Browsing by Title

Objectives. In many families, housework is a daily topic of discussion and controversy. Although working life has changed, households have become more prosperous, and technology has become as a help in housework, there are still many household chores that need to be done. Women are still primarily responsible for doing housework, in addition to their own gainful employment. Spouse and children often play an assistant role. The same division of labour is also evident in girls’ and boys’ housework. Girls do a lot more housework than boys. The purpose of this study was study young people’s attitudes towards housework. Are young people required to do housework, and if so, do they agree to do it? How does the division of labour affect family relationships? Doing and not doing housework is an emotive topic. The views of young people on how they perceive their own roles and those of their carers as active agents in households are worth hearing. The research questions are: 1. How do young people feel about participating in housework? a) How does housework appear in family relationships? b) What do young people think about their own household skills? 2. How do young people feel about their own roles and the roles of adults in their family in taking part in housework? Methods. The quantitative material consisted of the answers to an e-questionnaire. The answerers were 55 ninth grades from an upper comprehensive school. The answers were processed using the SPSS program. The analysis used averages, cross tabulation, and Pearson’s correlation. Some of the results were tested with an even t-test and a chi-square test. Results and conclusions. Many young people are involved in doing housework because of their own choice. They also think that it is their duty. In their opinion they have good skills and they manage doing housework well. Girls do a lot more housework than boys and have a more positive attitude. Most young people find that the adults in their family take good care of the home and this makes them feel secure. Everyone agrees that doing housework is everybody’s responsibility. In home economics education it is important to strengthen the equal division of labor in housework. Particularly boys need to be encouraged to rely on their own abilities and to understand their role as an equal, responsible family members and not just a mom’s or wife’s helper.

Aims. The aim of this study was to identify different profiles of social media use among Finnish 9th graders (N=833), and to compare these profiles on academic well-being measured as schoolwork engagement and school burnout. Furthermore, the aim of this study was to compare these profiles on the Big Five personality traits and gender. The research of connections between social media use and academic well-being among adolescence is limited, and this is presumably the first research to combine personality traits, social media use and academic well-being in adolescence. Methods. The theoretical framework was the demands-resources model and the DC-DDR-model (Developmental-Contextual Model of Digital Demands and Resources). The profiles of social media use were formed on a two-step cluster analysis. In the clusters, social media was described by social activity and hanging out, information-oriented activity and creative activity, which were measured determining the type and amount of use. Differences on academic well-being and personality traits between each profile were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Differences on gender were analyzed using chi-square test of independence and cross-tabulations. Results and conclusions. The two-step cluster analysis identified four clusters, and the profiles were named as following: the profile of low social media use (23.3 %), the profile of versatile social activity (28.1 %), the profile of unilateral social activity (18.1 %) and the profile focusing on learning, information seeking and creativity (30.5 %). The profiles differed in terms of both schoolwork engagement and school burnout. Boys more often than girls belonged to the profile of low social media use, which also highlighted the lowest school burnout. Schoolwork engagement was reported to be highest in the profile focusing on learning, information seeking and creativity and lowest in the profile of unilateral social activity. Moreover, school burnout was reported to be highest in the profile of versatile social activity, which was characterized by high social activity and hanging out in addition to high social media use in other aspects. The profiles also differed in all the Big Five personality traits except agreeableness, and openness to experiences showed to be the most be distinguishing personality trait. The profile focusing on learning, information seeking, and creativity reported the highest amount of openness to experiences but also highest neuroticism, while the profile of unilateral social activity reported the highest amount of extraversion and the lowest conscientiousness. Regarding these results, individual differences in personality traits should be taken into consideration, since connections between social media use and academic well-being vary from adolescent to adolescent. This contributes to better understanding of adolescent's individual needs and the use of social media which promotes academic well-being.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Civics became a primary school subject in the new 2014 Finnish National Core Curriculum. This is a significant change, because civics was not included in earlier versions of the curriculum until upper comprehensive school, where it was taught alongside history (history and civics). Now, civics is a separate subject from the 4th grade onwards. In the curriculum reform, the student is considered to have a more central role as a learner than before, which should be reflected in teaching methods. At the same time, educators should also pay attention to the student's overall development. In the new curriculum this goal is referred to as transversal competence, in line with the Basic Education Act under which the mission of basic education is to contribute to civilization. Multiple major changes in the curriculum form a very complex whole. In the end it is the teacher who decides how civics is taught and how subject-specific goals as well as goals related to transversal competence are taken into account. The theoretical framework of this study indicates that civics-related themes were important in primary school even before the 2014 curriculum. The guidelines for teaching civics are precise as such but they are also broad and open to interpretation. The dynamic between the curriculum and teaching civics in practice and was examined through a qualitative case study. The case study was conducted in a primary school in Helsinki. The main focus was the work of two teachers who teach civics. The goal was to investigate how they choose their teaching methods under the 2014 curriculum and what their insights about the significance of civics as a primary school subject are. The research material was approached by content analysis. According to the results of the study, teachers take into account the policies of the curriculum while emphasizing their professional skills to carry out the teaching work. This applies to the themes explored in civics as well as the teaching methods employed. Central themes in civics include democracy, participation in civil society and life skills. These issues are explored especially through discussion and drama, but traditional teacher-led strategies are used as well.

The purpose of the present study was to analyze collective learning in selected teams in Yleisradio Ltd., the Finnish broadcasting company. In addition, the purpose was to consider how to spread good learning practices widely in the organization. In this research, I studied learning from a multidimensional point of view considering individuals, community, networks and working context as well as the impact of practices and artefacts on learning. In addition, I studied how agency and motivation support learning. The study was a qualitative case study. The target group of the study consisted of two parts: a networked learning model Yle Lab and agile teams. The empirical data included 13 theme interviews and 14 event observations. In addition, the empirical material included field notes and material given by the client. I analyzed transcribed interviews and field notes using theory-driven content analysis. Yle Lab organizes different kinds of collective learning activities annually. The purpose of these activities is to enhance adoption of a more multimedia- and user-centered mindset within the organization. According to the results of the study Labra used different kinds of pedagogical practices in these learning events, such as group discussions, artefacts, stories, coaching and user testing, the purpose of which was to build the participants' capability to plan multimedia projects and develop their expertise. The practises and artefacts of the agile teams together constructed the epistemic culture and knowledge construction system of the domain. Development of working practices, knowledge creating, and learning were integrated as a natural part of their daily work. The results of both target groups indicated that work itself was the best way to learn in working life, which supports the results of earlier studies. Many interviewees stated that their competence had increased alongside the development of their industry, through variable working roles over the years. The empirical data indicated features of progressive problem solving processes, which is a typical learning model for experts. Interviewees had strong professional agency and they were motivated. According to this study it can be concluded that it is possible to support collective learning at the workplace by developing meeting practices that support learning, providing common rooms for professionals, creating common goals, promoting a job rotation culture, and providing coaching networks to support learning paths. This study provided knowledge of collective learning practices of the target groups. In addition, this study yielded some thoughts on how collective learning can be supported in the organization. In this research, I study only a limited part of the company. Thus, a broader study would be necessary in order to have a more extensive view of an organization's collective learning practices.