Browsing by master's degree program "Master's Programme in Education"

The coronavirus outbreak disrupted life around the globe in 2020, which led to the suspension of face-to-face teaching. Based on previous research, it is clear that student participation in face-to-face lectures has a positive impact on their academic performance. Now, however, we find ourselves in a situation where it is not even physically possible to attend lectures. This raises the question of how distance education has affected the level of students’ academic performance and how do students experience distance education. The aim of this mixed methods study is first to quantitatively identify the effect of distance education on the level of students’ academic performance when compared to the results of normal course implementation. The results were obtained by examining the exam results and the course assignment results of a total of 728 students over a three-year period from the same course, two of which were implemented normally and one remotely due to the coronavirus outbreak. The preliminary analysis of the first phase raised the need to examine these results in more depth through qualitative analysis. The aim of the qualitative analysis is to find out how students experienced distance education in the Quantitative research methods 1 course. This second phase of the study consisted of eight students, whose exam results were also reviewed in the first phase of the study. Staying true to the mixed methods’ Explanatory Sequential Design, the final phase of the study sought to explain the results of the quantitative phase with the help of the qualitative results. In other words the students’ experiences sought to explain the fluctuation of the level of students’ academic performace. The quantitative part of the study showed that distance education had a positive effect on the level of students’ academic performance. A statistically significant positive correlation was found when examining the overall exam grade, the exam question scores regarding the lectures and exercises, and the course assignment results. The qualitative part of the study showed that students associated both positive and negative experiences regarding distance education. Positive experiences were related to the utilization of lecture recordings, the choices of the lecturer, and the benefits of a distance exam, while negative experiences were related to a lack of interaction, challenges in organizing one’s own work, and IT related probelms. This study shows that it is in the interest of both students and the university to provide lecture recordings regardless of how the course is organized.

The topic of this thesis is the employment of people with disabilities and job coaching. The aim of this study is to examine the methods by which job coaching Virtaamo promotes the employment of people with disabilities and to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by disabled individuals in the working life. The challenges and opportunities of working life are discussed in relation to the working-life citizenship of people with disabilities. The starting point of this thesis is disability studies, and this thesis ex-amines the social structures related to employment. The research material mainly consists of six semi-structured interviews with a total of seven interviewees. The interviewees were clients, job coaches, and partners of job coaching Virtaamo. Additionally, I utilized documents obtained from Virtaamo (such as customer feedback survey responses). I conducted my analysis using theory-guided content analysis, guided by observations from previous research on barriers and incentives to working-life citizenship. According to the data, Virtaamo provides its clients with comprehensive support, and overall satisfaction with the services is high. The most significant support measures provided by Virtaamo were emotional support, workplace visits, and consideration of clients' preferences. Workplace visits were met with conflicting attitudes. The cornerstone of Virtaamo's operation is cooperation with companies, through which Virtaamo creates job opportunities for its clients. According to job coaches, the nature of the job has changed, and nowadays clients face increasingly greater challenges in various areas of life. The employment opportunities for people with disabilities appeared to be very limited, and doing unpaid work is both a threat and an opportunity for working-life citizenship. Attitudes of employers and workplace communities act as barriers to and special markers of working-life citizenship for people with disabilities. Pay subsidy, job coaching services, and successful cooperation with companies serve as enablers of working-life citizenship for people with disabilities. Working-life citizenship for people with disabilities is possible, but it is difficult to achieve and marked as special.

Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate the factors underlying effective pedagogical leadership in the classroom. The guiding framework for the study is Steinberg's (2018) theory, which identifies seven success factors - values, learning, influence, future, classroom culture, love, and structure - to achieve effective pedagogical leadership. The insights of Finnish researcher Karlberg-Granlund (2021) on teacher professional development share similar themes or perspectives, making them relevant to my study. A key aspect of this leadership is creating an environment where students feel safe and focused, thereby enhancing learning. The study is pertinent as we know from PISA results in 2022 that Finnish students have shown declining performance in mathematics. Results from 2018 also demonstrate a worsening trend in students' reading abilities (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2023). This study can support teachers in understanding their role in students' lifelong learning. The primary focus of the study is to highlight methods that are effective and considered beneficial for students. Method: The study adopts a qualitative interview approach, wherein I interviewed four qualified classroom teachers to explore their thoughts and experiences. To gain diverse perspectives, I chose teachers from three different schools within the same city. All collected data was transcribed and underwent meticulous analysis. A qualitative content analysis was employed as the analytical method to systematically interpret and understand the patterns and themes emerging from the interviews. Results: analyzed data was structured into four main themes: firstly, effective pedagogical leadership and the various methods employed to achieve it; secondly, focus on lifelong learning; and finally, lesson planning. Each main theme had its own subheadings providing a clear structure for the results section. Within each subheading, the thoughts of classroom teachers on the specific theme were presented. It is evident that teachers strive to create a conducive learning environment. It is crucial for teachers to consistently work on maintaining clear expectations, building relationships with students, and promoting a sense of belonging and fairness in the classroom. In effective pedagogical leadership, safety and mutual respect are fundamental starting points.

