Browsing by Author "Hämäläinen, Heini"

Aims. Previous studies have shown, that an environment that supports the fulfilment of basic psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness, has a major impact on human's well-being. Those studies have also found out that spending time in forest environment decreases stress, increases energy and enthusiasm, improves attention and concentration, and also enhances team spirit and willingness to relate with others. The aim of this thesis is to study how well pupils experience autonomy, competence and relatedness in natural science lessons. The study also explores how teacher's pedagogical choices in classroom and in forest can create circumstances that support the fulfilment of basic psychological needs of the pupils. Methods. This thesis is a case study about well-being of 4th grade pupils in natural science lessons. The study was conducted in one school in southern Finland in the spring of 2016. There were 25 pupils participating in the study. During the research period, the data of this mixed methods -study was collected by two ways. Pupils were given questionnaires that measured the fulfilment of their basic psychological needs, and their teacher kept an informal diary about the lessons. Statistical methods were used to describe the data collected by questionnaires, and non-parametric tests were used in analysis. Teacher's diary was analysed by a qualitative theory-based content analysis. Results and Conclusions. In this study, the basic psychological needs of the pupils were fulfilled reasonably well in all lessons. When comparing the learning environments, the results were a little bit better for those lessons that were held in forest environment. The connection between competence and learning environment was found to be statistically significant. In this study, plenty of circumstances were found to contribute to the fulfilment of basic psychological needs. In conclusion, the well-being of pupils can be enhanced by activating them and encouraging them to participate, and by offering them opportunities to have an impact on the issues that are important to them. In addition, the well-being of pupils can also be enhanced by offering appropriately challenging tasks, and by fostering safe and approbative atmosphere.