Browsing by study line "Class Teacher (in Swedish)"

The purpose of this thesis is to identify what perceptions, working methods and experiences subject-teachers have of student athletes in secondary school. Student athletes in secondary school have a great burden with their dual careers combining sports and education. Previous research shows that a dual career can be stressful but also very rewarding both within sports and life overall. The assessment of students in secondary school is done by subject teachers, which puts them in a significant role for the academic future of young athletes. In particular, subjects as mother tongue tuition and mathematics have been given an important place as these subjects are emphasized more in the admission to further education after secondary school. This study aims to analyze teachers’ perceptions of student athletes and their education using three main research questions; (1) what perceptions do teachers have about student athletes’ education and academic achievements, (2) what factors including self-regulation play a role in student athletes’ school performance from a teacher perspective, and (3) what type of educational support do teachers feel they can offer student athletes? This thesis is based on a qualitative study. The research material consists of eight interviews of teachers in Swedish and literature as well as mathematics, that work in secondary schools in the capital region. The material was collected with the help of semi-structured interviews and analyzed using a phenomenographic method. The result of this study shows that teachers perceive student athletes as caring both in their schoolwork and in how they plan and structure their time. The assessment of student athletes is to a certain extent perceived to be more difficult, but since the assessment extends over several criteria, individual challenges are not seen as a problem. Student athletes with a dual career are perceived to need and develop more self-regulatory abilities than other students, but an apparent need for a broad support network is also noticeable. However, the results also indicate that teachers are concerned over the overall load that student athletes experience and the many demands they face from sports, school and their families.

Referat – Abstract Goall.: The goal of this survey is to review and see to Aland students' passion of reading and get a picture of what the reading habits look like among these third graders on Aland. The study will shed light on the state of interest in reading and reading habits for pupils in third grade in Aland primary schools. The study will address reading at home and at school, what influences students to read or not read in their free time and address whether there are gender differences in the result. The impact of support and encouragement at school and at home on the passion of reading will also be addressed. Methods: The dissertation's method is a survey, the study is qualitative. A total of 56 pupils participated in the survey. The results were analyzed using a thematic analysis with an inductive approach. Resultas and conclusion: What do the desire to read and reading habits look like in third grade , in Aland primary schools? A majority of the students have a good desire to read and reading habits. Aland pupils in third grade have a generally good to moderately good desire to read and reading habits. How do differences between girls' and boys' reading show up? According to the answers, you can see that girls like reading a little more, like reading aloud to a greater extent than boys, and to a greater extent they have an adult at home who reads to them. Girls also prefer regular books over audiobooks. Boys have a smaller proportion of adults reading to them. However, most of the pupils enjoy reading. The majority of boys appreciate reading aloud, but to a lesser extent than girls, and many more boys than girls choose audiobooks over regular books. Neither group considers themselves to have difficulty with reading. Do the students think that the environment encourages reading? The girls are more likely to say that they feel that the environment (the school and an adult at home) supports and encourages reading. Boys consider to a significantly lesser extent that school and home encourage and support reading. Among the boys, there are also many who do not believe that any adult at home encourages reading. The environment, if you look at it from the perspective of screen time, shows that most students in year three do not think that screen time destroys reading.

Climbing is a versatile sport that has increased in popularity. Previous research shows that climbing has great pedagogic potential. The aim of this study is to depict and analyse climbing coaches' perceptions of learning. The coaches' views on learning are illustrated by analysing how they perceive learning to happen within climbing. The research questions of the study are as follows: 1. How do climbing coaches' view learning within climbing? 2. How do climbing coaches' perceptions of learning relate to sociocultural learning theory? 3. How do climbing coaches' perceptions of learning relate to experiential learning theory? The study was conducted as a qualitative study with a phenomenological perspective. The research data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews. A total of four interviews were conducted. The interviewees were climbing coaches with experience of coaching climbing groups. The data was analysed through an inductive content analysis, based on theories of sociocultural and experiential learning. The results suggest that the climbing coaches perceive learning as a physical process involving the whole body. Learning within climbing consists of learning physical, psychological, and social skills. Physical activity in practice as well as repetition in conjunction with reflection was emphasized in the learning process. Cooperation and community were also underlined as important aspects of learning. The coaches shared the perception that learning happens together and of each other. The role of the coach was viewed as supporting instead of governing. Learning was focused on problem solving and reflection. The view on activity and reflection resembles that of experiential and reflective learning. The emphasis on problem solving also correlates with the theories. The coaches' views on learning of each other and adapting learning to the learners' level resemble sociocultural learning.