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.

The future weighs heavily on many youths when it comes to choosing education and career paths. It’s becoming increasingly common for youths to take a gap year to contemplate their future educational opportunities. Parents wield significant influence over their children’s choice of education. Youths whose parents hold highly educated professions tend to gravitate towards academic pursuits. However, parental professions aren’t the sole influencers; their involvement and encouragement also play pivotal roles. The aim of this thesis is to explore the significance of parents’ occupations and leisure interests in youths’ thoughts and plans for the future. The research questions addressed in this thesis are: 1. How do parents’ professions and values manifest in youths’ thoughts regarding education and career choices? 2. What significance do hobbies and leisure interests hold in youths’ considerations of education and career paths? 3. What kind of changes regarding research questions 1 and 2 can be observed between grades 7 and 8? This thesis employs a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews as the method of data collection. Five youths participated in the interviews, which were subjected to content analysis. The results suggest that youths contemplate their future extensively already in grades 7 and 8, with the majority having a career plan in mind. It’s evident that youths tend to consider professions aligned with their parents’ educational backgrounds. For most youths, the idea of turning their hobbies into careers isn’t particularly common, except for two respondents. Economic considerations are a significant part of youths’ thoughts, with varying opinions on the importance of money. They focus on highpaying professions, the cost of quality education, and opportunities to earn money in the short term. Despite having post-middle school plans, they exhibit varying attitudes towards school.

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school teachers' perceptions of assessment in general, the methods and techniques used in formative assessment, and to identify the challenges they bring. Assessment, particularly formative assessment, interested me as a subject because a significant part of a teacher's profession focuses specifically on assessment (Atjonen, 2023). Additionally, the revised as-sessment chapter 6 of the National Curriculum Framework (2014) emphasizes the importance of forma-tive assessment during learning in student evaluation. Several studies and research articles highlight the importance of formative assessment as part of evaluation. The aim of the study is to gather more infor-mation about assessment in general, formative assessment, and to present the methods and techniques used in formative assessment, as well as to identify challenges that may arise in assessment. The study was conducted qualitatively, as a qualitative study, using theory-guided content analysis, aim-ing for phenomenographic inference. The data for the study were collected by conducting five semi-structured interviews with elementary school teachers who had 2-6 years of experience as elementary school teachers. The research results indicated that the perceptions and definitions of assessment and formative assessment among the interviewed elementary school teachers were limited. Although the teachers' definitions of as-sessment were limited, the content conveyed was still relevant. Teachers emphasized assessment methods that activate students in formative assessment, such as the importance of self and peer assessment. In ad-dition, teachers perceived guided assessment as important in classroom work, as well as goal- and criteri-on-based equitable assessment, which enables improvement in learning. Based on the study and its results, it was noted that elementary school teachers' theoretical knowledge was limited. According to the study, teachers conducted assessment and formative assessment reasonably well within the constraints of limited resources, albeit somewhat unconsciously. This emphasizes the need for further training to gain more knowledge and skills in implementing formative assessment in el-ementary school. Overall, it can still be concluded that the interviewed teachers considered assessment and formative assessment to be extremely important parts of teaching.

