacher’s profession from concepts of teaching philosophy, professional development, professional identity and motivation. I interviewed four teachers, who use dog-assisted interventions in their teaching. Interviews were half-structured. All of the teachers were dealing with special needs in their work and trying to respond to the needs with dog-assisted pedagogy. Three of the teachers were special education teachers and one of them was class teacher. All of the teachers had completed self-motivated, official course about dog-assisted interventions (10 credits). I analyzed the interview data with phenomenography. I also reflected my own position as an interviewer, so I could make this thesis more reliable. I present research results in two different chapters. In first chapter I reported results of how dog-assisted pedagogy supported teachers’ professional development. Dog-assisted pedagogy was central part of the teachers’ teaching philosophy. With dog-assisted interventions, teachers could combine their hobby with dogs and work. There was five features that were typical to teachers’ who develop themselves professionally: positive orientation to risk taking, openness to change, willingness to do experiments in the classroom and openness to criticism. Dog-assisted pedagogy and feedback from pupils and parents motivated teachers at their work. It took time, money, planning and effort to use the dog-assisted interventions at their teaching work. In the second chapter I reported results of how the dog effected pupils’ studying. Teachers reported that the dog had positive effects on pupils’ emotions: dog’s presence calmed children, made class’ atmosphere better and contributes joy and happiness to studying. According to analyze the dog-assisted pedagogy motivated pupils to study, served pauses to classes and school day, effects on concentration and increases action-based teaching. The challenges of the dog-assisted teaching were related to colleagues and work community. Based on former large mass of international research and this thesis results, I propose that dog-assisted pedagogy could be motivational, action-based and effective intervention and tool to teachers. Dog-assisted pedagogy could also be a good tool with pupils with special needs.

The main aim of the study was to examine how reading fluency and early numeracy skills contribute to mathematical problem-solving skills in second graders. The effects of family and school socioeconomic status (SES) on these skills were also examined. The mathematical problem-solving skills of 145 second graders from varied schools were evaluated along with their reading fluency and early numeracy (arithmetic fluency, number sense). Participants’ family SES was also investigated. The results of path modelling showed that mathematical problem-solving requires both reading fluency and early numeracy skills. The results also confirmed that mother’s educational background is related to early numeracy skills, and that language spoken at home is related to reading fluency and indirectly to mathematical problem-solving via reading fluency. The path model revealed no differences between the schools. The study findings indicate that reading fluency contributes strongly to mathematical problem-solving skills in second grade Finnish students.