In today´s society, it has become increasingly common that among pupils the motivation to learn the second native language has become worse. Pupils´ language skills in the second native language are getting worse. The threshold to dare to speak is getting higher and studies has shown that pupils are more interested learning English instead of the second native language, which leads to inferior skills in the second native language. I believe schools should implement methods that would motivate pu- pils to learn the second native language. The aim of the study is to find out if eClassroom tandem is a good addition to the teaching of the second native language by analyzing its influence on motivation, attitude, and language learning to get the result. The questions in the study: 1. What are the students' thoughts about eClassroom tandem and the second native language? 2. What is the teachers' view of students' motivation and attitude towards the second native language? 3. How does the use of eClassroom tandem affect the students' language learning? 4. How has eClassroom tandem affected the students' motivation and attitudes towards the second native language? The study is a qualitative survey study within the framework of the pilot project "Eklassluokkatandem - friends over the language border". The material I analyzed is anonymized questionnaires that were collected during fall 2023 and spring 2024. The questionnaires were filled in by 42 students and 3 teachers who participated in the pilot project. Content analysis with a deductive approach was used to analyze the questionnaires. The results were shown, among other, that many pupils feel that they have learned much more during eClassroom lessons compared to regular lessons. They have learned to speak better, listen, and coop- erate. The conclusions are positive about eClassroom tandem because students learn to speak the lan- guage for real and its more fun than regular lessons. The results shows that pupils´ experience Classtoom tandem as a good addition to the teaching in the second native language, which indicates that eClassroom tandem should be introduced in more schools in view of the positive experience

The aim of this study was to explore parental perspectives on home-school collaboration when the child often expresses a dislike towards going to school. Further the study will bring forth the parent’s perspective on how they want to support well-being in school and how they would evaluate the forms of support for learning provided by the school. The study was executed by analyzing three of the questions in the questionary made by Förbundet Hem och skola and Suomen Vanhempainliitto. The number of respondents in this study was n=80. The material was limited to respondents who´s children rarely or never want to go to school and further to a Swedish speaking school. The answers regarding parents view on collaboration between home and the school was analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and the following research questions regarding support of wellbeing and the value of support measures were answered by qualitative content analysis. The result regarding the analysis for the collaboration through the view of the parents shows that the parents do not always feel that the collaboration meets their expectations. The school does emphasize the weight of collaboration and encourages parents to be in contact with the school. The parents however do not always feel welcome to visit the school during school hours, and they feel that they are not heard. The parents furthermore wish that the support of the child’s wellbeing also should be done in collaboration with the school and the other parents. Regarding forms of support for learning the majority (77%) of the respondents say their child had not received intensified or added support. The study shows that parents who´s child had been offered support for learning experienced some dissatisfaction in how it was done. The parents feel that the support measures were insufficient and late. The reason for this can be seen in lack of resources. Some parents also expressed dissatisfaction regarding how the school communicated about possible learning support and if measures resulted in progress.

