Browsing by Author "Pursiainen, Virve"

The concept of participation has gained attention in the discussion involving children and young people during the last decade. Children's and adolescents' participation relates to human rights and legislation. In education science, participation has been researched and modeled from kindergarten to university pedagogy. Also, the new national core curriculum for basic education emphasizes participation in many ways. In this study, participation is considered both from the perspectives of teaching materials and pedagogical strategies. The purpose of this study was to determine in which ways the teacher's guides for 3rd grade environmental studies lead teachers to promote pupil participation. The conceptual framework of this study is based on the principles of so called participatory pedagogy. The research was conducted using qualitative methods. The research material consisted of three 3rd grade teacher's guides for environmental studies. The analysis was conducted as a theory-based content analysis. Main concepts guiding the analysis were multidisciplinary learning modules, active construction of knowledge, pupil's own voice, assessment, democracy skills, social perspective and agency. Instructions to promote student participation could be found from the teacher's guides analyzed in this study. The new curriculum emphasizes the involvement of pupils in the planning, implementing and assessing of their own learning, school work and learning environment. The teacher's guides had mostly instructions relating to the planning and implementation of teaching, whereas very little tips on the assessment were found. In the light of this study, the teacher's guides could be further developed to enhance pupil participation in all the three phases, as is the aim in the new curriculum and participatory pedagogy. This could mean replacing the instructions in teacher's guides that allow mere attending with the instructions that promote real pupil participation.