Browsing by Author "Langenskiöld, Johanna"

Objectives. According to a study commissioned by UNISEF Finland (2012) Finnish students find their teachers distant. The results of the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (2013) indicate that Finnish elementary school teachers do not receive enough feedback about their performance. This main objective of this study was to examine elementary school teachers' attitudes towards students' feedback. The research questions were: How do teachers relate to feedback given by students? Which factors have an impact on teacher attitudes? The aim of the study was to introduce a new viewpoint to scrutinizing the current role of teacher and student in the teacher-student relationship. Furthermore, the aim was to provoke discussion about values behind and practices related to interpersonal communication and feedback culture in Finnish schools. The theoretical framework of this study consists of theories in educational psychology and speech communications. As a research topic student feedback on teacher-student relationship is quite new, there is little prior research available. Students' teacher views, expectations and experiences, on the other hand, have started to interest scientists increasingly. Methodology. The study was implemented as a qualitative attitude research. Research data was collected in the spring of 2017 during three group interviews. Nine teachers from three different elementary schools in the Helsinki metropolitan area were interviewed – three teachers from each school. The teachers shared their views on 32 claims presented by the interviewer. The research data was analyzed according to the principles outlined in literature about qualitative attitude research. For instance, an approach of discourse analysis was used. Results and conclusions. All in all, the teacher attitudes towards student feedback were favorable. However, as the teacher attitudes did include some variation, four different attitude profiles were identified. Two of the teachers approached students' feedback daringly, three tolerantly, two neutrally and two with reservation. The results suggest that a student's teacher-related experiences and their effects on the child and teacher-child relationship remain at least partially unidentified. That is why the role of both the teacher and the student as well as the existing communication culture in the Finnish schools should be examined critically and candidly. Student feedback in the student-teacher relationship might help build stronger and healthier pedagogical relationships which, in return, create better conditions for teaching and learning.