Browsing by master's degree program "Magisterprogrammet utbildning i förändring"
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(2023)Multilingualism is an inherent characteristic of human societies around the world, which is continuously reinforced by recent societal events such as migration or globalization. Yet educational contexts have only recently started to dedicate more attention to multilingualism in education. Education systems still fail to fully recognize and value multilingual learners’ competences, sometimes resulting in language-based exclusion. To address this, the present study examines the issue of continuities and discontinuities in terms of language use, between familial and educational contexts in multilingual contexts. Special attention is also given to language attitudes and ideologies, to investigate their impact and influence on linguistic practices. With the help of a sociolinguistic questionnaire giving insights into language ecologies in educational and familial contexts, a cross-cultural comparative analysis is conducted along with an in-depth analysis of one situation of languages in contact. This in-depth analysis addresses the educational policy level, questioning how policies can establish bridges to build continuity with the familial domain. The findings suggest that diverse situations occur across different sociocultural contexts. Nevertheless, some similarities emerged in the analysis, revealing that certain educational contexts promote continuity with the familial domain to a certain extent, while others do not promote continuity at all. Language attitudes and ideologies have a strong role on language practices and can contribute to the maintenance and vitality of certain languages, or jeopardize others. The in-depth analysis of one contact situation suggests that, in this context, the educational policy level attempted to promote some continuity, putting emphasis on mother tongue education and the development of multilingual competences for children. Nonetheless, explicit references to promote continuity between familial and educational contexts in terms of language use was missing. In addition, several sources pointed to the challenges of implementing such educational policies due to practical constraints such as the lack of qualified teachers or of a sufficiently high number of pupils participating in these initiatives. The analysis confirms that sociolinguistic questionnaires focusing on eliciting information on the ecology of languages can be a valuable source of data for education and policy-making. Although not designed for educational purposes, the data provided extremely insightful information. Therefore, this thesis highlights that tailored sociolinguistic questionnaires can represent a rich source of information for evidence-based policymaking. Overall, this study acknowledges the advancement and positive consideration given to multilingual education in different sociocultural contexts, and at different educational levels. However, more efforts are needed in order to meet multilingual learners’ needs, provide equitable chances and promote social justice in education. Reconsidering multilingualism not only as a right but also as a richness for individuals and society is a concrete example of the goals ahead. This study thus concludes by pleading for more action at all educational levels and beyond, to promote truly inclusive multilingual education and contribute to the important endeavor of changing education.
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(2023)Objectives. This thesis will use Russian-American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological theory of Human Development. This theory applies to the topic of trauma because it suitably explains the complexity of trauma through the theory’s outline of human development occurring in complex multiple layers of influence and differing levels of reciprocal interaction. In addition, it is considered to be a cross-cultural theory. Methods. Method for this thesis is a narrative literature review. A Narrative literature reviews have a less rigid structure than a systematic literature review, but still considered a qualitative analysis. As it name illudes to a narrative literature review is a narration of a carefully curated collection of articles, analyzed through the lens of the researchers own experiences, and through the use of a grounding theory. Although this method is more typcal for a bachelor’s thesis, it should not be underestimated as the literature review is the starting point of any research, to discover what has already been studied in order to build upon that. Selection of Topic: Trauma is not a new topic. As mentioned in the history of trauma section, its roots are in the battle fatigue experienced by soldiers returning from World Wars I and II. However, as a topic in education is relatively new, and the extent of its novelty also depends on geography. In the United States, it has been researched and written about, and foundations and centers on the topic have been created. In the Nordic countries, trauma’s effect on learning has not received comparable levels of attention. Results and conclusions. Are teachers aware of trauma, its manifestations, and how manifestations of trauma can mimic manifestations of learning disabilities? Is the one question this thesis asked and the answer is some do. This literature review has demonstrated that certain countries or regions, particuarly the U.S have extensive published research on trauma as well as a plethora of resources in a range of academic fields studying it. It also highlights the glaring gaps in research and literature on this topic in certain regions, most notably the Nordic countries. This leads me to ask why have the Nordic countries, especially Finland, the world leader in education, are not researching this topic and applying findings to teacher training and improving learning outcomes.