Aim. Bullying at school is a perennial problem. Bullying is a phenomenon that always leaves traces and which have long-term negative consequences. Bullying affects the individual, relationships people between, the school and also society. During the fall of 2022, it has been reported in the media cases of bullying in Finland that have ended in serious acts of violence. When the students find themselves a significant part of their everyday life at school, it is important that they enjoy school and want to go there. In addition, the school has statutory obligation to intervene immediately in the event if bullying, violence, racism or other discrimination occurs. The purpose of my study was to investigate how bullying affects students' identity and identity construction. The research questions were the following: 1) How does bullying affect students' identity? 2) How does bullying affect students' identity construction? Methods. I have carried out my study as a qualitative literature review. The featured articles were included according to predetermined selection criteria. The final research material consisted of five scientific articles that I analyzed through thematic content analysis and two different steps. In the first step I have analyzed and summarized the research material according to an article summary and in the second step I then made a meaningful summary where I categorized the central content of the articles in relation to my research questions. Results and conclusions. In the final analysis process, five main theme areas emerged on how bullying affects students' identity and identity construction. Thematic areas were the following;appearance and body hatred, self-esteem and sense of worthlessness, closeness and social relationships, normal and deviant, socially interacting and personal characters. The results show that exposure to bullying affects students' identity and identity construction in a very negative way . The participants in the studies stated that exposure to bullying led to problems with the identity construction in the form of insecurity, feelings of inadequacy, body hatred, anxiety and depression. In summary, the results demonstrate that loss of belonging, self-loathing and identity struggle followed close to the feeling of being socially discredited by classmates. The results also show that the social identity was negatively affected in that the vulnerable were often excluded from friend groups and was labeled as deviant.Bullying continued to lead to impaired adaptation to the adult role,including forming lasting relationships,integrating into working life and being financially independent .

The goal with this research is to map out how newly graduated teachers in the Swedish schools in Finland experiences forms of and access to social support. The work as a teacher is regarding to Gavish & Friedman (2010) one of the most demanding social professions and more and more teachers become burned out. Teachers are fronting more and larger challenges and as a newly graduated teacher it might become overwhelming as teachers often work independently. What happens if a newly graduated teacher experiences social support and what happens if a newly graduated teacher doesn’t experience social support? This thesis’ theoretical ground for mapping out how the social support is accessed in the Swedish schools in Finlands stems from the social support model from research by Pyhältö (2018). Previous studies have shown that social support is an essential part of an individuals’ ability to prosperand that is especially true for teachers. (Cornér et al., 2017; Gavish & Friedman, 2010; Heikkinen et al., 2020; Pyhältö, 2018; Larrivee, 2012) Seven newly graduated teachers have been interviewed based on a pre-made interview material in this thesis. This thesis has been made in co-operation with the SAMS-samverkan och social stöd I den finlandssvenska skolan-project. The interviews have been analyzed through thematic analysis. The newly graduated teachers experience a broad variation of different support forms. Informative, instrumental, and emotional support is available in the schools the teachers have experience from. The newly graduated teachers are also experiencing that they have a broad access to sources of social support. The results of this research showed that there are quite a lot of themes where the forms of social support have shortages. For example, shortage of support at communication and information flow in the college, shortage of support in administrative tasks and shortage of support in self-criticalness and creating of a teacher identity. The results showed that teachers experienced grade colleagues and the colleagues as an important source of social support. To avoid shortage of social support in the future could mentorship and mentor teacher programs develop in the Swedish schools in Finland. The social support model could be a part of the teacher education. The newly graduated teacher would then have the tools to identify shortages and when needed, search for the social support at the right time. Focus from the professional development during the studies to become a teacher could be integrated later in the teacher’s career.

Mål. Syfte med denna studie var att ta reda på hur elever i årskurserna 5–6 upplever gruppdynamikens inverkan på studiemotivationen. Tidigare forskning visar att en grupp som består av motiverade och positivt inställda elever har en positiv inverkan på lärandet. Gruppdynamik är också i en central roll för gruppens trivsel, hur gruppmedlemmarna samarbetar och presterar. Studien tangerar även elevers upplevelser och åsikter om en bra gruppdynamik, deras egen studiemotivation och skoltrivsel i både skolan och den egna klassen. Metoder. Studien har gjorts i form av en kvalitativ intervjustudie. I studien deltog fem (5) grundskoleelever från ett lågstadie i södra Finland. Materialet för studien samlades in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Materialet har först transkriberats och sedan analyserats enligt grunderna för en tematisk analys. Resultat och slutsatser. Studiens resultat visar att eleverna upplever att vänner både i skolan och den egna klassen påverkar positivt på deras skoltrivsel. De lyfter fram att de har gemensamma intressen med klasskompisar och alla blir accepterade som de är. Gällande studiemotivationen ansåg alla deltagare att de drivs an en inre motivation. Deras största motivationsfaktor är att få lära sig. Resultaten visar även att alla deltagare tycker att de har en bra gruppdynamik i klassen, och de anser att en bra gruppdynamik är viktigt. Eftersom alla ansåg sig ha en bra gruppdynamik i klassen, var ingen av den åsikten att gruppdynamiken har en negativ inverkan på studiemotivation. Till motsats lyfte eleverna fram att en bra gruppdynamik gör det lättare att fokusera på det relevanta och att lära sig, i stället för att behöva grubbla över stämningen i klassen.

