Browsing by study line "Klasslärare (pedagogik)"

The aim of the present study was to examine how ninth graders’ self-reported anxiety symptoms are related to their time on task and task performance in low-stakes assessment. The aim of the present study was also to examine if there are gender differences in how ninth graders’ self-reported anxiety symptoms are related to their time on task and task performance in low-stakes assessment. The relation between self-reported anxiety symptoms and time on task and task performance in low-stakes assessment, has presumably not been studied before. However studies show, that in most cases, anxiety correlates negatively with cognitive processes and task performance. The present study’s data is a part of MetLoFin longitudinal data that was collected in Helsinki metropolitan area in 2011 and 2014. The study examined lower secondary school pupils’ learning to learn, achievement, well-being and their relations. The first phase of the main data was collected in the fall of 2011 when the pupils were at seventh grade. The second phase of the main study was collected in the spring of 2014 from the same students, who at the time were at ninth grade. In the present study, only the data from 2014 was used which consisted of 5813 pupils from ninth grade. Anxiety symptoms were measured with three different indicators that measured emotional difficulties, academic pressure and somatic symptoms. The data was analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 25. The study showed that when examining the whole data, emotional difficulties and academic pressure correlated negatively with time on task and task performance. The relation between somatic symptoms and time on task and task performance was weak and conflicting when examining the whole data. The study also showed that with boys, the self-reported anxiety symptoms correlated negatively with time on task and task performance. With girls, the relation between self-reported anxiety symptoms and time on task and task performance in low-stakes assessment was notably weaker.

The aim of this thesis is to describe, analyze and interpret the meanings that the administrative representatives of the City of Jämsä Education and Culture Department give to the Music Institute as part of the Education and Cultural Services. The study is a qualitative case study and the data is analyzed according to phenomenographic analysis. The research is motivated not only by the researcher's personal interests in music and musical hobbies, but also by the interest in decision-making and its preparation. The research questions are based on the history of the national music school system and the local music institute, research on folk and music school and their social significance, research on Finnish leisure music hobbies, documents and regulations governing the activities of the city and the Music School, their organization and strategy. Three administrative representatives of the Education and Cultural Services in the City of Jämsä were interviewed for the study. The theme interviews were recorded and transcribed. The analysis of the material proceeded according to the phenomenographic analysis. The results of the study show that the Music School has also cultural, service and collaborative responsibilities in addition to its educational duties. The music school’s strengths include competent, long-term and motivated staff, content and collaboration. Weaknesses are related to financial aspects. The life-cycle perspective of the Quality-of-life Services is comprehensively realized in the Music School. According to representatives of the educational administration, the Music School is an actor to prevent inequality and exclusion, although fees and entrance examinations limit the opportunities for participation. From a communal point of view, the Music School creates a community in itself and it has many successful partners. Related to health improving aspect, the Music School first and foremost improves mental health. According to the interviewees, the Music School strengthens both local music culture and cultural activities. Through its activities, the Music School has been a part of the nationwide history of music schools, for example, by training experts in important musical positions. There have been structural, operational, economic, political and cultural changes in the administration and services of the City of Jämsä. In particular, the Music School supports the fields of well-being and vitality of the “Jämsä 2025” strategy. Economic, cultural and operational challenges are mentioned for the future.

The purpose of this study was to examine in more detail the factors behind the inheritance of the teacher’s profession. This topic has been studied widely in Finland and abroad. The previous studies have shown that the teacher’s profession tends to inherit in the family. The information that one could have from the results, could be used for example in student counselling. The data was collected by sending a questionnaire via email to five teachers who are from families that include teachers. The questionnaire had nine questions which were based on previous studies and this thesis’ research problems. The previous studies that were used in this study were both Finnish and international. Thematizing was used as an analyzing method when questionnaires were analyzed. The Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on the method which was used to collect the data: originally it was planned to collect it via interviews but because of the pandemic the data had to be collected via questionnaire. As a conclusion in this study teacher occupation tends to inherit for example because of the support from the family and information about the occupation that is given by them. Being in a family that has other teachers has positive impacts, like for example common holidays. Knowing that occupations in families have an impact on a child's decision about education and future occupation, give student counsellors important information that they could use when working with the students.

Safe learning environment is a student´s right based on the Finnish law (2013, 29 §) and national curriculum (POPS, 2014, s.29). Taking care of safety is a requirement of student wellbeing (Noble etc., 2008, s.7-10). Safe learning environment is based on physical and mental safety. Physical safety includes state security and physical integrity while mental health includes social, psychological, and pedagogical security. Emotional security is based on all these five areas. (Hurme & Kyllönen, 2014, s.28-29.) My personal interest and the lack of research available in Finnish has led me to study the use of dogs in education. The purpose of this master`s thesis is to describe, analyse and interpret how teachers think service dogs affect safe learning environments. This thesis tries to increase understanding of safe learning environments and describe how service dogs affects those. I researched the following question: How teachers see a service dog affecting a safe learning environment (state security, physical integrity, social, psychological, pedagogical and emotional security)? This thesis is a qualitative research and it is made with semi-structured interview. I interviewed six teachers for this thesis. All teachers have used a service dog in education for at least one and half years and some of them have used service dogs for more than five years. The inter-views are analysed by using content analysis. This thesis shows that a service dog can help students` emotional security and mental security however there are few exceptions. The biggest concern teachers have on the use of service dogs is ensuring the physical security of all students. As the benefits of service dogs on students' wellbeing and safe learning environment exceed the negative effects, I suggest that they should be more widely adopted based on the available research.

