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The aim of the present study was to determine agency and practices of pre-school aged children in peer conflict situations. Furthermore, based on the children's experiences, adults' practice was studied in peer conflict situations of children as well as the relationship between children and the personnel of day care center. Thus this study is a qualitative research with child perspective and features of narrative research. Previous research shows that children solve conflicts in different ways, and interestingly, conflict situations do not necessarily appear especially negative to children. According to general understanding in the childhood studies, children are able to affect their environment as competent social actors. The agency involves both the activity and the opportunity to participate and influence. In the context of day care centers, pedagogical skills of the adults are essential and as previous studies confirm, such skills are required to guide children in conflict situations. The research data consists of the material collected from narrative interviews made with ten pre-school aged children (5 girls and 5 boys) and the observation diary of the researcher. All children were in the same pre-school group and the data was gathered in the spring of 2016. Narrative analysis methods and elements of the British discourse analysis were utilized in data analysis. The present study shows that children resolve their peer disputes in various ways. Moreover, children have an active role in play and conflict situations especially when adults are not present. Actually, in children's descriptions adults are far from children although the adults are of importance in resolving conflicts. Based on this research, pedagogical skills and adults' presence in the children's play activities should be in focus in early childhood education. The supporting of children's agency and skills is possible, if the adults of day care centers are more present to children, acknowledge the power relationship between children and adults and understand the importance of pedagogical competence. The results suggest that the quality of early childhood education is associated with the interaction between adults and children.

Objective: Previous results support the use of video examples in voice therapy. Patient adherence and motivation for practice was improved in the video-enhanced voice therapy compared to the "written" condition. A previous study has also shown that an instructional videotape has potential to increase people's awareness about voice misuse and treatment options. However, this area is still poorly studied. The goal of this study was to review the experiences of educational video material. The focus was to map out the experiences and benefits of using the video material. The purpose of this study was also to determine if patients' voice quality and the quality of life could be improved by providing videos of vocal hygiene instructions and voice exercises exemplified by the therapist. Methods: The population consisted of 12 patients of HUS Speech and Voice Clinic who participated in an independent video-enhanced intervention. All participants were women (20-63 years) and they had a functional voice disorder diagnosed by a phoniatrician. Before the intervention participants filled up two self-assessment questionnaires: VHI and VAPP. During the intervention participants kept an exercise diary. After the intervention participants filled up three self-assessment questionnaires: VHI and VAPP once again and also a questionnaire about the experiences of educational video material. The data were analysed applying qualitative content analysis and statistical method. Results and conclusions: The participants considered the video material, especially the informative part of it, clear and useful. The training videos were also considered clear and quite easy to manage. Practice frequency was how ever quite poor. Nobody practiced every day. During one month (30 days) the participants exercised in 5 to 27 days. During one day they exercised about eight minutes. Some of the participants seemed to benefit from the independent video-enhanced voice therapy. 7/12 participants had better VHI and VAPP scores after the intervention compared to the scores before the intervention. The difference in VAPP scores of the whole group before and after the intervention was considered statistically significant (p-value =.048 < .05 ). However, there were so wide variation in the practice frequency and the VHI and VAPP scores, that no exact conclusions can be made.

The aim of this study is to examine the communication ethics of lobbying from the perspective of lobbyists. Lobbying is a constantly growing phenomenon but has not been paid much attention to in speech communication. Most of the previous studies on lobbying have emphasized the perspective of politicians or other "recipients" of lobbying. Lobbying can be defined as professional and interpersonal persuasive communication that aims to influence the opinions or attitudes of others. Usually the main objective of lobbying is to affect the political decision making process. Lobbying involves communication in different types of contexts and relations. Interpersonal communication that aims to influence or persuade others should always be examined with ethical sensitivity. As there are no formal rules or code of ethics in Finland for lobbying, the ethics of the profession rely essentially on lobbyists themselves. Lobbying is an important part of democracy and therefore it is important to address the issue of communication ethics in lobbying. The focus of this study is on understanding the different ethical dimensions of the communication in lobbying. The data of this research was collected by interviewing nine lobbyists. In the interviews the informants described their experiences of professional lobbying. Two main themes were found in these descriptions: the relationships and ethical values guiding the communication. These main themes were divided into six other ethical dimensions of lobbying: 1) disclosure and transparency, 2) honesty, 3) credibility, 4) agreeing with the core message, 5) personal relationships and 6) mutual responsibility. The results indicate that the diversity of lobbying communication makes it possible to view the ethics of lobbying from multiple perspectives. The results had very much in common with the previous literature on ethical communication but also pointed out the demand for further research. It was concluded that the values guiding ethical lobbying, such as disclosure and transparency, were considered as commonly shared values. The data also suggests that ethical lobbying is based on the idea of communication as a dialogue.