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(2023)Objectives. Research revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic caused stress (Cooke et al. 2020). Whether or not this also applied to principals in Finland will be tested in this study. This study discovers in what way there is a difference in the self-reported as well as the physiological stress of Finnish principals between 2019 and 2020. Researchers have found a connection between stress and social support among principals (Beausaert et al., 2016; Upadyaya et al., 2021). This thesis investigates in what way there is a connection between self-reported and physiological stress of 2020 and the experienced help and support for the Covid-19 procedures. Based on previous studies by Upadyaya et al. (2021) and a someway similar investigation by Beausaert et al. (2016), the hypothesis was that the dataset will reveal a connection between stress and social support. The research questions of this study are: 1. In what way do the principals’ physiological and self-reported stress levels for 2020 differ from 2019? 2. In what way is there a connection between principals’ self-reported as well as physiological stress and the experienced help and support for the Covid-19 procedures? Methods. All the physiological, as well as questionnaire data that are used in this study were collected in 2019 and 2020 by Katariina Salmela-Aro’s research group at the University of Helsinki. The physiological data was retrieved with Firstbeat’s device: Bodyguard 2. In this study, a selection of questionnaire data, and SDNN values that were retrieved during working time (8 a.m. till 5 p.m.) and sleeping time (midnight till 6 a.m.) have been used. Results and conclusions. The self-reported scales of “Cognitive Stress Symptoms”, “Stress” and “Somatic Stress Symptoms” between 2019 and 2020 were analysed as well as the physiological data. A significant result has been found only in the cognitive stress symptoms. Surprisingly, cognitive stress symptoms decreased in 2020, compared to 2019. A significant connection between the self-reported stress of “Cognitive Stress Symptoms”, “Stress” and “Somatic Stress Symptoms” with the experienced help and support of the Covid-19 procedures from Guardians of pupils/students have been found. As well as a significant connection between self-reported “Stress” with the experienced help and support of the Covid-19 procedures from the State level. The physiological data recorded during the night correlated significantly with ‘’Guardians of pupils/students’’, ‘’Municipal education board’’ and the ‘’State level’.
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(2022)The aim of this study is to examine parents' beliefs on what impact Covid-19 has had on our young children's physical activity. With the term young children, I refer to children aged from one to six years old. The research questions for this study are the following: 1. How do parents view the impact Covid-19 has had on children's physical activity? 2. What kind of change in the child’s physical activity can be seen? 3. Is there a change in the child’s attitude towards physical activity? In the chapter physical activity some background on how children master physical movements will be presented. The chapter contains children’s physical development, as well as benefits and the needs for physical activity. Physical development and physical activity go hand in hand, developing physically often leads to the child becoming more physically active. In the chapter Covid-19 and everyday life, viewpoints on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected young children’s everyday life and especially physical activity are examined. The Covid-19 pandemic led to activities organized for families with children, such as story-time in library, music-play at the library/church and family café etc. stopped to decrease the spreading of the Covid-19 virus. A short complete lockdown took place in the beginning of spring 2020, where early childhood centers closed, and only parents/guardians who could not stay at home with their children had the right to bring their child to early childhood education. The parents that had the opportunity to stay home with their child were offered online early childhood education via the early childhood education center that they normally attend to. How much activities were sent out depended on the early childhood centers approach and beliefs (Hilppö, et al. 2020; Nurhonen et al. 2021). However, it was decided later that early childhood education centers remained open during the pandemic, and children were offered everyday life as normal as possible. Even though, early childhood education centers opened, the Covid-19 restrictions still existed (Nurhonen et al. 2021). How these restrictions were followed depended on the family. With the use of questionnaire, that were sent out to early childhood education centers and parent-child activities I have tried to get a view on how parents view the impact Covid-19 has had on young children’s physical activity. Has the pandemic affected young children’s physical activity? What are the parents’ beliefs? and how well with Covid-19 going on can children be physically active? I collected 103 answers from the questionnaire. Looking at the collected data I have also tried to see how and what attitudes towards physical activity children have. Do they enjoy being outdoors, physically active and has this changed during the pandemic? What can be concluded from this study is that even though the Covid-19 pandemic has been going on for 2 years it has not, according to the parents of the children, affected young children's physical activity that markedly. The children of this study seem to be as physically active as before the Covid-19 pandemic. This study is only a sample of a specific number of people, trying to explain how Covid-19 has affected the daily lives of children. Further study is needed to fully understand the changes made by Covid-19.
