Browsing by Author "Kallionpää, Jenni"

People build their interests and knowledge through a variety of actions in several contexts of action. Meaningful learning does not take place only in school, but also in informal personal interest contexts. The purpose of this study is to examine, describe and interpret the objects of interest-driven learning ecology. The aim is to increase information about young people's interests, the inspiring aspects of those, how the interests spark, as well as the development strategies of self-sustaining actions. The actions that are done related to the interests are manifested in several contexts, and those are also under the research in this study. These themes are viewed in the context of a learning ecology. This qualitative study has been carried out as part of Mind the Gap research project. The data were collected by semi-structured theme interview. Interviews were conducted with 24 eighth-grade youngsters who were selected for interview based on the earlier survey (n= 1350). The data were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Data analysis was carried out three times, two of which were evidence-based and one theory-bound. Eighth-grader youths told about their emotional, social, goal-oriented and other factors of action that inspired them in their areas of interest. Interests were told to be generated in different contexts. These were the contexts of family, peers, and hobbies. A few interviewees also reported about context, which couldn't be defined in these three contexts. All but one of the interviewees said the area of interest will be a part of their future. The interviewees told about self-sustaining developmental strategies, which included the use of text-based information, media exploration, media creation, participating in structured learning, unstructured practicing, and the building of knowledge networks. The actions within the area of the interest were manifested in several contexts and also crossed boundaries between the contexts. The results support the idea that meaningful learning takes place outside of the school, and the school should take advantage of these skills and knowledge.