Browsing by Subject "fenomenografia"

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to describe, analyze and interpret the way novice class teachers see school bullying. The secondary purpose is to describe how peer harassment affects the novice teachers’ job. In 2010-centery studies, school bullying has been seen as a form of negative social behavior between pupils (Repo, 2015; Herkama, 2012). Teachers have to focus more and more on teaching social skills to pupils rather than the actual teaching. This has been associated with younger teachers’ increased stress levels at work and even plans on switching ca-reers (Aho, 2011). This study examines the education side of teacher job at the context of school bullying. Methods. This study is a qualitative research from the point of view of phenomenography. The material has been produced in a group chat between three novice teachers and the interviewer. All teachers have graduated during the last year and worked their first year as teachers. Besides of novice teachers I will also call them young teachers at this study, since all of them were under thirty years old. Results and conclusion. The peer harassment has changed because of new technology and smart phones. The term ‘school bullying’ has become an inadequate way in describing the reality of the bullying experiences that pupils have to deal with. From novice teachers’ perspective, it seemed that low social skills of pupils were the main reason why there are so much conflicts be-tween pupils in everyday life. The actual school bullying was rare, but the preventative jobs, such as conflict solving, took lots of time from teaching and learning in the class. Decision mak-ing, insecurity regarding the effectivity of one’s own practices as well as co-operation with the parents were experienced as a burden with negative effects on teaching. In conclusion, bullying and the bullying-preventive work increases the overall workload of teachers and takes up time and resources from the actual teaching.

Youth violence has been a topic in public debate for many centuries and violent entertainment has been a main focus in search for reasoning youth violent behaviour and the acceptance of violence. The aim of this study is to survey the aspects of major consumers of entertaining history culture on the legitimacy of violence. The hypothesis was, that the major consumers of entertaining history culture do not justify the use of violence as problem solving measure. The entertaining history culture is limited to include historical movies and tv-series together with computer and console games. This study was executed as qualitative research with phenomenography as the methodological philosophy. The focus was to find out the thoughts about justified violence of ninth grade students who consume a lot of entertaining history culture. The research material was collected from inquiry from one hundred participating ninth graders. The inquiry was held to find out major consumers of entertaining history culture that would be suitable for semi structured interviews. Seven people were chosen for interviews. The study revealed that the major consumers of entertaining history culture react negatively to the legitimacy of violence both in historical context and in real life. The youth say that movies and games aren't a direct cause of violent behaviour, but can be harmful if a person has another mental difficulties already. The youth told that they can easily separate movies and games from real life and think them as entertainment that you can also learn from. The youth also had a positive image about the future, although they saw the media stirring up some threats. This study should stand by earlier research which say that violent entertainment don't increase either youth violence or the legitimacy of it.

In 2011, Finnish comprehensive schools started using a three tiered support system. The aim of the new system was to answer students’ needs of support in a flexible way, as early as possible. For years the Finnish school system has attempted to move in more inclusive direction. Providing support is now the responsibility of all teachers. The research findings on the implementation of support are contradictory, and teachers, for example, have found resources and training inadequate to implement support. There is a need to further develop effective, inclusive education arrangements. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' conceptions of the implementation of three tiered support in their schools, and the factors contributing to and impairing the implementation. In addition, possible differences and similarities between different groups of teachers in the conception of support implementation were examined. The research material of this qualitative, phenomenographic study was part of secondary data collected by an electronic questionnaire from comprehensive school staff in a city. The answers of teachers in grades 1-9 (N = 847) to two open-ended questions was analyzed utilizing the phenomenographic method by categorizing the concepts first into meaning categories and later into higher categories. In addition, the data was quantified by examining the prevalence of conceptions across the answers and by teacher group. As a result of the conceptions of the factors contributing to and impairing the implementation of the support, vertical systems of categories of description were created. Factors contributing to the implementation of the three-tiered support consisted of four categories of descriptions: Collaboration, Teachers’ professional skills, Organization of school practices, and Resources. About one-third of teachers found that support had improved in their school during the last two years, while about one-third found it had weakened. Teachers’ conceptions of the reasons for the decline in support formed four descriptive categories: Lack of resources, Reasons related to students’ needs of support, Problems related to school structures and practices, and Reasons related to placement of students with special educational needs. The views of the teacher groups were mostly consistent, but there were small differences, especially related to importance of the teachers’ skills and school practices.