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(2023)Personal practical theories (PPTs) of early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals have not been widely studied. Personal beliefs, values and theoretical knowledge form the PPT that affects the decisions a professional makes in everyday work. Therefore, PPT can be considered as an integral element of professionalism in the ECEC field. Professionals' PPTs are often hidden and if not acknowledged and discussed, mutual understanding among professionals may be difficult to achieve. This qualitative study aims to provide some insight into the beliefs, values and knowledge of ECEC professionals, and describe the commonalities found in the PPTs of professionals. The data in this study was gathered from nine (9) semi-structured interviews in Finland. The respondents equally represented different disciplines that prevail in ECEC: pedagogy, social pedagogy and child nursing. The ‘onion model of levels in reflection’ developed by Fred Korthagen (2017) was utilised as a framework in formulating the interview questions and when interpreting the data with reflexive thematic analysis. The main finding in this thesis was the complexity and paradoxical nature of ECEC work which the professionals described. Similarly, the PPT of ECEC professional could be described as a region with a variety of complex dimensions. There were some common themes to be found in the data, one of them being advocating the best interest of children. Another important finding was the understanding of the cruciality of teamwork in ECEC. Consequently, the various PPTs of ECEC professionals should all be valued equally as this enables striving towards shared goals. Furthermore, discussing about PPTs among team members in genuine dialogue may foster the well-being of employees, and ultimately of children in the group. This study suggests that all ECEC professionals should engage self-reflection in order to recognise their underlying beliefs and values that affect their everyday work. This is a practice which enables professional development and also demonstrates ethical responsibility.
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(2023)The aim of this thesis is to investigate the experienced primary school teachers' implementation of the key characteristics of project-based learning (PBL) in South Korea. Six key characteristics of PBL were used in this study as the theoretical framework. The characteristics are driving questions, learning goals, scientific activities, collaborative activities, using digital tools, and creating artefacts. The other focus of this study is analysing the challenges that the teachers faced when implementing PBL. The study had two research questions. The first one examined how primary school teachers in South Korea implement the key characteristics of PBL, and the second one focused on what kinds of challenges they have when applying PBL. The data were collected by semi-structured online interviews of seven primary school teachers. Their project plan documents designed and implemented by the teachers were used as additional data. The collected data were analysed with qualitative content analysis mainly in an inductive way. The main findings are that the experienced teachers in South Korea employed PBL as follows: the teachers (1) designed PBL based on the curriculum and the students' interests, (2) tried to reflect the students' opinion, (3) created a PBL environment, (4) had the students practice related skills, (5) facilitated the students' learning, (6) designed collaborative work, (7) utilised digital tools, and (8) gave an opportunity to showcase the results of the learning. The study indicated that the teachers faced challenges such as managing time, ambiguity, and diversity. The teachers also described several challenges related to student engagement, collaborative work, lack of skills, resources, school support, and teacher expertise. These results confirm earlier research in other countries. The results and suggestions of the study can provide new insights of experienced teachers’ PBL implementation to teachers, schools, and curriculum developers wishing to implement PBL in classrooms. The findings revealed the strategies of PBL implementation, the need to guarantee teacher autonomy more in the curriculum and need of training for teachers’ professional development.
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(2023)Aims. The aim of the present study was to investigate how Chinese high school students’ psychological needs frustration in physical education courses relate to their school achievement, which was reflecting by the change of physical fitness test results. According to the concept of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), humans have three fundamental needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Previous studies have shown that satisfying psychological needs lead to positive outcomes, while thwarting psychological needs cause negative outcomes. This research links Chinese high school students’ psychological needs frustration to their school achievement within PE context, which was conducted to assess the stability of school achievement in physical tests over time for students with different needs frustration groups. Methods. 518 students (274 male, 244 female) from three Senior High Schools in Beijing completed an online questionnaire during school days. Two-Step Cluster analysis in SPSS was used to group students into homogeneous clusters based on their scores for psychological needs thwarting. A mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to measure the between-group and within-group differences. Results and conclusions. Three distinct psychological needs profiles were identified: high frustration (20.3%), moderate frustration (54.6%), and low frustration (25.1%). For school achievement, it was discovered that students who reported high levels of frustration received the lowest grades in both high school entrance exams and current exams, whereas those who reported low levels of frustration received the highest grades. The mixed ANOVA results showed a significant difference in physical test scores between entrance exams and current exams, indicating a decline in physical performance over time across all three identified profiles. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of the complex interplay between psychological needs fulfilment and academic performance, which could inform future research and interventions in this field.
