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The aim of this master’s thesis is to find out the experiences of ninth grader boy (assumed) athletes about their eating habits and food choices in everyday life and what kind of eating habits boy athletes have. Furthermore, the study aims to find out who or what influences and advises young people on nutrition-related issues and what kind of advice has been offered and how they try to follow the given ad-vice. The study was conducted as a qualitative study. The study data was collected as an electronic survey of 12 boy ninth graders from Helsinki. The survey utilized a stimulated enquiry, or “Stimulated recall” as a study method. Respondents were offered a video about eating habits, which was intended to focus the respondents' thoughts on their own lives and the everyday food choices. Respondents were examined in depth both as individuals and as a group, and analysis was formed with the qualitive content analysis. Participants in the study felt that their own eating habits were good or quite good. Respondents’ eating habits and food choices did not vary much on different days. The differences in the meals were reflected in the planning of the food for the com-petition days and the easy-goingness of the day-offs. In planning, boys strive for the timeliness and healthiness of the meals in order to perform as well as possible in sports performance. The days-offs were more relaxed in terms of food. The family and coach were found to have the greatest influence on respondents’ cur-rent eating habits. Special value was given to the advice given by the coaches and the willing to follow the given advice was high. Respondents’ who did not receive advices from their coaches hoped to receive them in the future. In addition, in the boys' responses to the survey, there were significant differences in the skills they have to describe or justify their everyday food choices. Three different response styles were emerged: (1) respondents who are aware of their own food choices, (2) respondents who are unsure of their own food choices, and (3) respondents who did not justify their own food choice answers at all.

There have been many studies concerning the organization and management in classrooms and the disturbances that violate it. Most of them, however, have been done from the point of view of teachers. The goal of this study is to bring out the views of the pupils on this subject. This study aims to find out more information for the teachers on, how the students think the classroom disturbances could be reduced and what can the teachers do to improve classroom management. This study was done as a qualitive study. The material used in the study has been collected by interviewing ten ninth grade students. In the interviews, the students were asked different questions concerning classroom management and disturbances with an aspect of the role of a teacher involved. The material was then analysed using data-driven content analysis focusing on the views of classroom management. The results were formed from consistent themes found from the material, from which the researcher formed the main categories. The students brought up the usage of phones, talking with classroom friends and extra disturbances (for example, extra personnel in the classroom) as the main causes of classroom disturbances. The students showed that they understand their role in the cause of classroom disturbances but underlined the role of the teacher in their answers, as the key to a peaceful classroom. Teachers were expected to be clear with their rules and be justful in their actions which were aspects that the students respected. Results showed that the students felt that the classroom is more peaceful when the teacher has planned the lesson to match the students’ needs. Results also showed that teacher-student relationship and classroom atmosphere have an impact on the peace of the classroom.

Objectives. Society is divided between social classes in many ways. Regional segregation is increasing because parents' income differences continue to grow and children's education level and future income level are increasingly determined by the parents' background. The task of this thesis was to find out the effect of a young person's socioeconomic status on school well-being, school enthusiasm and school burnout. The aim of the thesis was to ex-amine the socio-economic background of the young person as an explanatory variable. The socio-economic background consisted of the dimensions of financial capital. As a the-oretical framework, the thesis reflected the importance of the student's socioeconomic sta-tus and social capital on school well-being. The effect of socioeconomic status on the stu-dent's experience of school well-being was mirrored through Ecological Systems Theory. The study well-being demands and resources model based on Demerout et al.'s (2001) job demands and resources model (Job demands - resources model JD-R) served as an ex-planatory model of the connection between social capital and school well-being between different levels of ecological systems. Methods. The study used the survey data of the Mind the Gap research project, which was collected in elementary schools in Helsinki in May 2013. 761 students aged 12–13 from 32 elementary schools participated in the study. Of the participants, 55.7% were girls (n=423) and 44.3% were boys (n=337). The survey material was interested in young people's thoughts and experiences, especially regarding schooling, friendships, well-being and in-formation about technology. In this thesis, the material was utilized to the extent that it corresponded to the purpose of the thesis. Participation in the study was completely volun-tary, and the parents of those who participated in the study were asked for written permis-sion for the students' participation. The data was analyzed using linear regression analy-sis. In the analysis of the data, version 2.3 of the Jamovi statistics program was used. Results and conclusions. The results showed that a home that offers a young person a fi-nancially stable starting point creates better personal resources for the student to go to school. The results also showed that even if the family's financial situation is not stable in all respects, but the student himself feels that his own livelihood is comparatively good in relation to others, this is connected to an increasing interest in school and lower school burnout. Thus, a student's financial carelessness predicts a student's better school well-being. The research results follow previous research results. Under the current societal economic pressures, there would be a significant need for further research.