All children have the right to grow up in safe conditions. Despite this, many Finnish children live in poor living conditions. The school and especially the class teacher plays a central role in noticing signs of child maltreatment and reporting their concern. According to the Child Welfare Act, school professionals are mandated to report if they suspect child maltreatment. Previous research shows how reporting is problematic and many teachers feel fear and uncertainty about making child welfare reports. Functioning collaboration between school professionals and social workers can prevent child maltreatment. Previous studies show how negative experiences of collaboration with child welfare services can raise the threshold for reporting one’s concerns. The aim of the study is to investigate the school professionals’ experiences of feeling concerned about a child and to straighten out the school professionals’ and social workers' descriptions of approaches and types of collaboration when concerns about a child occur. Qualitative research interviews were used as the data collection method for the study. The interviews were held with informants from several professional groups, since concern for children requires interprofessional collaboration in many situations. The informants in the study were three class teachers, three special education teachers, two school counselors and three social workers. In total, nine interviews were held with the eleven informants, eight individual interviews and one group interview. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis. The results of the study showed how noticeable changes in a child's behavior, appearance or wellbeing aroused the school professionals’ concern. School professionals experienced concern that children of today grow up under stressful conditions, grow up too quickly and have uninvolved guardians. The school day was experienced as hectic, without enough time and resources to identify and support all children at risk. The school professionals felt that they can communicate concerns at an early stage and collaborate with guardians. The school professionals’ descriptions of their working methods when concerns about a child occur, were consistent with how the social workers wish the school professionals to work. Several of the school professionals experienced the collaboration with child welfare services as insufficient while the social workers' experiences of collaboration with the school were described more positively. Both the school professionals and social workers thought that the collaboration and communication could be developed if the school professionals would be more involved and received essential information on the child’s case. The study shows a need for guidelines on how the collaboration should be designed and an increased opportunity to meet and develop an understanding of each other's professions.

The religious landscape in Finland and Europe is changing. Due to secularization, interest in religion has long diminished and religion has been considered part of history and irrelevant to the modern, secular society. With globalization and new religious movements, however, religion has gained renewed relevance and religious diversity in Europe is growing. With religious diversity, the need for religious literacy, or general knowledge of religion, is also increasing. Globalization has also given rise to the educational approach global education, i.e. education for the future and for justice, equality and sustainable development. Although religion undeniably has a big influence on many parts of our world and its people, religious dimensions or religious literacy is not taken into account in global education. This study provides insight into how religious teachers perceive religious literacy and its forms of expression in lower secondary school, where this is a knowledge requirement, and how religious literacy is related to global education and global citizenship. The empirical material was collected through interviews with seven teachers who teach religion in grades 7 - 9. The interviews held via the digital meeting service Zoom, were then transcribed and analyzed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) model for thematic analysis. The analysis resulted in 5 themes with 8 sub-themes on the first research question and 3 themes with 5 sub-themes on the second. The results showed that the religious teachers had a broad view of religious literacy which included both theoretical knowledge and practical skills - with an emphasis on the practical. The development of religious literacy was described by the teachers as a long and complex process that is often not completed in comprehensive school, although this is a knowledge requirement for the end of grade 9. Concerning the relationship between religious literacy and global education, the teachers expressed that religious literacy can promote global education and sustainable development since a religiously literate person is better able to carry out these tasks. The teachers also emphasized the relevance of religious literacy in the future and pointed to many potential consequences of religious illiteracy. A conclusion of the study is that the inclusion of religious literacy within the framework of global education, could contribute to strengthening the general religious literacy.