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(2023)Previous research has shown that racism and discrimination negatively impact mental health and that students in Finland from immigrant families are more likely to report loneliness, anxiety, lack of close friendship, and poorer school belonging than their native counterparts. Furthermore, international schools, which is the empirical context of this thesis, have been criticized for being highly Western and white, leaving out important topics concerning BIPOC that would be expected to obtain an “international” education. Therefore, there is a need for more research into the lived experiences of racism of YPOC in an international school context and ways to support their wellbeing. To address this need, this thesis aims to investigate in what ways YPOC studying at an international school in the Greater Helsinki area cope with racism and how they find support. I focus on how race, racialisation, and racism affect their lived experiences and their sense of belonging, and how YPOC construct their racial and ethnic identities within white-dominated spaces. I also highlight sources of support for YPOC and how peer support is a means of supporting student wellbeing. The study was conducted using a participatory approach, with data collected through notes taken from a series of peer support group sessions I co-facilitated, as well as interviews. The planning of the research focus and facilitation of peer support group sessions took place in collaboration with a youth mental health association The data was analysed using a reflexive thematic approach to highlight themes in stories shared by the participating youth while acknowledging the value of research subjectivity. YPOC shared experiences of constantly being seen under the white gaze, being made aware of their race and Otherness in everyday life. They shared challenges with defining their identity and finding belonging and community, especially in transnational spaces. Finally, they affirmed peer support as a strategy for coping with the effects of racism, demonstrating the need for safe spaces for YPOC. This research indicates the need for contextualised mental health support for YPOC and action towards deconstructing institutional racism and Eurocentrism in the international school context.
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(2023)Objectives. The development of a strong ethnic identity is crucial for minority students throughout their school years. A sense of invisibility and stereotype threat may develop in the absence of a strong identity. Therefore, a rich representation of ethnicity is essential to the development of ethnic identity. This study aims to determine how minority representation is reflected in Finnish school textbooks, particularly how minorities racialized as non-white are depicted through the images found in textbooks. As earlier reports and research show that students from immigrant backgrounds perform lower than students from non-immigrant backgrounds and meaningful representation is important to avoid stereotype threat, it becomes important to examine how minorities are represented in Finnish textbooks used by all students. Methods. A content analysis was conducted to gain a greater comprehension of how minorities are portrayed in Finnish middle school textbooks which affects the development of ethnic identity. To gain insight into how students may perceive the presence of minorities in their textbooks, I examined 227 images found in several textbooks from the two main Finnish textbook publishers. Based on the variables set out, representation was categorized into categories of social hierarchy between the majority racialized as white and minority racialized as non-white found in the textbooks. Results and conclusions. Overall, the representation was 76 % for the majority racialized as white and 23.4% for the minority racialized as non-white. The greatest disparity in representation between majority and minority backgrounds was observed among professionals and academics, with the majority background appearing 80% more than the minority. On the other end of the social ladder, 'peasants' from minority backgrounds were represented more than those from majority backgrounds. The research indicates that textbooks do not give a full account of the varied backgrounds of minority students, which can have a detrimental effect on their ethnic identity and result in a sense of invisibility and stereotype threat.
