Browsing by Author "Mannermaa, Elli"

In the latest PISA measurements conducted in 2018 it was found that when comparing the reading performance scores of non-immigrant students and students with an immigrant background, Finland was the country with the highest score-point difference between these groups. Several previous studies have shown that reading is a skill that everyone needs – it is a crucial skill to have to be able to function and be a part of society today. The aim of this study was to find out how Finnish primary school teachers differentiate their literary teaching for pupils with Finnish as a second language. In order to develop the teaching of reading to a way that would reduce the skill gap between these groups, there must be an understanding of its current state. In addition to this, this study aimed to find out the reasons why some teachers do not differentiate their literary teaching for these students. This study is based on survey data collected by the Lukuklaani research project group. The survey was conducted in 2017 and the entire number of respondents was 885. The data selected for this study was the answer data of one question of the survey, which had a total of 378 open responses. All the respondents were Finnish primary school teachers. This study showed that 89 % of the teachers studied differentiated their literary teaching for pupils with Finnish as a second language in one way or another. They mentioned multiple methods and practices to differentiate the teaching, and most of the methods mentioned were cooperative methods, where the pupil is working with either the teacher or other pupils. Some of the practices were related to the way the teacher is functioning, but only a few mentioned methods where students work by themselves. Most of the respondents described that the literature their pupils with Finnish as a second language read was specifically chosen for them based on certain criteria. Most of the criteria they mentioned was related to the language of the books, but also content-related criteria was mentioned. The 11 % of teachers who brought out that they do not differentiate their literature teaching for their pupils with Finnish as a second language justified their decision with arguments related to either the pupil or their school culture.