This study investigated how singing together promotes the well-being of primary school children. The research questions were designed in a context when singing together was restricted due to the corona pandemic. The research questions were: 1) How singing together contributes to the well-being of primary school children according to teachers' perceptions, and 2) how singing together can be promoted according to teachers' perceptions. The dimensions of well-being, physical, psycho-emotional, social and spiritual, were based on Allardt's (1993) definition of well-being and Ryan and Deci's (2000) self-determination theory of well-being. In addition, studies written on the well-being effects of singing were used, many of which also addressed the role of the teacher as a facilitator of singing together. The data for the study was collected through semi-structured thematic interviews with five teachers. This data was analyzed using theoretical content analysis. The research shows that singing together contributes to the well-being of primary school children in various ways, supporting holistic development. However, the teacher needs to create a singing culture in the classroom, with a focus on a safe atmosphere, increased singing opportunities and valuing everyone's singing. The results of this study are important to consider for those who sing with primary school children and for those who decide to impose a singing ban. The research results can also be utilised in teacher education, where it is possible to ensure that teachers have sufficient musical skills and, above all, musical self-confidence for singing together with students.

Aims. The subjects of the study are autistic pupils and their potential prosocial behavior during the school day. The study discusses the factors which are relevant to the autistic student's receptiveness in both guided and free interaction situation. In addition, the aim of the study is to present types of interaction that the autistic students use. The theoretical framework is based on literature on the phenomenon of autism. Methodology. The data was collected in two ways. The first collection was carried out by observing the way the students behaved during the school day and by doing a research diary for a month. Another research data collecting method was videotaping three occupational therapy sessions. The research complies with the characteristics of qualitative research and it has strong ethnographic features. The primary research method is observation. The research data analysis was carried out by theory based content analysis. The study group consisted of ten students and six adults, excluding the researcher. The students were in grades 1 to 6 and from 6 to 12 years of age. Results and Conclusions. Prosocial behaviour such as helping, sharing and comforting was identified in the study. Sharing with the adults was the most common behaviour shown by the students. Also, although not to the same degree, sharing between students themselves was observed. In addition to sharing, helping was observed to some extent and comforting was observed only once. The number, attitude and behaviour of the supervising adults affected significantly an autistic child's capacity to absorb the guided interaction. The students had access to four different interaction methods, as Kangas (2009) had categorized. The methods included, being in their own peace, defending one's own territory, resort to the adults' support and to show willingness to attend a peer support group. In conclusion, this research studied students with autism spectrum disorder. The research observed examples of prosocial behaviour including, helping, sharing and comforting which are not common among children with autism. Additionally, students exhibited a variety of unique and different ways to interact. These have led to the development of the student's social skills during the school day.

