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Aims and background: The purpose of this study is to find out what kind of challenges a visually impaired meets in a kitchen when preparing food. First I consider shortly visual impairments, secondly what kind of special equipment there are for visually impaired in a kitchen and thirdly what demands there are for the kitchen environment to be functional for visually impaired. The Research questions are 1) What kind of challenges a visually impaired person meets in a kitchen when preparing food and 2) How does she/he copes with the challenges she/he meets when preparing food and what kind of strategies she/he uses to cope with the challenges. Material and methods: This study is a case study which was based on observation. The Data was collected by videotaping food preparation and baking in a rehabilitation Centre for Visually Impaired. A test subject was a visually impaired person. Results: The most important result was that the visually impaired person used very much sensory skills, first of all sense when she/he was preparing food. Secondly an equally important thing was the systematic performance when she/he was working throughout the whole cooking session. The third but not so significant observation was the use of other senses vision, hearing, smell and taste. Any special equipment for visually impaired were hardly used. Conclusions: Tactual skills are the most important means to cope with the challenges. Another important mean is the systematic way of working. Using these means cooking goes safety and fluently. These results can be used for decreasing those challenges which can be faced when visually impaired are preparing food, baking and working in the kitchen and for making improvements in a kitchen environment.

The rise of Special education numbers in Finland has caused a situation where Finland's ten largest LEA's so called kymppikunnat (ten communes) have expressed their growing concern of organizing the special education in the current institutional settings. The LEA's started the conversation of redefining special education system in 2004. Their aim was to target the governments attention to the problematics of special education. By the request of the Ministry of Education the LEA's prepared a final report concerning the central questions in the Finnish special education system. On the basis of the LEA's survey it became even clearer that the legislation, funding system and curriculum are tightly linked together. The following LEA's took part into the writing process Espoo, Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Tampere, Turku and Vantaa. The report was hand over to the Ministry of Education at 18.8.2006. After the delivery the Ministry organized special education development group meetings 17 times in the year 2007. The result of the LEA's report and the development meetings was a new Special Education Strategy 2007. I am observing the dialogue between administrational levels in governmental institutions change process. The research is a content analysis where I compare the "Erityistä tukea tarvitsevan oppilaan opetuksen järjestämisen uudistaminen osana yhtenäistä perusopetusta- kohti laatua ja joustavuutta" (The renewal of the organization of teaching for student with special educational needs as part of unified education for all - towards quality and flexibility) document to "Erityisopetuksen strategia" (Special education strategy) document. My aim was to find out how much of their own interests have the LEA's been able to integrate into the official governmental documentation. The data has been organized and analyzed quantitatively with Macros created as additional parts in Microsoft Excel software. The document material has also been arranged manually on sentence based categorization into an Excel matrix. The results have been theoretically viewed from the special education reform dialogue perspective, and from the angle of the change process of a bureaucratic institution. My target has been to provide a new viewpoint to the change of special education system as a bureaucratic institution. The education system has traditionally been understood as a machine bureaucracy. By the review provided in my pro gradu analysis it seems however that the administrational system in special education is more of a postmodern network bureaucracy than machine bureaucracy. The system appears to be constructed by overlapping, crossing and complex networks where things are been decided. These kinds of networks are called "governance networks . It seems that the governmental administrational - and politic levels, the third sector actors and other society's operators are mixed in decision making.