Tässä kvalitatiivisessa pro gradu -tutkielmassa tutkin luovuuden tukemisen merkityksiä. Tutkimus sisältää kolme narratiivista haastattelua ja niistä syntyneet kertomukset luovuuden tukemisen merkityksistä. Toinen tutkimuksessa käytetty metodi on systemoitu kirjallisuuskatsaus, jossa tärkeimmiksi teorioiksi on valittu J. P. Guilfordin divergentti ajattelu, A. H. Maslow’n teoria luovuudesta itsensä toteuttamisena ja M. Csíkszentmihályin flow-teoria. Luovuuden tukemisen merkityksiä voidaan löytää niin yksilön kuin yhteiskunnan näkökulmista. Tämän tutkimuksen parasta antia ovat luovuuskertomukset, joita analysoin muun muassa rohkeuden, vapauden, ideoinnin ja itsevarmuuden rakentumisen näkökulmista. Yhteiskunnallisia näkökulmia tutkimukselle on luovien produktien tuottaminen ja yhteiskunnallinen osallistuminen.

The aim of this research is to clarify experiences of six teachers with different qualifications about Language awareness in a simultaneous teaching -pilot program. This program has been implemented in schools in Helsinki. My objective in this research is to sort out teachers’ experiences about planning, implementation, possible effects, or changes within this program and how translanguaging has been used in teaching. Important theoretical concepts of this research are language awareness and translanguaging. In addition, I examine mother tongue teaching, Finnish as a second language teaching, preparatory teaching for newly arrived students and multilingualism in Finnish schools from the perspectives of Finnish school system and Finnish primary school curriculum. The character of this research is qualitative content analysis. In this research I will specify the material which I have collected by using semi-structured interviews and I will present themes that were established from the material. The material contains interviews of six teachers which have been part of the pilot program. In the material we can hear experiences of mother tongue teachers, class teacher, subject teacher, and Finnish as a second language -teacher, from the middle and elementary school point of view. The results of my research give indication about capabilities of language awareness simultaneous teaching in practice and what types of thoughts teachers have about multilingual, language awareness and translanguaging utilised in teaching during this pilot program. The main results of my research indicate that middle and elementary schools have differences between teachers pedagogical planning which depend on the qualifications of the teachers. In planning, structural challenges and difficulties occurred during scheduling. In the implementation there were differences in using different languages, for example the languages were centre of the teaching or part of teaching to support learning. Experiences of possible effects of the pilot program were developed in language skills, changes in motivation, individual and peer attitude in language skills, learning and support in work, knowing students, interests of teachers outside of the pilot program and parents’ varying feedback. Utilizing translanguaging and various types of languages in classes appeared dissimilar and the teacher’s role in multilingual interaction differed based on the qualifications of the teacher. The teachers experienced the pilot program overall as a positive, useful, and necessary matter. The need for this kind of language awareness simultaneous teaching in which mother tongue teachers work together with other teachers were reflected within the teachers’ experiences. There were many advantages which display that there might be a lack or shortage in linguistic support and in multilingualism becoming a norm in the Finnish comprehensive school.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the Ministry of Education and Culture to make a historical decision, based on which all schools and educational institutions in Finland switched to dis-tance education on March 18, 2020. If necessary, contact teaching was offered only to pupils in grades 1 – 3 or with special support. The purpose of this dissertation is to record the experience of pupils aged 7 to 12 years and their parents of the distance school routine overshadowed by exclusionary activities of soci-ety. It was mentally a very difficult period. The aim of the dissertation is to find out how dis-tance education was perceived, especially in terms of the mental well-being of pupils and what opportunities the teacher has to support in the community of pupils and other mental well-being in the situation of distance education. This qualitative research has a narrative approach. The material consists of diary-based WhatsApp messages from three students and loosely structured thematic interviews with stu-dents and their parents. The material has been compiled during exceptional circumstances, and it was possible to find out changes in school practices and pupils’ moods as the distance learning period progressed. The results show the importance of different teaching practices on mental well-being of the pupil the differences in the level of teaching practices. The data shows the spring 2020 was challenging. As expected, it highlighted loneliness caused by social isolation but also the po-tential of the school to support community. At it’s best, distance education was challenging but diverse learning environment that devel-oped future skills and self-esteem of the pupil. At worst, it turned out to be a grueling and lonely drill for the pupil when even the provision of basic learning goals was uncertain.