The popularity of video games has grown significantly over the last half century. Most Finns aged 10–75 have stated that they play digital games at least once a month. Video gaming is an increasingly common and diverse phenomenon and should not be seen as a mere pastime for the youth. Video game play has been studied in the past, for example, through the motivational factors of playing them. In addition, the study of problematic gaming and downsides of video games have been quite common. Attention has also been paid to the serious games, for example for learning and well-being purposes. However, these studies, which are often quantitative studies, do not really provide answers to the relationship between video games and everyday life. In previous studies, the needs for this type of research have been pointed out. This home economics’ study describes the perceptions that gamers have of video gaming as an everyday life activity. This study is a qualitative master’s thesis with phenomenographic approach. This approach allows the phenomenon to be described using the concepts of gamers. The study material was collected through individual semi-structured thematic interviews from six actively playing gamers. The interview material was transcribed, and from that the single concepts were analysed into pool of meanings. From pool of meanings, a total of 12 categories of description were formed, corresponding to different perceptions. These were abstracted into four categories of description that describe the phenomenon at a more general level. Each category is part of a larger whole, forming together the outcome space. Gaming as established everyday practice, gaming as an everyday resource, intensive everyday gaming and composed gaming were the general level perceptions of video gaming as an everyday life activity. The research results describe video gaming as a phenomenon that is constantly interacting with other activities of everyday life. Also, it is being included to one's own daily rhythm, taking one's own interests, daily situation and available resources into consideration. The results are displaying what the digitalisation of everyday life, as one of the biggest changes in everyday life, can mean in the context of video gaming. Video gaming blends into a natural and meaningful part of everyday life.

The purpose of this study was to find out the classroom teachers' perceptions of primary school’s social and emotional learning. The study examined how teachers define the content and significance of social and emotional learning, in what context teachers perceive the implementation of social and emotional learning to be effective, and by what means, according to them, social and emotional learning can be supported. Social and emotional learning has received increasing attention in recent years. Researchers have highlighted its impressive benefits, educators have recognized its growing need, and policymakers have understood its societal implications. Previous research has shown that teachers and their attitudes towards social and emotional learning play an extremely important role in the implementation of social and emotional learning. Therefore, it is important to find out the perceptions that guide teachers' actions. The research was qualitative in nature and the research design was phenomenographic. Six classroom teachers participated in the study. The research material was collected through semi-structured thematic interviews and analyzed following the steps of the phenomenographic analysis. Based on the research, classroom teachers have quite structured perceptions of social and emotional learning, the areas of which, based on teachers' perceptions, were self-knowledge, the regulation of emotions and activities, and empathy. The experience of the relevance of social and emotional learning focused on schooling, well-being and society. Emotional education was considered to be effective when it was part of other subjects, as its own “subject” and when it spontaneously reversed the events of the school day. Classroom teachers realized that social and emotional learning was present in the school at all times, and thus plenty of ways were seen to support it. These factors supporting emotional education formed three categories, which were atmosphere, teacher, and operating culture.