In Finland, the wedding rug adorns one of the most special occasions in human life: the wedding ceremony in a church setting. The recognized tradition of the Finnish rug and the content, which the church setting provides for the purpose of its use, are combined in a wedding rug. In this study, the wedding rug is approached from these two perspectives. While both the Finnish rug and church textiles have previously been studied widely, the wedding rug has been less focused on. This study aims at investigating the location, characteristics and meanings conveyed in wedding rugs in the church buildings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Jakobson’s communication model, which is applied by Riikka Ryökäs (2002) in her dissertation, is used in order to study the communicative nature of wedding rugs. In this study, the focus lies on the context, code and channel aspects of the communication model. The study was carried out in two parts. For the first part, a survey was sent to all the congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in order to map the wedding rugs in the country. The survey also sought to find the characteristics of the wedding rugs. For the second part of the study, 12 wedding rugs, located in different places across the country and designed in different time periods, were chosen amongst the data. The communication model was applied in order to analyze the chosen rugs. 142 congregations filled out the survey and 236 wedding rugs were found. There were ten congregations or church settings in which no wedding rugs were found. The findings of the study shed light on the characteristics and the messages of the wedding rugs, as well as confirm the findings of previous studies. The messages, which the wedding rugs convey, can be categorized into four themes which include marriage, Christianity, localness as well as nature. The codes of message are pictorial motifs, colors and the titles of the wedding rugs. The form, material and rug technique are used as a channel for the message conveyed. The information regarding the designer and the context functions as complementary as well as explanatory for the message of the wedding rug.

Aims. Previous studies show that there is changes in pupils math attitude. Pupils math attitudes has been weakened in primary school (Metsämuuronen, 2013). In this study will find out, how to support 5th and 6th graders positive math attitudes. Classrooms with positive math attitudes are the subjects in this study. The main purpose in this study is to find out, what kind of teaching methods teachers use in their teaching. In addition, this study will find out how teachers can support pupils` positive attitudes. Methods. This study is a qualitative research. In this study five teachers who teached 5th and 6th graders were interviewed. Research material were collected with research project, and that material was used in this study. Based on this research material, teachers were selected for the interview. The interview was conducted as a theme interview. Research material was analysed by using content analysis. Results and conclusions. Class teachers used social methods in their teaching, like conversations and pondering together. Active methods and concreteness were used in teaching. Different learning materials were also mentioned. Class teachers encouraged their pupils in teaching with positive feedback and they tried to create positive classroom climate. Teachers thought that teachers` attitude, pupils` home, friends and classroom climate has the most effect to pupils attitude. Success experiences supports pupils` positive attitude.