Aim of the study. Traditionally teaching has been lonely work. Demands for towards teaching has been increased during the last decade: need for special education is growing, the contents of the curriculum has grown and there are also new challenges in the co-operation between school and families. Finnish students rank well in international comparison, but feel less comfortable at school. Teachers are tiring themselves out and choose other professions. Lack of resources does not allow smaller class sizes or more input in special education. Interest in a collegial collaboration between teachers has been suggested as a solution. The idea of inclusion and the changing law of special education stating that all pupils would attend the same classes are in the background. Co-teaching aims at avoiding extra special education by using existing resources, by combining two classes and with collaboration of teachers. The aim of the study is to find out the characteristics of co-teaching with two teachers and its added value to the teaching work. Methods. Eight pairs of co-teachers were interviewed, five of them co-teaching full time and in three cases the other teacher joining the class only for certain lessons. Research type was qualitative multi-case study. The study material was collected by observing the classes and by interviewing the pairs. The observations were reported as narratives describing the co-teaching of each teacher pair. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis, which was steered by the theory and the collected material. Results and conclusions. According to this study co-teaching was considered as a means to enhance quality of teaching, reduce teachers' work load, increase professionality, and to increase the motivation of pupils. Nineteen different forms of co-teaching were formulated based on the literature and the material collected at observations and interviews. These forms may be useful in better recognizing the individual needs of pupils and to better use the presence and experience of two teachers. As a conclusion, the didactic triangle was extended to form a didactic-collegial square, where the collegial relationship between the two teachers brings a new dimension to the picture reflecting the many dimensions of co-teaching and difference to the work of a teacher alone.

The aim of the study was to describe and interpret how the Amish patchwork, especially patchwork quilts, appear on the social media channel YouTube. The study dealt with the methods of qualitative research on how a specific craft tradition comes to the fore in thematic videos and tutorial videos, which have been made by people outside the Amish communities. The study also compared the messages of the videos to the legalities of Amish patchwork quilts which came up in the theoretical basis. The quilting tradition is old and Amish patchwork quilts are a big part of their culture where modern technology is not allowed. YouTube is one of the most popular search engines in the world and is also widely used among crafters. The modern way of bringing out a traditional craft may help to preserve the skill and give people outside the Amish communities an opportunity to learn how to make beautiful patchwork quilts with background knowledge and symbolism. Not much previous research has been done, at least from the point of view of YouTubers, but there are other studies regarding amish patchwork quilting available. The research material was first selected with certain restrictions and then mainly as random samples. The study is a qualitative media study in which five thematic videos and five tutorial videos were analyzed using two different types of analyses. From the five thematic videos, an attempt was made to bring out the tradition of Amish patchwork quilts on a general level with the help of representational analysis. The videos were opened and interpreted both together and one video at a time. The tutorial videos were studied with the help of theory-based content analysis by comparing the information on the videos to the theoretical basis of the study. The specific interest was on what kind of traditional features of Amish patchwork quilts can be found in these tutorials. Based on the research, the traditions of the Amish patchwork quilts came out well in YouTube videos at a general level. The content of the videos varied a lot in some cases, but in terms of actual significant contradictions in these ten videos selected for the study, did not appear. The points brought out in the selected videos were consistent, although some videos were quite narrow in content and in other videos the topic was brought out comprehensively. YouTube can be said to be, at least in this case, one possible channel for finding information and doctrine, as well as a means of preserving tradition.

Finnish education politics presume that basic education should be equal to all students. While organising craft education equality can be understood as similarity or as possibility to choose. The possibility to be able to choose whether textile or technical craft despite of one's gender has been the aim of laws and curriculums already over 30 years. In practice it's almost impossible to students to ignore feminine and masculine roles that go deep into our culture. Choosing craft has been divided by gender, which is the reason why possibility to choose has not been good enough to educationalists of equality. The latest guidelines for the National core curriculum for basic education were issued in 2004. According to curriculum craft education consists parts of both technical and textile craft. All students should take part in both sectors of crafts. Furthermore, one can be given a possibility to concentrate his studies in whether textile or technical craft. The curriculum does not set the rules how the education should be organised, which means that it can be organised in many ways depending on city, school or teacher. Teachers and other specialists have contradictory feelings towards shared craft education, because traditional way to see craft in Finland is to separate textile craft from technical craft. Both crafts have some common features that are introduced in curriculum. Besides there is many equal things in craft theories that bind textile and technical craft to each other. The main purpose of this research was to find out, how shared craft education has been organised at the 7.th grade in Finnish comprehensive school, and which things affect in the settlements. Second goal was to describe and compare teachers' experiences in teaching shared craft education. Third aim of this study was how shared craft has changed craft education. I collected the research material in May 2006 by interviewing both textile and technical craft teachers who teach shared craft. The material consists of fourteen theme interviews. In the analysis of the material I used theoretic bounded document analysis. According to the research there are three different ways to organise shared craft education: 50-50-arrangement, exchanging period and project week. In the schools that carried out 50-50-arrangement teaching was realised mainly in heterogenous groups. Principals had usual a lot of authorization on how to arrange craft education, which means that their views on equality, laws and curriculum affected in the settlements more than teachers' opinions. Teachers' attitudes to shared craft were mainly positive. The changing of craft education can be divided in two parts: the aims and the containings of the curriculum have changed, as well as the meaning of the craft as core subject. Teachers have been forced to decrease the containings of both textile and technical crafts. Despite of eliminations both crafts still have comprehensive containings. Teachers decided what to teach by these arguments: Students should learn some basic things or produce a certain product. Usually teachers had also a lot of experience and special interests in crafts. According to this research there is four significant meanings for shared craft education: 1) developing readiness for doing things, 2) developing skills of thinking, 3) delight of doing things and 4) teaching attitude.