Aims of the study: This master thesis was part of the Finnish Tax administration's work environment change project carrying out the move from cellular office to multi-space office. The aim was to study the change of work environment and the implementation of new working practices in terms of the change of activity and as a learning opportunity. The hypothesis was that the transformation to a multi-space office may open expansive learning opportunities, if that change implicates and reflects the change of work more widely in the workplace and society. Prerequisite for this is that the change of the work environment is not seen narrowly as a change of physical space. Work environments have been studied for many years from physical, ergonomic, technological and social interactions perspectives, whereas learning opportunities in the move towards multi-space work environment have not been addressed. Theoretical framework of the study was based on the activity theory and a theory of expansive learning. The main questions of the study were 1. What kind of conceptions do employees have on the change of activity in the move to multi-space work environment? 2. What kind of opportunities for expansive learning do these conceptions represent? Method: Qualitative research applied phenomenographic and activity-theoretical methodologies. Research data comprised of eleven interviews with the Tax administration's employees. The employees' conceptions on the change of the subject, object, tools, rules, community and the division of labor were analyzed. By analyzing these conceptions it was possible to investigate the learning opportunities in the transformation. Results and conclusions: The analysis revealed developmentally different employees' conceptions on the change of activity when moving to the multi-space office at the Tax administration. Based on these conceptions three learning visions of varying expansiveness could be identified. The weak learning vision describes the change of the work environment merely as the change of physical space. The enabling learning vision means that the change of the work environment has spontaneously influenced both people's mental images about their work and work community's actions. Employees have recognized the opportunity for change and they have ability to collectively develop their activity. The most interesting finding is the developmental learning vision, which implies seeing the move to multi-space office as a part of an overall change of work. Learning opportunities emerge when employees have understood the object of the work as dynamic and open for change. Learning opportunities may also occur when the change of the instruments is associated with the new virtual environment including digital tools and remote work. About collective learning tells also the fact that the knowledge sharing practices have been developed in work community. To conclude, it was possible to scrutinize the expansiveness of the developmental learning vision as temporal expansion, as spatial expansion when work environment becomes virtual and multi-sited, as expansion of responsibility and morality when the distant work molds division of labor and increases independency, and as developmental expansion in terms of the work community's new knowledge sharing practices. In the history of Tax administration, the multi-space office represents one office model among the previous ones; however, when combined with the digitalization and virtualization of work, it gives the work community the possibility and

In a changing world, as we face new and surprising challenges in our daily lives, we need the ability to look to the future. The bigger the changes, the harder it is to anticipate the future. However, the future will not only happen, but it is made through decisions and choices. Agency combines awareness of the past and its typical perspectives. At the same time, it is oriented towards the future and the ability to imagine alternative futures. Despite the uncertainties, agency manifests itself as the ability to contextualize past habits and images of the future. Agency thus combines the effects of different time dimensions, both the perceptions and values formed in the past and the expectations and fears of the future. Attitudes towards the future thus reveal an individual's thoughts about his or her own position and opportunities in society. The purpose of this study is to look at how young people talk about the future and what meanings they give to the future in their speech. In addition, the aim is to methodically identify the ways in which young people talk about the future and to analyze the structure of agency in identified ways of speaking. The study was carried out by using phenomenographic method and discourse analysis to identify meanings given for the future. The research material was future-themed essays (n = 53) written by 16–18 years old high school students. They were written as preliminary tasks for the voluntary course in 2018 and 2019. Interpretations of meanings resulted different ways of talking about the future as a result of the analysis. The descriptions formed from these were further interpreted theoretically from the perspectives of agency, and generalizations about the most typical ways of talking about the future were formed. At the same time, the description of the method was a result and a basis for further work. Other results provided descriptions of both the ways of future speech and the linking of agency to these. Linear, scenario-based and desired futures were identified as ways to talk about the future. In the linear way the emphasis was on the past, knowledge, and current trends. Instead, the scenario talk built the future on new types of solutions as well as alternatives based on discontinuities. Desired futures, on the other hand, were the most subjective ways to see the future, and they were based on values, desires, and dreams. Examination of agency in future speech showed that speech style is important in terms of agency skills. Analysis of the three most typical combinations of speech patterns provided more detailed information on how speech can be used to understand the relationship to the future. The three types were named as “realists”, “executors”, and “utopians.”