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(2024)Migration trends globally are reshaping primary and secondary school demographics leading to increased linguistic and cultural diversity in historically monocultural settings. In La Rioja, Spain, students with immigrant backgrounds make up more than 15% of the current student body. Teachers are navigating these intercultural classrooms with varying experiences implementing culturally and linguistically responsive teaching. Research currently focuses on student academic performance and well-being deficits as well as deficit-based public and teacher narratives. This leaves a gap in research on the teacher experience and positive narratives. This study aims to fill this gap by addressing two research questions: What are the components of positive narratives of teachers working with students with immigrant backgrounds? What are teachers’ understandings of linguistically responsive teaching (LRT) and culturally responsive teaching (CRT)? The data was collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews of seven teachers with varying years of experience in primary and secondary schools. A narrative driven content analysis was used to inductively code the positive narratives and deductively code the understandings of the pedagogies based on a combined LRT and CRT framework. Traces of the Narrative Dimension Model were used to evaluate the form of the narratives enhancing understandings of the teacher’s perspectives and experiences. Results from this study show three components of teachers’ positive narratives: growth as a teacher, satisfaction and efficacy, and inclusive community extending previous research which has overlooked these aspects. The narratives collectively indicate an emerging understanding among teachers of LRT and CRT in both teacher orientations and skills. Some inconsistencies in the understanding of academic rigor and scaffolds for language learners persist. Nonetheless, these positive narratives offer a fresh perspective that contrasts with the prevailing research focused on challenges. Teachers expressed strong and clear appreciation for the positive aspects of their experiences. Through personal authorship and some shared ownership, the teachers highlight the enriching aspects of teaching diverse student populations. The study shows the potential inherent in classrooms with students with immigrant backgrounds to improve education for all students.
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(2023)Teacher’s job burnout has been a global concern in recent years, especially during the covid pandemic. To reduce their burnout, job crafting is proposed as a key factor for teachers. Yet previous empirical research has found inconsistency findings between job crafting and burnout. In some studies, job crafting was found to exacerbate instead of reducing the burnout. The current thesis aimed to address this issue from a multi-dimensional perspective. Moreover, basic psychological needs were added as mediators to uncover the mechanism behind the paradoxical relationships between job crafting and burnout among teachers. For those purpose, 726 teachers (Age mean= 39) from China were surveyed online and reported valid responses during 2022. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Model (SEM) with three dimensions of teacher job (i.e., exhaustion at work; cynicism toward the meaning of work; the sense of inadequacy at work) and four dimensions of job crafting (i.e., increasing social job resources; increasing structural job resources; increasing challenge job demands; decreasing hindering job demands). The present study revealed a suppression effect that obscured the genuine correlation between job crafting (i.e., increasing social job resources, increasing structural job resources) and burnout. Furthermore, the findings contribute to job crafting and burnout relationship by indicating that “decreasing of hindering job demands” may induce burnout cynicism, while “increasing challenge job demands” effectively diminishes burnout (the sense of inadequacy at work). Additionally, the augmentation of “increasing structural job resources” is identified as a catalyst for teacher burnout, manifesting in forms such as heightened work exhaustion and cynicism towards the meaning of work.
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(2022)Finnish principals experience high levels of stress in their work, which has raised a strong interest to identify factors that could support principal well-being. This study explores, first, the connection between principals’ perceived self-efficacy and physiological stress, and second, the changes in the stress and self-efficacy levels from 2019 to 2020. As earlier research has mostly focused on the self-reported stress and self-efficacy, this study raises further implications on the link between perceived self-efficacy and the physiological stress on school principals. The theoretical framework of the study is the social cognitive theory by Albert Bandura. Bandura suggests that the stress-protective role of self-efficacy should result in diminished physiological stress responses. Present study tests two hypothesis. According to the first hypothesis, principals with high self-efficacy are less stressed than principals with lower self-efficacy. According to the second hypothesis, the self-efficacy of the principals’ stays relatively stable from 2019 to 2020. Data of the study consists of questionnaire data and physiological measurements. The self efficacy levels of the participants were measured by using the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire-II. The physiological measurements were collected with mobile heart rate monitoring device Firstbeat BodyGuard 2. Altogether 30 principals participated the study in 2019 and 14 principals in 2020. In the study, statistical analysis was conducted with the SPSS Statistics programme. The data was analysed using the Pearson correlation, linear regression analysis and paired sample t-test. The study showed that the self-efficacy levels and physiological stress levels are statistically significantly connected. Consistent with the first hypothesis, principals with high self-efficacy are less stressed during office hours than principals with lower self-efficacy on both years. In addition, the connection between age and the stress levels and self-efficacy levels were studied. The analysis shows that principals with higher age had more physiological stress than their younger colleagues in 2019. However, in 2020, age was not connected to higher stress levels. The results indicate that the self-efficacy levels and age of the participants are not connected in both years. No evidence was found that the stress and self-efficacy levels of the Finnish principals would have changed from 2019 to 2020. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of self-efficacy and stress of Finnish principals, and these findings could support principals’ wellbeing and their commitment to work.