This thesis aims to examine teachers’ conception and experiences of co-assessment. School assessment is a surface issue right now. New curriculum in 2014 shifted the focus from the assessment of pupils to the assessment of learning. The new curriculum did not work as well as hoped, so chapter 6 assessment of learning was renewed. The newest version which aims to increase equality will be implemented in the autumn of 2020. Teaching has traditionally been seen as independent work done alone. Co-teaching is a method where two or more teachers plan, teach and assess together in equal collaboration. Studies have shown that the benefits of co-teaching are worth pursuing. The concept of co-assessment was derived from the key concepts of the thesis. The purpose of the study is to examine teachers' perceptions of co-assessment as well as its benefits and challenges. The research was carried out with a phenomenographic research approach. The research material was collected through interviews with 13 teachers in an elementary school in Vantaa. The semi-structured group interviews were held in April 2019. The material was analyzed with phenomenographic analysis. Teachers described co-assessment as a formative and summative assessment. Co-assessment was carried out everyday life and in planning of assessment in various ways. Co-teaching teams also split assessment tasks. Teachers spoke about formative assessment a little bit more than about summative assessment. Formative co-assessment was seen as more diverse and there were more differences of opinion. Conceptions of summative co-assessment were more similar. According to the teachers the challenges of co-assessment are related to time, teamwork, differences of opinion and pupil-related worries. Co-assessment benefits both teachers and pupils. Co-assessment provides an opportunity to improve well-being at work and simplify assessment. Co-assessment is higher quality and more equitable for students. The benefits were related to the challenges in many ways, and were perceived as mitigating them.

Goals. During the last few decades, the understanding of childhood has changed. Nowadays we see children as active social actors and as specialists of their life. Children's development and learning happen in close interaction with the surrounding society. The goal of my study is to describe, analyse and interpret children's experiences of participation in children's and older adults' club activities in third sector. I studied Terhokerho clubs as children's operational environment of participation. I focused my study on children's experiences of participation and the structural and situational of the operational environment. My goal was to find operational modes, which support children's experiences of participation. I studied participation through children's initiatives and children's experience of belonging to the group. Methods. I studied two different Terhokerho clubs in southern Finland. Terhokerho clubs are part of the Koko Suomi leikkii –program. There were 27 4-12 year-old children and 21 adults participating in the study. I collected my research data by observing action in Terhokerho clubs and by interviewing children. The interviews were the primary source of research data. I analysed my observation notes and transcribed interviews separately with content analysis by classifying and finding themes from the data. Results and conclusions. In my study, participation as children's experience of belonging to the group and as children's possibilities to make initiatives was surprisingly homogenous. Key factors supporting children's experience of participation were fun activities and friends. Those who did not have their own friends with them in the clubs also considered getting new friends an important factor. Children also wanted to get to know the adults in the clubs. Joint activities of children and adults helped create interaction and therefore supported children's experience of participation and possibilities to make initiatives. Adults' action and the structure of the club also made a difference. Common starting and closing moments of the clubs and activities that took into account children's opinions furthered children's possibilities to make initiatives and experience of participation. Humour and warm athmosphere between children and adults were typical in the club activities of children and older adults.