Objectives. The objective of this thesis was to find out about parents' perceptions of the collaboration between home and school. The results were compared with Joyce L. Epstein's research on home-school partnership. The second objective was to develop a practical model of positive home-school partnership. The idea of positive home-school partnership is based on the results of this study, on Epstein’s home-school partnership, and on theories on positive pedagogy and positive parenthood. The last two focus on the individual's personal strengths. Methods. The study is qualitative and was carried out using a phenomenographic approach. The research data was collected from parents of six-graders from five schools in two towns. In total, 18 individual parents responded to an e-survey, with four of them selected for an additional interview. The interviews were carried out as themed interviews. The research material was analyzed by grouping significance units that formed subcategories. From those subcategories, categories of description were formed, the relations of which were depicted in a system of categories of description. Results and conclusions. Four categories of descriptions presenting parents’ views of home-school collaboration were found in this study. The categories were 1) forms of collaboration, 2) roles in collaboration, 3) preconditions for collaboration, and 4) significance of collaboration. The results indicate that home-school collaboration is considered an important factor regarding a child's learning and school performance. However, home-school collaboration is not yet on the level of partnership. To improve the collaboration between home and school, a positive home-school partnership model was created. The objective of the model is to consider the comprehensive wellbeing on the child. The methods and conditions of the model align with strength-based education principles.

Aims. Positive pedagogy and its methods, such as positive feedback given to children, have been popular in early childhood education in the recent years. This is quite justified as the studies have shown that the positive feedback, such as encouragement and praise, given to children, influences in the wellbeing, motivation, learning and positive self-image of the child. Positive feedback can be utilised as a means of guidance or support for children, according to the previous studies. Despite of the favour of the positive pedagogy and the advantages of the positive feedback, I have noticed that not all early childhood education workers use this method actively. The aim of this study is to clarify the experiences of early childhood education teachers in giving the positive feedback to children, and why and how the positive feedback is given to children. Methods. This qualitative research is phenomenographic. The material was collected with the thematic interviews with eight early childhood education teachers. The research material consisted of transcribed interviews and was analysed according to the phenomenographic analysis. Results and conclusions. The results of the study were classified in three descriptive categories: aims for giving the positive feedback, methods for giving the positive feedback and the development of the positive operational culture. Teachers found this way of working as an important part of early childhood education, because they had observed the positive feedback having positive effects in children’s’ development and wellbeing, as well as in the group of children. The teachers also experienced that the positive feedback resulted in the decrease of negative interaction, as the positive feedback was attached not only with the direct feedback and the non-verbal communication but also with positive guiding and rewarding. The teachers considered the positive feedback way of working either as a learned skill or as part of their nature. The positive feedback and more generally, positive attention and work approach with children, were also seen to affect other areas in early childhood education, for example teamwork and cooperation with the parents. The teachers had also noticed that the differences in the operating methods, and the workers part of personality and attitudes, were the hindering factors in giving the positive feedback.

The starting point for this study was university teaching and teachers and specifically their changing role when confronting the Finnish University Reform and the student-focused theories of learning. Teachers' pedagogical thinking and pedagogical content knowledge were also part of the theoretical framework. In the research of conceptions of and approaches to learning and teaching, the qualitative classifications of Säljö and Marton (1976; 1997), Ramsden (1992), Kember (1997) and Trigwell and Prosser (1999) were utilised. Two study questions were raised (1) What kind of conceptions of and approaches to learning do engineering science teachers have? and (2) What kind of conceptions of and approaches to teaching do engineering science teachers have? The relationship between teachers' conceptions and teaching was also examined. The research material was collected in autumn 2008 by interviewing teachers and by observing teaching in the Department of Energy Technology at Helsinki University of Technology. Altogether two tutorials and ten lectures were observed. Each teacher of the observed lectures was interviewed once. The interviews were carried out as semi-structured theme interviews. In the analysis of the research material phenomenographical approach was adapted. The study revealed many kinds of conceptions of and approaches to learning and teaching in the teachers' speech. On the basis of the research material, the conceptions and approaches that the teachers declare do not always reflect their actions in the teaching situation. The surface approaches to learning and teacher-focused approaches to teaching and conceptions of receiving and transmission of knowledge were parallel. Instead the teachers' declarations of the deep approaches to learning and student-focused approaches to teaching were partly in conflict with how the teacher taught. When striving towards student-centered teaching culture attention should be paid to the development of teachers' pedagogical thinking and pedagogical content knowledge. The culture and the structures of the educational institution should also be considered.