The purpose of this qualitative research was to describe and interpret the meaning and grounds of worldview education from the guardians perspective and their wishes regarding worldview education in early childhood education. Previous research has shown worldview education to be a tense content area within early childhood education. Studies have focused mostly on the professionals point of view. Whereas little attention has been given to the guardians perspective. The research questions were as follows: 1. What meanings do guardians give to worldview education in early childhood education? 2. What grounds do guardians present for worldview education in early childhood education? 3. What wishes do the guardians express towards early childhood worldview education? The data consisted of four thematic interviews and open-ended entries of the questionnaire. 11 guardians answered the questionnaire. The data was analyzed using theory-driven content analysis, and utilized methods based on discourse analysis. The results were mirrored with Balčin et al.'s (2021) model of the worldview dimension of worldview education. The data shows that guardians see multi-perspective worldview education as a way of promoting accepting differences and as a mediator of a model of a good person. The necessity of the content area was questioned as early childhood education resources are critical. The meanings were built from a secular and pluralistic dimension. The guardians' grounds for worldview education focused on a shared Finnish value base, the nurturing of cultural tradition and the rights of the child. The grounds were located in the secular and monovalent dimension. The guardians expressed a preference for religious sensitivity and valued a high level of competence in worldview education from the professionals, nonalignment of worldview education, uniform practices, caution on trips to other worldview communities and stronger description of worldview education and discussion about it. The wishes were focused on the secular dimension. The guardians had a positive attitude to multi-perspective worldview education, but the practices related to its implementation revealed tense questions and attitudes in which the interpretation of one's own background in worldview education was highlighted. This thesis reveals that discussion about world-view education between guardians and personnel in early childhood education is in major role promoting multi-valued society which allows different worldviews. Discussion requires personnels' competence of worldview reflection and sensitive attitude towards religion and worldviews. In the light of this thesis, these previous skills should be supported among personnel in early childhood education.

Making crafts is no longer based on need alone. The importance of craft as a subject emphasizing self-expression has grown, and craft teachers have a significant role in how craft is valued in the future. The theoretical framework of the study examines the sociocultural context of craft and which elements affect the expressive meanings of craft. The study outlines the meanings associated with craft expression by craft teacher students and discourses based on the research data. The use of language as a research subject reflected the contextual nature and culture of the meanings related to craft expression. In the study, discourse referred to a fairly established discussion about issues that construct social reality. The research data consisted of 38 essays written by the craft teacher students in the University of Helsinki during the Study planning course in 2014 and 2017. Part of the essay assignment was to reflect on one’s own craft expression. The qualitative research method was interpretive discourse analysis. Initially, through content analysis, I outlined what meanings craft teacher students attached to craft expression when describing their own craft expression. In the discursive analysis phase, I interpreted what kind of discourses were constructed from the data. The data emphasized product- and need-based understanding of craft, in which practicality was found to exclude expressiveness of craft. Based on the data analysis, four discourses of craft expression were constructed: sustainable craft, flawless craft making, beauty and non-expression. Like the meanings associated with craft expression, discourses overlapped, and the topics got various aspects in different discourses. The meanings and discourses associated with craft expression open up the effects of craft culture and help to understand the significance of craft as part of the diversity of life.

Objectives: In my thesis, I studied the fourth, the fifth and the sixth graders views about the conceptions of the influence at school. In the thesis it was also surveyed what kind of matters the pupils wanted to influence at school. Furthermore, it was studied what kind of influencing skills pupils thought they have. The theory part of the thesis consisted in an overview to the children's and youth's different kind of needs for participation as well as an overview to the curriculum system which forms the base of the school work was studied. In addition, in the theory part of the thesis the democracy expressed at school and the awakening of the children's interest in civic matters were studied. Methods: The thesis was a survey-research and structured questionnaires were used when information was collected. The research group consisted of 112 pupils who studied at the fourth, the fifth and the sixth grades in the primary school situated in the Southern part of Finland. The data was analyzed with the quantitative research program SPSS. At first different numbers such as averages and standard deviations were examined and after that factor analyses were used. Correlation examination was also used. Results and conclusions: The results showed that the pupils had a positive image about their own influencing skills and they trusted their own opinions. They felt that it was important to have influence on they own matters as well as on the common matters at school. However many of the pupils felt that they didn't have possibilities to influence what happens at school during the school day. In addition, the pupils didn't want the teachers or the headmaster to decide solely how the work at school was carried out. The things that the pupils wanted to influence the most were the lunch and the snack at school, the seating arrangement in the classroom, the visits carried out at school and the optional subjects. According to the results it's possible to draw a conclusion that the pupils' participation at school is necessary. The pupils value the possibilities to take part in and seem to understand that it is needed them to contribute themselves so that it is possible to enjoy more the time spend at school. It's also possible to draw a conclusion that although the possibilities to participate are valued there is a lack of real enthusiasm to participate. This is why it seems that there is a need for different kinds of ways to participate since the current ways to participate at school lack to motivate many pupils. Also the work of student body needs to be improved since many of the pupils didn't want to participate to the work of student body although they thought the work done by the student body was important.