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(2023)Objectives: Are serious games enjoyed by the students, are they effective for learning and who exactly benefits from them? These questions are raised by the scientific evidence on enjoyability and effectiveness of serious games being contradictory. In parallel, there is a practical need to ensure that everyone has similar opportunities to thrive in school. The purpose of this thesis was to compare learning with serious games and traditional instructional style. Temperament and enjoyment were decided to take into account in the analysis, as both possibly play a role in learning with either of the instructional styles. Enjoyment has also been claimed to play a role considering the effectiveness of serious games, and it is also important from a student satisfaction point of view. Hence, it was also investigated which instructional style (game or traditional learning) students enjoy more. Lastly, the connection of temperament and enjoyment was investigated. Methods: Altogether 66 Finnish fourth grade students participated in the study, 31 in the control group and 35 in the intervention group. Class teachers were instructed to either take up a serious game website called Loru Games for learning multiplication and division (intervention group) or keep teaching as normally (control group) for the period of two weeks. In both groups, teachers were sent links to pre- and post-tests assessing multiplication and division skills. Teachers also filled in temperament (EAS: Emotionality, Activity, Sociability) questionnaires about the students. Paired samples t-tests were run to investigate which instructional style was enjoyed more. Correlational analyses were run to examine the connection between temperament and learning with either instructional style and the possible connection between enjoyment and temperament. Results: The participants in the intervention group rated game learning significantly higher compared to the traditional instruction. It was also found that there was no association between enjoying either of the instructional styles and temperament. Lastly, it was found that the participants’ learning scores (post-test scores) were not associated with temperament or instructional style. Based on this study It seems that serious games are an enjoyable learning method for the students and it does not seem that there is a need for concern about only some students reaping the benefits of either of the instructional styles, at least where temperament is concerned.
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(2023)Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of sustainability education in Chinese primary education. Society has attained unprecedented level of development as a result of science and technology, while simultaneously there is a growing call for a sustainable future. Due to the huge population and lack of awareness of sustainability in the Chinese context, education plays an important role in facilitating the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors that are needed to address the current sustainability challenges. More importantly, in China, sustainability education has not been popularized in primary and secondary schools, and various obstacles and barriers remain to the implementation of sustainability education in primary schools. The study focuses on analysing the connections between the newly published national curriculum standard in 2022 and 12 science textbooks currently used in Chinese primary schools. Throughout the research, the sequence of science textbook contents relevant to sustainability education is analysed to identify the specific teaching and learning contents, within textbooks. Qualitative content analysis and descriptive analysis are conducted to systematically describe the national curriculum standard and textbook contents related to sustainability education. Meanwhile, Python will also be used as a tool to deal with word frequency. The research will result in a theory-based model to show how sustainability education is integrated and worked in Chinese primary science education textbooks. The model is represented as a Chinese knot, representing relations of 13 elements of the learning contents and 4 core competencies. Chinese knots are traditionally believed to indicate a promising future, which also coincides the concept of sustainable development. Additionally, research-based suggestions will be discussed regarding sustainability education in Chinese primary education.
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(2022)Students’ challenging behavior is of significant concern to teachers and principals in Finland. Youth’s challenging behavior at school has negative effects on teachers’ classroom management, classroom climate and other students. To manage behavioral challenges at school, different school-wide approaches are used. The Multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) is one of these school-wide approaches. With three tiers, this model focused on the early detection of learning issues, early intervention and collaboration between school personnel. This thesis explores tier one (Universal behavioral support). This research provides a national picture of primary schools’ teachers’ and principals’ views in Finland with regards to addressing students’ behavior. This study answers three research questions: (1) How do teachers and principals compare with regards to their views on using school-wide components to address students’ behavior, (2) how do teachers and principals compare in their views of teachers’ responsibility to promote appropriate youth behavior and (3) how do teachers and principals compare with regards to their views on identifying and supporting students that are not responding to universal behavioral support. A sample of 88 teachers and 101 principals from comprehensive primary schools in Finland participated in this study. A series of independent t-test, ANOVA and Chi-square were utilized to determine if any statistically significant difference existed between teachers’ and principals’ views. It was discovered that no statistically significant difference existed between teachers’ and principals’ views except in two items of the survey: participants’ views differed about teachers’ responsibility to encourage students to behave as expected and about using Interventions as a behavioral support approach for students that are not responding to universal behavioral support.