Aims. The aim of the study was to find out which elements of the physical learning environment are related to the safety and school comfort experienced by students. The study examined how safe and comfortable students found their physical learning environment in general and what elements of the environment were associated with students perceiving the school building and its yard as safe. Previous studies have found that the comfort of a school building has an impact on student safety. Methods. The study used questionnaire data produced by Anne Konu's School Welfare Profile series, which was collected in the 2017–2018 academic year. 10477 students from grades 4-6 answered the survey. The questions in the material were divided into four themes, one of which dealt with the physical conditions of the school. The study focused on analyzing these issues. The questions related to the safety and comfort of the school building and the yard, the comfort of the canteen, the size and temperature of the classroom, the cleanliness, the toilets, and whether one can play in the schoolyard. The data was analyzed using statistical measures, the Spearman’s correlation coefficient, the Mann-Whitney U-test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results and conclusions. Students were mainly satisfied with the safety and comfort of the school building and yard. They were least satisfied with the cleanliness of the school and the toilet facilities. All of the factors in the physical learning environment studied were related to whether students perceived the school building or its yard as safe. Sixth graders differed from students in other grades in all variables and were more dissatisfied than other respondents. Fourth and fifth graders differed in some of the variables. The biggest difference between the different grade levels was in the comfort of the yard. Girls and boys also differed in some of the variables. The most significant differences were in the class temperature at which the girls were more dissatisfied than the boys. The boys, on the other hand, were more dissatisfied with the toilet facilities. Based on the results, the safety and comfort of students will be increased the most by improving the cleanliness of schools and toilets. In addition, the safety and comfort of older students will be improved by adding more things that interest them to the schoolyard. The safety and comfort of girls will be improved by focusing on classroom temperatures and boys by improving toilet facilities. However, the study found that the correlation and the degree of explanation of the physical structures to the safety experienced by students were generally low.

It is important to look for new approaches and means to support learning in the constantly changing world. The potential of live-action role-playing games or larps to affect motivation and learning is examined in this study. In the center of the study is a larp called Velhokoulu. The skills taught by role-playing games and their other positive effects has also been studied earlier, but the children's point of view is rarely emphasized. Furthermore, the Velhokoulu-larp is a fairly unique case in a Finnish context. The aim of the study is to empirically find out the effects of larping both from the view of motivation as well as learning. The study was carried out as a case study, which data was collected with both qualitative and quantitative methods. The motivation and the learning were examined through the vision of the designers of Velhokoulu, the assistants’ execution and the players' experience. The material concerning the designers and assistants was collected with semi-structured interviews, while the players' experiences were surveyed with a quantitative questionnaire. The methods for analysis consisted of the qualitative content analysis for the interviews and simple methods of the statistical description for the questionnaire. The results showed that Velhokoulu can support the player's motivation and psychological basic needs in many different ways. Some of the most centered results concerning motivation were influencing one's own character and the action in the game, an optimal level and supporting it and the good and safe atmosphere. These principles were supported by enabling different action, taking the players' different age and experience into consideration and through safe roles and the model of assistants. Some centered results from the point of view of the learning were the development of the imagination, taking others' perspective, cooperative skills and critical thinking and questioning. The learning of the skills was supported by creating atmosphere, assistants' own model and the concrete examples, active encouraging and the challenging of the players. The player’s experience mainly highlighted the fact of Velhokoulu supporting both the basic needs and learning of the skills. On the basis of the results can be said that concepts such as Velhokoulu bring many benefits with it from different points of view. The filling of psychological basic needs is a precondition for the development of inner motivation, in addition to which the skills taught by role-playing games are important for example from the point of view of the wide-ranging skills mentioned in Finnish curriculum. The study indeed offers a viewpoint and example of how the untapped resources of games could be brought into use in practice and could be adapted for example in the context of education.

Making crafts is no longer based on need alone. The importance of craft as a subject emphasizing self-expression has grown, and craft teachers have a significant role in how craft is valued in the future. The theoretical framework of the study examines the sociocultural context of craft and which elements affect the expressive meanings of craft. The study outlines the meanings associated with craft expression by craft teacher students and discourses based on the research data. The use of language as a research subject reflected the contextual nature and culture of the meanings related to craft expression. In the study, discourse referred to a fairly established discussion about issues that construct social reality. The research data consisted of 38 essays written by the craft teacher students in the University of Helsinki during the Study planning course in 2014 and 2017. Part of the essay assignment was to reflect on one’s own craft expression. The qualitative research method was interpretive discourse analysis. Initially, through content analysis, I outlined what meanings craft teacher students attached to craft expression when describing their own craft expression. In the discursive analysis phase, I interpreted what kind of discourses were constructed from the data. The data emphasized product- and need-based understanding of craft, in which practicality was found to exclude expressiveness of craft. Based on the data analysis, four discourses of craft expression were constructed: sustainable craft, flawless craft making, beauty and non-expression. Like the meanings associated with craft expression, discourses overlapped, and the topics got various aspects in different discourses. The meanings and discourses associated with craft expression open up the effects of craft culture and help to understand the significance of craft as part of the diversity of life.