Browsing by Author "Virolainen, Mirka"

The purpose of this study was to investigate students on University of Helsinkins' department of Teachers Educations beliefs about knowing and learning. Students were represented by kindergarten teacher students, teacher students and subject teacher students whom participated (N=369) in the didactics course autumn 2012. Students' beliefs about knowing and learning were measured with a quantitative instrument. The first part of the instrument based on Schommers' (1990) instrument about the nature of knowledge and ability to learn. The second part of the instrument based on Dwecks (2006) instrument about mindsets. Tirri and Kuusisto have translated them. Beliefs were rated with Likert-scale. Students' beliefs were analyzed with the basic statistical indicators including the means and standard deviations of the ratings. The results showed that students believed that both abilities and personality are something that you can improve. Students didn't believe that repetition helps learning but they believe that everyone can learn. Beliefs about knowledge gets high values. Students' beliefs were analyzed by factor analysis to find out the main dimensions. Factor analysis were run by principal component analysis. The correlations between the demographics and variables representing the factors were calculated using the ANOVA. The sex, degree and success of the exam explained some of the differences in students' beliefs. Students who did well in the exam, kindergarten teacher students and teacher students have strong growth mindset. Men had a profound belief about knowledge and learning than women. According to the study student teachers on beliefs that learning is possible even if the student don't have a special gift for that. Students have also permanently high quality beliefs about knowledge and learning.