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(2023)Multicultural learning environments are increasing at schools, where the inherent diversity in groups working in collaboration triggers situations of conflict due to students having different worldviews and opinions. While conflicts have traditionally been seen as negative, research shows that when resolved constructively, they have the potential to develop multiple skills and create richer learning experiences. The path to achieving constructive conflicts in a classroom largely depends on the development of the skills needed for conflict resolution in students and conflict management strategies. Nevertheless, although research shows inconsistency in methods and guidelines to achieve constructive conflicts, it is agreed that holistic support from schools is crucial. Therefore, this study aims to explore the strategies implemented by schools to promote constructive conflict resolution among students, as well as the specific approaches used during conflict situations. This study collected data through online qualitative surveys of in-service teachers at international schools worldwide. Participants shared their beliefs and practices regarding conflict resolution through open-ended questions, and responses were analysed using an inductive approach of content analysis to answer the research questions of this study. The results offered a holistic view of the practices in school settings, dividing the findings into two themes depending on the time of implementation: before or during the conflict. On one hand, preparing students for conflict resolution highlighted the development of SEL skills in the classroom through teachers' practices and curriculum approaches. Specifically, the embedding of SEL in the curriculum, collaborative learning methods and conflict resolution training were significant in preparing students for conflict resolution. In addition, prevalent conflict management strategies included collaborative conflict resolution strategies and teachers’ mediation, while inter-disciplinary support with third parties appeared as crucial for teachers. This study concludes that schools must develop methods at every level of school communities, curriculums need to embed SEL, and multi-disciplinary professionals at school are needed. Finally, there is a need to unify teachers’ practices to further develop teacher training on conflict resolution, so students will achieve constructive conflict resolution independently.
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(2022)This study aims to reveal how executive functions are related to early numeracy skills. Several articles have been published in this respect. The present one focuses on just two executive functions, inhibition and switching, and two early numeracy skills, counting and numerical relational skills. The study wants to determine how the accuracy and reaction time in inhibition and switching tasks correlate with the counting and numerical relational skills in four-year-old preschoolers, and if there is any general latent condition under which these relations are modified. The participants of this study are 4-year-old preschoolers (N=189) from preschools in the Helsinki Area (N=21), Finland. They have done two different tests that have been used to gather the data. A digital version of the Flanker tasks (modified from Fan, et al. (2002)) has measured inhibition and switching accuracy and reaction time. The Early Numeracy Test (Aunio, Hautamäki, Heiskari, & Van Luit, 2006) has measured the preschoolers’ performance in counting and relational skills. The data has been quantitatively analysed with SPSS and R. A correlation analysis has been performed to understand how the variables are related (calculation of Spearman’s rank correlation). A latent profile analysis has been run using the mclust package, to see if there could be extracted any latent variable that could drive the correlation in different directions. The main results reveal that accuracy in inhibition and switching tasks have a weak to moderate positive correlation with the successful use of counting and relational skills in 4-year-old preschoolers. Reaction time seems to be a variable whose implications change depending on the participants’ EN-performance, as visible in the latent profile analysis. However, there have not been yielded any robust conclusions about the existence of latent variables.
