Browsing by Author "Hämäläinen, Maria"

The purpose of this study was to study primary school teacher´s experiences about using positive pedagogy. Positive pedagogy is a relatively new pedagogical method that according to previous studies has a positive effect on pupils.There has also been written about primary school teacher´s experiences about the method and found that there are both positive effects and challenges. It was important to study primary school teacher´s experiences about using positive pedagogy to be able to create a deeper understanding of how the method works and how one could support primary school teacher´s in using the method. There were 15 participants in this study. The participants were primary school teachers who use or have used positive pedagogy within the last five years. The study was conducted using an electronic survey with open answers. The data analysis method used was thematic analysis. The study shows that primary school teacher´s define positive pedagogy in a way that is partly different from how the literature defines the method. The teacher´s don´t mention resilience when writing about positive pedagogy and they feel that one of the challenges with using positive pedagogy is a negative spiral, which was not mentioned in the literature. The study also shows that primary school teachers experience many positive effects from using positive pedagogy. The teachers experienced that the atmosphere in the class was better and that the students displayed less challenging behavior. The primary school teachers also rapport that there are challenges with using positive pedagogy, for example a lack of resources and negative attitudes.