Appearance pressures caused by social media, increased use of technology, low physical activity and poor physical performance in children and adolescents have led to the originate of this thesis. Previous studies show that these factors can be seen as a risk to the embodiment. The purpose of this thesis is to provide information about embodiment, body awareness and embodied learning in in the context of primary school. The study aims to to find ways in which teacher can support the development of student’s body awareness and positive body image in physical education. In addition, it is examined how teachers perceive their skills and potential to support student’s embodiment and how they see the potential of embodiment in learning. The study was conducted as a qualitative phenomenographic case study, and the research data was collected through semi-structured interviews of four dance and physical education teachers. The research was phenomenographic because of the interest in teacher’s experiences and views on bodily-related themes. The interviews were analyzed using the phenomenographic analysis. The results of the study show that embodiment and body awaraness are challenging concepts with prejudices. The concepts were thought to mean the same thing, or embodiment was considered as the upper concept of body awareness. Supporting body awareness and positive body image are connected to each other: body awareness exercises were also seen to have a positive effect on the development of body image. In the development of body awareness, it was seen as important, for example, to increase knowledge related to the anatomy of the body, and to observe postures and movements of the body. In turn, positive feedback, praise and safe learning environment were considered as important, when supporting positive body image. Creative dance, improvisation, mindfulness, braindance, touching and relaxation exercises were mentioned as exercises that support embodiment. Teachers felt that their own skills were good in supporting student’s embodiment and they emphasized the importance of their own body awareness and education. Embodiment was found to have positive effects on learning, so the research confirms the results of previous research on the bodily basis of thinking and learning

The aim of this study was to find out teachers’ and guardians’ perceptions of cyberbullying intervention strategies and the school’s responsibility. Besides the intent was to examine their views about the intervention programs gathered by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Previous research has shown that school officials intervene more easily in physical bullying as they do not notice the cyberbullying incidents and more guidance and intervention programs are needed. The purpose of this study was to provide information to school officials and guardians about the operative factors linked to cyberbullying interventions, to point out the intervention procedures and programs that are regarded as being practical and to determine the responsibility of school based on the views of teachers and guardians. Four guardians and three teachers participated in the study. The data was collected in two focus group discussions, one with teachers and the other one with guardians. The material was analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. The analysis was partly led by the theoretical framework and partly the themes that came up in the discussions. The results showed that teachers applied the same methods than in traditional bullying such as discussions, agreements and positive pedagogy while emphasizing also the responsibility of the guardians. However, the guardians felt that the pre-adolescents had not received enough guidance and support from the school and they were reluctant to report cyberbullying. According to the focus groups the responsibility of school to intervene in the cyberbullying occurred at school depends on the school policies, legislation, multi-professional collaboration, anonymity and the case in question. When it happens outside the school the responsibility is easier to specify – teachers are not obligated to intervene excluding the incidents that are linked to school or appear also in there. As to the intervention programs the guardians considered the peer mediation program VERSO to be the most functional while the teachers found it to be more suitable for small disputes. The teachers liked the KiVa program the most based on their good experiences and they especially high-lighted a case-by-case approach. Likewise the guardians gave good feedback on the KiVa program.

Objectives. This master’s thesis was inspired on one hand by the current climate advocacy of children, and on the other by the persuasive possibilities of written texts (Anderson, 2008, 271; Wollman-Bonilla, 2004, 520). The aim of this piece of research was to investigate climate discourses and genre conventions in persuasive letters or “climate letters” written by primary school pupils. In addition, the aim was to specify and analyse which linguistic means were utilized to produce these climate discourses. This study increases knowledge of the meanings children attribute to climate change. Methods. The data for this study was collected from five primary school classes in four different schools. The students were in grades 3 to 6. The original data consisted of 54 letters. However, five letters which made up one of the classes participating in the study had to be disqualified. The conclusive data consisted of 49 climate letters from four different classes. The letters were analysed qualitatively utilizing discourse analysis and terminology within genre studies. Linguistic analysis, in this case the study of evaluations and modality, was used to support the discourse analysis. Findings and conclusions. The pupils’ climate letters utilized similar genre conventions which are natural to persuasive letters. These genre conventions are described using the term family resemblance. The letters have a similar schematic structure consisting of a greeting, a sequence containing opinions, arguments and suggestions, and a closing. By use of discourse analysis, six climate discourses were uncovered: a discourse about people-driven climate change, a denialist discourse, a conservation discourse, an animal rights discourse, a discourse of a sense of threat and a discourse of climate action. The discourses were produced using evaluations and modality. The evaluations varied. They were used to strengthen the affective quality of the letters and they proved to be an integral means of producing meanings about climate change. Out of the types of modality, dynamic modality was the most commonly used. In addition, illustrations were used to produce meanings about climate change. This study endeavours to offer more understanding about the meanings children develop about climate change so that the efforts to mitigate global warming would be more inclusive to the voices of the generation that will likely suffer most from the climate crisis.