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(2022)Some previous findings suggest the effectiveness of physical activity (PA) on children's cognitive outcomes. Studying preschool PA enables to understand children’s considerable part of daily PA and to examine its relation to other skills specifically within preschool context. Early numeracy (EN) refers to young children’s mathematical proficiency, including relational and counting skills, as in understanding and operating with quantities, number relation, classification, and the concept of numbers. EN skills are shown to strongly predict later mathematical competence and academic achievements. Thus, it is important to study and support the development of children’s EN skills. However, previous research has mainly focused on school-age children, while research in early ages is scarce. No previous studies have used device-based measurement of PA with an individual test of EN to understand the associations between young children’s preschool PA and EN performance. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between PA during preschool hours and EN performance in children aged 4 to 5 years. More specifically, the following research questions are addressed: 1) How are PA intensity levels during preschool hours associated with EN performance in 4- to 5-year-old children? 2) What kind of profiles regarding PA intensity levels during preschool hours and EN performance can be identified among 4- to 5-year-old children? The sample consisted of children (N = 95, Mage = 4.6) attending preschools in Helsinki, Finland. PA was measured during 5 consecutive preschool days using hip-worn accelerometers, while EN performance was assessed using Van Luit and colleagues’ (2006) Finnish Early Numeracy Test. The data is analysed using quantitative research analysis. To answer the first research question, correlation matrix is performed to reveal relation between the variables of interest. For the second research question, latent profile analysis is used to identify children’s profiles according to their PA data and EN test scores, while the differences in profiles are compared using ANOVA. The results of the correlation analysis revealed no significant correlation between PA level during preschool hours and EN scores in children of ages 4 to 5 years. Latent profile analysis identified three profiles of children with high, medium, and low PA, whereas EN performance did not significantly differ among the profiles. In conclusion, while the results show significantly different amounts of PA among children during preschool, the main finding of the current study is in line with previous research, suggesting no direct relation between preschool PA and EN performance. Further research controlling for other factors that may influence the results is needed to examine how variation in PA level is related to EN performance in preschool.
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(2022)The purpose of this study is to obtain information from a case to shed light on the potential contribution of theatre and Outdoor Education to Sustainability education. Making the transition towards a sustainable world has been labelled as urgent for many decades now. The role of education in this process has been written out multiple times, in various ways. Despite these intentions of transitioning to a more sustainable way of living, literature shows that a satisfactory result has not been obtained yet. The sustainability crisis is a complex problem, and no easy solutions are at hand. Theatre and outdoor education have both different ways of contributing to learning. In this study, experts from both fields, with teachers as education experts, share their ideas and views on what sustainability education is, and how theatre and outdoor education can help to reach the goals it aims at. Experts from theatre, outdoor education, and primary education, are brought together in this study. They all share the experience of an outdoor theatre project aimed at children called ‘Spöket på Lillklobb / Lillklobbin kummitus’. The experts participating in this research were either part of creating this project or participating in it with a group of children under their responsibility. By organising a focus group discussion, the views and ideas of the experts related to the research questions are gathered. This data has then been subject to a thematic analysis. This thematic analysis resulted in the developing of a model for sustainability education: The Laptop model. This model represents the three main themes of sustainability education: the cognitive aspect, the social- and emotional aspect, and the aspect of actions. There are several ways in which theatre and outdoor education can contribute to sustainability education, as presented by the Laptop model. Most importantly, both theatre and outdoor education should be seen as an experience. It is the fact that the children have ‘an experience’ that makes it most valuable. Outdoor theatre is found to contribute holistically to the Laptop model, and make the different parts of the model to interrelate.
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(2022)In order to follow the principles of sustainable education, the well-being of students should be established as its core factor. In searching to alleviate stress, educators pay attention to students’ self-agency skills and effective study methods in order to regulate learning and maintain a meaningful life. Recent research shows that music is a powerful motor in building young people's identity, and it is consequential that educational stakeholders must create new structures and enable the study of music in a comprehensive way. One of these opportunities is the ongoing reform of the general upper secondary school diplomas, conducted by the Finnish National Agency for Education EDUFI [Opetushallitus, OPH]. This study aims to reveal the current reform process of the upper secondary school diploma in music and its possible effect on the Finnish education system and adolescence well-being. This reform will inevitably affect the educational culture and society in several sectors. For this purpose, experts involved in the reform mentioned were interviewed. The participants of the study were invited to discuss the essential questions of the reform in order to clarify the current status of the process, and its prospects. The data from the interviews draws on experts’ opinion on proposing a reform to the current upper secondary diploma in music. Interviews are analyzed in connection with previous research and the current state of the reform. This paper reinforces insights into how music plays a role in adolescent identity modification. In addition, music diploma reform has the potential to make it visible and appreciated. In connection with the interviews, visions and suggestions for implementing the diplomas in the future will emerge. However, the shared understanding of the meanings of music education for the benefit of young people emerges from the interviews, appearing as the most significant discovery of this study.
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