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Aims. The aim of this study was to investigate how two special needs teachers who had completed an equine-assisted social pedagogy instructor® training experienced the implementation of equine-assisted social pedagogy activities as a school intervention. Social pedagogy combined with animal and equine assisted activities served as the theoretical frame guiding this study. The research questions were: (1) What are equine-assisted social pedagogy activities from a special needs teacher's perspective, (2) What impacts have the equine activities by a special needs teacher had on individual pupils or pupil groups, and (3) Which factors emerge at the core of the implementation of the equine activities? Methods. This study was implemented using a qualitative approach applying a semi-structured interview. The data comprised the experiences of two special needs teachers. The collected data were processed using dialogical thematization. Four main themes emerged from the analysed data and were used as the basis for presenting the findings. Results and conclusions. The equine-assisted social pedagogy activities were well-suited as a school intervention and as part of special needs education, as the curriculum supports the implementation of the activities in all levels of the three-tier support model. The equine-assisted activities were perceived as a comprehensive form of social rehabilitation that promotes issues such as building a pedagogical relationship between the pupil and the teacher, and the emergence of interpersonal relationships between pupils. The teachers felt that the success of the activities was supported by the experiential features of the stable environment, opportunities for collaboration provided by the stable community, and peer support. The stable environment was perceived as a learning environment different from the traditional school environment that improves pupils’ motivation, concentration and obedience. Highlighting the interactive relationship between the pupil and horse also emerged as a significant feature of the equine-assisted social pedagogy activities. The horse was perceived as a mirror of the pupil’s emotional expression and behaviour. The pupils were observed to learn to understand their own emotions and behaviour through the horse and adapt their new behaviours from the stable to the school environment. The study revealed what sorts of experiences special needs teachers had of implementing equine-assisted activities as a school intervention. In turn, this raises awareness of the potential of using equine-assisted social pedagogy activities as part of school activities and special needs education.

Objectives. The objective of this study is to research digital games in everyday life, during COVID-19-epidemic and distance learning period in Finland during spring 2020. The purpose is to find out what significances students give to digital games in their daily lives, and how the distance schooling affected the interviewees' playing. The starting point of the study is a syn-thesis built from previous games studies and everyday life research, which seeks to describe and define digital games and everyday life before state of emergency, considering the possi-ble effects they might have. The issue is current as the COVID-19 epidemic brings new challenges to the daily routines both in school and family life, and no significant research is yet available on the changed daily life. Methods. The study was conducted as a two-day game diary and as a thematic interview for eight fifth-graders. Qualitative data was analyzed by a phenomenographic analysis method. Results and conclusions. The significances of playing digital games in everyday life during distance schooling can be themed on 4 categories: Interaction, experiences of accomplishment, leisure, and challenging self. When looking at how playing digital games has changed during COVID-19 and distance schooling, interaction, leisure, and self challenging have also been consciously pursued goals.

The purpose of this thesis was to collect information on schools headmasters' and headmasters' assistants' opinions of pedagogical leadership and coping strategies. The main focus is on discovering: 1. What do the headmasters think about pedagogical leadership? 2. What kind of coping strategies the headmasters have? 3. How have the demands and the nature of the job changed over time? The thesis focuses on building an image of pedagogical leadership in a changing societal environment. The study was carried out using a qualitative phenomenographical approach. The data were collected by interviewing seven headmasters and headmasters assistants working in metropolitan area. The interviews took place in January and February 2017. The analysis was carried out using a Grounded Theory approach which was used as a tool in phenomenographical research. The respondents had a hard time defining pedagogical leadership. The headmasters' will was to lead the pedagogy: all of the headmasters tasks were linked to pedagogical leadership, yet there was a fear of not having enough time for pedagogical leadership. The respondents stated directly and indirectly that these days pedagogical leadership is often seen as shared leadership with distributed responsibilities among the working community. The results suggest that shared leadership is an important coping strategy and stress-reduction mechanism for the headmasters. The coping strategies of the respondents were mainly problem-oriented strategies. Coping strategies were also purpose-based so that the respondents aimed to find positive elements about stressful things in the profession. The respondents stated that the amount of tasks had increased over time. The nature of the job had also changed and now included more administrative tasks as well as remote leadership. In the light of Herzbergs theory of motivation the respondents seemed to be quite satisfied with their jobs.

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract The research aims to examine class teachers’ experiences of the Hungarian-based Varga–Neményi method in first grade mathematics teaching. According to the Finnish education curriculum (2014), the task of mathematics in grades 1–2 is to develop students’ logical, precise and creative mathematical thinking. In response to these goals, the Varga–Neményi method offers an experimental and student-centered approach to the teaching of mathematics. Exploring the advantages of the method can provide an understanding of the significance of the method as well as encourage new teachers to use the method. On the other hand, examining the challenges of the method can help in developing the method and addressing the possible problem areas. The research was conducted using qualitative research methods. The data was collected using thematic interviews with five class teachers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The data was analysed following the principles of thematic analysis. The Varga–Neményi method was seen as a useful teaching method in the first grade. The main advantages of the method turned out to be the student-centeredness, students’ positive mathematical image and factors related to learning and teacher’s work. On the other hand, the challenges were initiating with the method, subject didactics, arduousness of the method and factors related to the learning materials. The results were in line with the results of previous studies. However, the research increases the understanding of the overall advantages of the method for the learning mathematics and also the challenges that the teacher may face when using the method.