Objectives. The aim of this study is to examine students' experiences of co-teaching in general education classrooms and to investigate how their experiences correspond to the teacher experiences found in co-teaching research. The research objective is to examine students' experiences of co-teaching in a case study classroom and to reflect them on the student benefits identified by teachers in co-teaching research. My research questions are the following: 1. What kind of experiences did students have with co-teaching in the case study classroom? 2. How do students' experiences of co-teaching correspond to teachers' experiences? Methods. I will carry out the study as a case study, where I aim to answer my research questions through previous studies and a student survey. The teacher research material consists of peer-reviewed Finnish studies on co-teaching and two doctoral dissertations. I will investigate students' experiences through a questionnaire where they are asked to respond to statements about co-teaching based on their own experiences. The voices of a few students were brought out in the research through thinking aloud. They spoke out loud while filling out the questionnaire and justified their decisions out loud. The thinking aloud was recorded and transcribed. First, I will explain what co-teaching is and how it has evolved. The second part of my thesis is a survey conducted through my case study on fifth graders' experiences with co-teaching. The central concept of the thesis is co-teaching, which also brings a new perspective to students' experiences of studying in a co-teaching classroom. Results and conclusions. The research results are divided into sections 5.1 Support, 5.2 Social and Interactional Situations, and 5.3 Peaceful Learning Environment. In studies of teacher ex-periences, the benefits for students identified include easy access to support, development of social and interactional skills, and enabling better learning environment through co-teaching. Co-teaching is not a straightforward or standardized model of operation, which is why the re-sults of teacher research also depend largely on how co-teaching has been implemented. This, as well as the subjectivity of student research, are also likely to be reasons why there is not much student research. The benefits of co-teaching for students identified by teachers are not fully confirmed through student surveys, but similarities can also be found in the research. Therefore, co-teaching can be seen as a beneficial model of operation for students when im-plemented correctly.

Goals. The main object of this study is to examine if the reasoning skills or self-evaluated self-efficacy are in association with to ICT skills and tablet usage skills and examine the role of the sex in these processes. Furthermore, the goal of this study is to find the explanatory factors to the ICT skills and the tablet usage skills. Even if more than half of the population of the world have access to the Internet, for example, the usage skill of the Internet can cause digital inequ-ality. This can lead even to exclusion from technology society. This study looks at factors that explain ICT skills. These factors may be in the connection to digital inequality. Methods. 554 fifth grade students participated in this study: 290 girls and 264 boys. The mate-rial of the stydy was gathered using an electronic questionnaire by the authors of the follow-up study of digital learning of Vantaa in spring 2017. The correlation test was used to analyze re-search questions concerning the connections between selected variables. The regression ana-lysis was used to examine explanatory factors and explanation degree for ICT skills and the usage skill of tablet. Results and conclusion. Based on this study, the reasoning skills were not in the connection to ICT skills and perceived benefit of tablet usage. Self-efficacy was only weakly in the connecti-on to usage skills of the tablet. This connection existed only for boys. Reasoning skills were not in the connection to perceived benefit of tablet usage. Self-efficacy was in the connection to perceived benefit of tablet usage especially for boys. Based on this study, ICT skills were best explained by the teaching of ICT skills. Based on the results of this study, it can be assumed that digital divide can best be prevented by teaching ICT skills.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine how Pieni Oppiva Mieli –intervention (MindUp™) effects learning to learn skills of five and six year old children. Intervention program is based on practices of mind control and mindfulness. Earlier similar studies have indicated that interventions have affected positively in children's executive function, emotional regulation and behavior. This study focuses on learning to learn skills that consist of self-regulation, executive function, attention and vocabulary. Children need these skills when they move to primary school. This study was conducted as a part of Pieni Oppiva Mieli –project of Helsinki University. Methods. This study involved five and six year old children (n=367) from 21 kindergarten of Helsinki metropolitan area. Children were divided in intervention group (n=319) and control group (n=48). Duration of intervention program was 30 weeks during autumn 2015 to spring 2016. The data was gathered from three different forms. Keskittymiskysely (Pikku-Kesky) evaluated self-regulation, neuropsychological research method (NEPSY-II) evaluated executive function and attention and vocabulary test (Wechler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence 3rd edition, WPPSI-III) evaluated vocabulary skills. The data was analyzed with repeated measures variance analysis (SPSS version 22). Results and conclusions. The results indicate that mind control and mindfulness practices may help children to develop learning to learn skills. The intervention of this study strengthened children's self-regulation skills. These skills are central to learning to learn skills. Statistically significant effects were found in sections sensitivities, maintenance of attention and executive function.