Objectives. The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of the individual and systematic support for the pupil who has wide learning difficulties and slight mental disability. The purpose of the study is to develop my own work as a special class teacher and to gather information about the effectiveness of the support. The theoretical background of the study is based on six principal themes. The themes are pre-reading skills, learning to read, reading disability, how does the mildly mentally handicapped pupil learn to read, evaluation of the pre-reading skills in the school and a model of response support. Methods. The thesis is a qualitative case study. Three pupils who have wide learning difficulties and slight mental disability participated in the study. First the study examines pupils’ pre-reading skills with evaluation tools. Based on the evaluation, an individual training program is designed for the pupil which purpose is to promote the pre-reading skills of the pupil. Results and conclusions. The use of evaluation tools was found suitable to evaluate the pre-reading skills. The slight mental handicapped pupil benefitted from a long-term and planned teaching experiment. All pupils pre-reading skills were progressed during the teaching experiment. The teaching experiment in the thesis is clear and feasible to use in a teachers work. The teaching experiment gives new information about the need of pupil’s support and helps the teacher focus the support on practicing the right skill.

PISA-studies (Linnakylä, 2004; Sulkunen et al, 2010) and evaluations of education (ia. Harjunen & Rautopuro, 2015) show that young boys read little and they have poor reading skills. But there are still opposite results: Merisuo-Storm and Soininen (2014) say that students in elementary school largely see reading as a positive hobby. The aim of this Master's Thesis was to study and analyze the characteristics of the reading hobby of third grade boys. The aim was achieved by studying the time boys use to read, their favourite books and their attitudes towards reading. This study was performed as a qualitative case study in four schools around the Helsinki metropolitan area. 33 third grade boys filled out a questionnaire after which ten of them were chosen to be interviewed. The data from the questionnaires was categorized and adapted as graphs and the data from the interviews was analyzed by data based content analysis. The attitudes of third grade boys towards reading were positive. Nearly all boys who participated in this study read non-school texts daily. Most of them read less than 30 minutes a day. The boys liked funny and exciting literature the most. They read more books than magazines or electronic literature. The reading hobby of their parents and family members didn't automatically impact how the boys read. All of the ten interviewed boys thought that reading is important. Most of them based that on the importance of reading skill as an instrumental value. Third grade boys had very varied reading skills. Some of them still read picture books while others read long fantasy novels. This puts schools in a challenging position as readers of every level need to be offered meaningful reading experiences during literary education. According to this study, negative regard towards reading seems to affiliate with older students. The role of schools is remarkable when talking about maintaining and encouraging the reading motivation of children so it could carry on to adulthood.

Various implementation media can be used to create instructions to support independent skill learning. Despite this, little research has been done on the perception and significance of instructional materials for learning a craft skill. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand more deeply the connection between perceptions and learning a craft skill independently. In addition, the goal was to get deeper understanding on the inner processes of the mind that apply observations made from the instructions into practical activity and finally into skill. Of special interest in the study were the observations made by those learning craft skill independently of the instructions implemented using different media, as well as the cognitive processes in the process of learning craft skill. The primary research material consisted of recordings containing videos of the computer screen and thinking aloud, which the test subjects produced while learning Tunisian crocheting independently in an online learning environment. The secondary research material was reflections written by the test subjects afterwards. The test subjects produced recordings unsupervised. The recordings were analyzed with the Atlas.ti 22 following the principles of protocol analysis. The reflections were analyzed by thematizing the content relevant to the research. Based on the research results, the learning of a motor skill is based on the observations that are made in the learning process, but along with the observations, experimentation and practice promote the learning of the skill. The study also showed that the implementation of e-learning materials in multimedia serves different learners in learning a skill, even though video instructions require less cognitive effort. For this reason, it is recommended that the instructions intended for self-study of craft skills are implemented in the online learning environment using different media. The results also challenge to develop more flexible e-learning platforms.