The purpose of this study is to determine the benovelent social initiatives under three years of kindergarten children in different play situations. Previous studies show that the play has a big role in the interaction of children. It is often thought that the interaction of children under three years is low. However, the growing body of research evidence has pointed in direction that the toddler has a lot of both verbal and bodily initiatives. The purpose of this study is to find out whether toddlers' initiatives difference between the different play situations in kindergarten. The focus is children's mutual operational. The study paid particular attention to the toddlers' benovelent social initiatives. The study video material has been collected in connection with Lasso Project 2013. Video from the data has been analyzed in two early childhood education professionals in the metropolitan area of one of the kindergarten videos. They have picked the play situations where there is an adult in addition to two or more of the players. I made observations of the videos, and the data were analyzed by doing themes in three different situations in the play category. All involved in the video recordings were children under three years old and in this study we use the word toddler. The study results showed that the children did benevolent social initiatives each other the most during the role play. Initiatives were both verbal and bodily. The children were motivated to work even during other types of play activities and take initiatives sociability even if the rules do not allow an adult as defined by all its current functionality of the game each. Although children are less than three years of age, the play was not only parallel play, but children tend to naturally interact with each other. Between the benevolent social initiative did not respond to the same age and adult, but it did not discourage children from doing the same initiative again. The results showed also an important adult role-play as an enabler, a modeller and the defendant benevolent social initiatives of tasks.

This case study took place in Southern Finland at the municipal day care center. The focus was to investigate toddlers' possibilities to play and explore different situations from the perspective of play and playfulness. Also the role of adults in promoting play and playfulness was examined. According to previous studies play and playfulness are important concepts to children's development and learning. However play and playfulness don't take place only in the playing situations. Connection to other activities alongside playing situations is obvious. This study tries to depict children's play on daily basis in all kinds of situations. The study focuses on the pedagogical factors that have an influence on play possibilities. The case study group included 12 toddlers and 4 adults. The data was collected by many methods, including play observation, interview and play environment observation. The analysis was undertaken by content analyses and interpreting the results of numeric indicators (AES and ITERS). The result was that children play in all kinds of situations but the features of play differ according to different activities. Additionally the exploiting of play differs in different situations: at some point play and playfulness was repetitive but in the others the usefulness of play wasn't recognized or it wasn't considered appropriate for a particular situation. This leads to the question: is the usefulness of play and playfulness pedagogically recognized? Further the results confirm that the conditions and elements of play are important when supporting the play. Especially the adults' involvement and interaction in play are significant. The implication of the study is that it is important to talk about the factors that influence play and playfulness. Conversation between adults helps to develop play and playful interaction.

Objective of the study Work stress affects teachers mental and physical well-being, increases costs and sick leave, and affects work productivity. Prolonged, intense stress is associated with lower job satisfaction. The decline of teachers´ well-being also has a negative effect on students' learning. Recovery from work is important for health, ability to work and the teacher's own well-being. In today's working life, the time left for recovery has decreased and the individual must take more and more care of his or her own well-being and recovery. Successful recovery effectively prevents work demands from developing into stressors. The aim of this study was to find out which elements of work polytechnic teachers find stressful in their work, what effects they perceive as work stress, what means of recovery they have at their disposal and what things may prevent success of recovery. Methods The 22 interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis, in which they report on their own well-being, stress experiences and recovery from work as part of a broader thematic interview. The interview material has been collected since the end of 2019. Results and conclusions Polytechnic teachers perceive excessive workload, uneven workload and hurry as the most stressful elements in their own work. An examination of the effects of stress experiences showed that teachers perceive that work stress affects them above all mentally. Of the physical effects, sleep-related problems in particular were reflected in teachers' coping. An examination of the means of recovery showed that polytechnic teachers consider hobbies and social relationships to be the most important means of recovery. Most polytechnic teachers experience challenges in recovering from work. The majority of teachers feel that recovery is not enough or is only seasonal. Haste and too much work proved to be the biggest obstacles to recovery not always succeeding.