The object of this study was to examine the phenomena of a long-term Knowledge Building process. The subject was OECD/ENSI/FI-project's Knowledge Building in Knowledge Forum® 3.4 environment from 8.9.2000 to 8.9.2005. Research was based on socio-cognitive and socio-cultural learning approaches and the theoretical background consisted of models of collaborative learning and knowledge processing. These theoretical applications were first structured using metaphors of language and then assembled into five main theoretical motifs. The main motifs were 1) context, 2) inter-subjective, shared area, 3) community's practices and participation, 4) developing expertise and 5) the sequential construction of processes. These themes were assembled in interpreting the results using the Mutual Shaping of Technological and Social Elements by Boczkowski (1999) as a conceptual tool. The social elements of the mutual shaping process were defined as 1) community structure, 2) discourse and 3) the meanings of activity. The technological elements were defined as 1) shared artefacts, 2) features of technology-use and 3) other technological conventions perceived in activity. The five main theoretical motifs were used as the basis for creating the research problems, which were divided into three themes: 1) shared artefacts, themes of Knowledge Building and participant formation, 2) patterns of participation and interaction and 3) the meanings of activity. As methods I used content analysis of the messages, the quantitative profiling of changes in the database, social network analysis, discourse analysis of selected message threads and theme interviews of eleven participants. Based on my study it's possible to say, that a long-term setting of this kind provides a different perspective on Knowledge Building from most of the previous research. The most valuable conclusions from the data are: 1) The centralisation of interaction in this type of setting is a feature that supports the improvement in the quality of action. 2) The participation in a long-term Knowledge Building process seems to support the concious effort on professional development and the expert-identity. 3) The quality of plasticity of the technology-in-use has implication for how the communal features of activity will develop. The agency is seen to initiate processes that in turn open up new possibilities for the quality of action on both the communal and individual levels.

Aims: Delays in early language development are quite common and for most children transient. Recognizing a delay is nevertheless important as it might also be the first sign of more persistent language difficulties that can lead to reading difficulties at school age. The most widely researched form of a reading difficulty is dyslexia which has a strong genetic basis. Among Finnish speaking people dyslexia typically appears as problems in reading fluency. Difficulties in reading can also be due to primarily reading comprehension problems that often stem from broader oral language difficulties. The purpose of this study was to examine the childhood language skills and adolescent reading skills of Finnish speaking children with delayed early language development and familial risk for dyslexia. Furthermore, this study examined how an early language delay predicts adolescent reading difficulties in children with familial risk for dyslexia. Method: The research data were part of the data collected in Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. The participants were divided into groups based on their early language skills. Children with delayed early expressive skills but age-equivalent receptive skills (VKK1-group, n=10) and children with delay in both receptive and expressive skills (VKK2-group, n=12) were compared to age-matched children whose early language skills were age-equivalent and who either had familial risk for dyslexia (LR-group, n=83) or did not have the risk (ER-group, n=79). Group differences in language skills between the ages 1.5–5.5 years and reading skills (decoding and functional literacy) between the ages 14–15 years were studied with One-Way and Mixed-Design ANOVAs. The connection between language delay and adolescent reading difficulties was examined using cross-tabulation and the chi-squared test. Results and conclusions: VKK1-group had weaker early expressive skills than both control groups. Later language skills in VKK1-group were at single age points weaker than in ER-group. In adolescence, VKK1-group was weaker than ER-group in reading fluency. VKK2-group was weaker than controls in all expressive and receptive language skills throughout the studied age period and partly weaker than VKK1-group. VKK2-group was weaker than ER-group in reading accuracy and weaker than all other groups in functional literacy. The prevalence of dyslexia did not deviate from expectation in either of the VKK-groups or in LR-group. Thus, delayed language development does not seem to further increase the risk for adolescent dyslexia in children with familial risk for dyslexia. The prevalence of poor functional literacy deviated significantly from expectation in VKK2-group. This indicates that an early delay in both expressive and receptive language development together with familial risk for dyslexia might predict functional reading difficulties in adolescence. However, only an expressive delay with familial risk does not seem to increase the risk for poor functional literacy.