Aims. The aim of this master’s thesis was to examine the association between poor gross motor skills, fine motor skills and early mathematical skills in 4-years-old-children. Previous research has shown that both gross and fine motor skills are associated with academic performance at school age, especially in mathematics, but research is still limited for under school age children. This study provides additional information on how poor gross motor skills are associated with fine motor skills and early mathematical skills before school age. Methods. This study was conducted using quantitative methods. IMB SPSS Statistics 27 was used for the data analysis. The data of this thesis was obtained from the Toimi ja opi -study and included 188 Finnish children aged four years in 2019. The research data was test results of the FMS (fundamental motor skills) test, fine motor skills tests and the Finnish Early Numeracy Test (Lukukäsitetesti). Gross motor skills were measured using the FMS (TGMD-3, KTK, MABC) -test. Fine motor skills were measured with three fine motor skills (LENE, BAS, WISC-3) tests. Early mathematical skills were measured using the Finnish Early Numeracy Test, that is based on number sequence skills and relational skills. In the results, means were examined with correlations and one-way analysis of variance. The association and relationship between the FMS and the Finnish Early Numeracy Test were analysed with Pearson correlation coefficients and the one-way ANOVA. Results and conclusions. The results of this master's thesis showed a statistically significant correlations between gross motor skills, fine motor skills and early mathematical skills. The results showed a statistically significant difference between poor gross motor skills and normally developing gross motor skills in the mean scores of the fine motor skills test and the Finnish Early Numeracy Test. The lower the score the child scored on the gross motor skills test, the lower the scores were on the fine motor skills test and early mathematical skills test. Results showed that the association between these skills can be seen already before school-age. Results underline the notion that in early childhood education should pay attention to identify the poor performance in motor skills in children and when they are observed, need the possible other difficulties be surveyed, so the support can be started at early stage. Early support can prevent the later difficulties in learning and development.

Special education in Finland is carried out in various approaches and objectives. Planning and creating overall guidelines for special education has been challenging. However, in late autumn of 2013 the Kelpo-project introduced distinct guidelines for special education programs all over Finland. As a result, special education students are evaluated and a three-step personalized support plan is created for each individual. The support provided as well as the amount of overall support is required to be presented in each step of the plan. The documentation should include each student's personal goals and the processes used to achieve them. Before the Kelpo-project was introduced, teachers and other educational officials played a large role in class and school transfers as well as making the choice between general and special education for the student. Today, students' rights for general education are secured by law, which helps to avoid unnecessary class and school transfers. For a long time, the form of the educational system in Finland was divided into two separate sectors: general education and special education. Special education was taught in separate classrooms or in small groups. The aim of the combined educational system was to break down the two separate sectors and combine them as an inclusion-based educational system with a universal school and learning environment for everyone. This educational system would prevent all the unnecessary class and school transfers and treat each student as an equal, whether they need special support or not. The aim of this study is to investigate the numerous school transfers in a commune. This study also aims to examine the reasons behind the transfers and to inspect the officials making the decisions. This study will also examine the extent to which a student's own opinion has affected the transfer decision. This is a qualitative research study. The material has been evaluated with the analysis of the content. This study was carried out by interviews. The interviews conducted have been analyzed by finding common themes, which provide a general understanding of each student's educational path, school transfers and officials participating in the transfer process. The interviewees consisted of three eight grade students. The interviews were recorded and transcripted. The interviews consisted of two different people. The material used in this Master's study brought up how the previous special education system enabled the exclusion of a student by transferring him/her from one school to another with no support plan. The reasons behind the transfers were often misbehavior and violence. Teachers and other officials had responsibility and power to carry out transfers without discussing the issue with parents or the student in question. The current Kelpo-project secures a student's right to be heard and allows one to affect the decisions.