Goals. The objective of this Master's Thesis was to examine the connection between tablet computers and motivation, in this case with motivational beliefs according to the action control beliefs theory (Skinner, Chapman & Baltes 1988). The specific interest was to find out the differences and similarities between the students with special educational needs and general education students. Most of the previous research regarding to the subject indicates that the use of technology and tablet computers has positive impact to learning and motivation, concluding that technology-assisted teaching motivates students. On the other hand there has also been studies that report no impact or even negative impact on learning and motivation. This study aims to gain new insight of how the use of tablet computers influences on students' attitudes towards learning in Finland. Particular attention is directed to the students with special educational needs and the practical applicability of the results – the role that tablet computers could play in the development of special education. Methods. The participants of this study consisted of the 4th graders in the city of Vantaa, who responded to the Centre of Educational Assessment's tablet research online survey in the autumn of 2015 and spring of 2016 (N = 208). The data was analyzed by multivariate methods (e.g. one-way variance-, the GLM-analysis) to investigate the possible relations between the variables and to verify the differences between the groups. Results and conclusions. The general use of the tablet computers among the students was not found to be related to their beliefs that support learning. However, in the subject-specific review the use of tablets in mathematics was positively related to the students' learning supportive beliefs. In particular, within the students receiving intensified or special support, the use of tablet computer was related to students' agency beliefs about effort and competence and means-ends beliefs about effort. According to the previous research these beliefs are related to school performance within students who do well in school.

The most common behavioral tasks used to assess risk-taking, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), have been moderately successful in predicting various kinds of real-life risk behaviors. Both tasks involve repeated choices between options that are presented according to the metaphor of the task (a deck of cards in the IGT, the number of pumps to a balloon in the BART). The options differ from each other in respect of the amounts and probabilities of rewards and penalties, and hence also in respect of riskiness and expected return. Typically, the choices made differ from the profit maximizing optimum stated by decision theory, with nearly every subject's risk-taking greater (in the IGT) or lesser (in the BART) than optimal. In this setting, greater risk-taking in IGT results in lower average return, while in the BART greater risk-taking results in higher average return. Risk-taking and return are thus confounded, which can lead to invalid conclusions: a difference between groups in risk-taking may be interpreted as a difference in risk-taking propensity, even if it is really caused by a difference in profit optimizing ability, for example. A new computer based behavioral risk-taking task was developed for this research. The Helsinki Aiming Task (HAT) was designed by combining IGT and BART features with Näätänen and Summala's dart throwing task, which simulated behavior in hazardous activities. In the HAT, the subjects used an inaccurate gun to shoot at targets that included reward and penalty regions. The statistical information relevant to the task was given to the subjects not by means of numerical description but by means of visual feedback, i.e. experience. Based on a study (n = 51), the HAT was compared to the BART and its feasibility as a measure of risk-taking propensity was evaluated. Manipulation of both the severity and the probability of the harm had an impact on aiming, which was the basis for concluding that the subjects formed an internal model of the risk. This supports the view that the HAT is measuring risk-taking propensity. The results also offered reasonable evidence of the reliability of the task. Since the level of risk-taking in the HAT didn't deviate from the optimum, the confounding of risk-taking and profit in the HAT was assessed to be less severe than in the BART.

This qualitative, constructivist case study is designed to enhance the understanding of art-based dialogic learning in a working community, a small group setting. In this study, the concept of art-based refers to the exploitation of fine arts, exercises activating body memory and relaxation in the context of learning dialogue. The advocates of dialogic learning theory, David Bohm and William Isaacs, have suggested that a dialogue conducted in an atmosphere of equality and mutual respect helps people distance themselves from ordinary patterns of thought and uncovers the factors underlying the thought process. At best, this results in the discovery of completely new perspectives and the emergence of new common ground. These issues were also addressed in the present study. The study focused on the art-based process of learning dialogue in the context of wellness at work and the primary function of child day care centres. The research problem was approached from three key angles: the type of dialogue created in the learning process, the evolution of the process from the learning perspective and the significance of art-based working for the process. This study and the design of the Art Pause method developed in this study for data collection purposes were based on the theories of dialogic learning, reflection, art education, art-based working and art therapy. The study and data collection were undertaken in a Helsinki-based child day care centre in September 2011 during three Art Pauses measuring three hours each. The subjects of the study comprised six female children's nurses aged 27-53 who worked in the centre. Analysis of data was performed using both data- and theory-based content analysis, supported by narrative small story research. The small story analysis was based on the Narrative Process Coding System (NPCS) developed by Angus and Hardtke (1994) and the PNN model (positive, negative, neutral) derived from it for this study. The Art Pauses produced two types of dialogue - question-answer sequences and group dialogue - and a multitude of small stories. In the course of the process, dialogue progressed from dissatisfaction with everyday problems to job satisfaction. Interaction was characterised by open expression of feelings, storytelling and progressive increase in positive expression. Dialogic skills, especially reflection, improved during the process. Learning was transferred to other contexts and applied to a day care centre setting. The art-based approach fostered self-expression and promoted the creation of an open atmosphere. Empowerment occurred in response to art-based working and the emergence of new understanding. Learning dialogue in combination with art-based working can be perceived to have promoted the development of interpersonal skills, emergence of new understanding and higher wellness at work. The findings of this study show that art-based dialogic learning is well suited to the development of interpersonal skills and promotion of staff wellness. The findings can be drawn on to enhance staff skills and wellness and used in research into art-based dialogue.