Browsing by department "Institutionen för lärarutbildning"

Aims. The aim of my research was to study the use of social media of 15–17 year old Finnish teenagers and what effects social media has on them. Earlier studies have shown that an average Finnish teenager uses social media approximately 15 hours during a week. It has also been studied that the social media has an effect on self-esteem. I chose social media and it’s effects on teenagers as my research subject because as a phenomenom the social media is rather young, which is why there has not been done many Finnish studies focusing on the teenagers’ social media use. My research assignment is to find out what kind of social media users teenagers are and what kind of effects social media has on their self experiences. Methods. The study was qualitative and 45 teenagers from age 15 to 17 participated in it. The data was collected with an internet questionnaire which was shared through social media, and it contained mainly open questions. The data was analysed by using qualitative data-based content analysis. Results and conclusions. Most of the teenagers used social media 3–4 hours daily or more. It was used for entertainment, for finding information, communication, current affairs, sharing one’s own life experiences and for finding inspiration, among other things. Almost half of the teenagers were bullied over social media. Appearance was also essential in the social media. Social media created ideals for appearance for teenagers and set them under critique, gave them false image of reality and made the teenagers look for the acceptance through outlooks. 31 of them had gotten positive comments on their appearance from social media and 13 had gotten negative comments. Those comments had an impact on the teenagers’ self-esteem, mood and feelings. Teenagers had also objects of identification and admiration in social media, such as videobloggers, artists, models and their own friends, and they were influenced by them. They felt that social media had many positive and negative effects on their lives. Positive effects were the rise of self-esteem, being more brave in expressing one’s own opinion, the possibilities of keeping in touch with other people and being the source of inspiration, motivation and information, among other things. The negative effects were the social media taking too much time and creating pressure, its bad effect on physical condition and sleep, distortion of self-image, the mean people and the need to be always within reach, among other things. The results of this study implicate that the social media has a comprehensive effect on the lives of the teenagers and their self experiences.

Aims. The post-war time in Finland was a golden era of reconstruction and the baby boomers were born. Earlier the 1950's have been a subject of studies in architecture, suburban studies, home technology and social politics. The following research questions arose from the ageing of the baby boomers: what actually occurred in everyday life in Finnish families during the 50's and how well-being manifested itself in demanding circumstances? The aim of this research was to let the contemporaries themselves tell the story of the 50 s, in the context of home economics. The themes and the questions of the research are as follows: 1.Well-being in families: Which factors contribute to well-being in families? 2.Connections between everyday life, built environment and surrounding nature: Which factors connect the everyday life to environment? 3.Functionality in families and the technological development at homes: Which technological innovations are utilized by families? Data and methods. The research approach was narrative. The data for this qualitative research consists of 15 narrative stories from informants (n=16) in different age groups from different parts of Finland. Informants were invited through the organization Marttaliitto and via the researcher's own interest groups. The theoretical framework lies in the interpretive oral history. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results and conclusions. There were five themes which contributed to well-being in families. Functional housing and development of the built environment were important contributing factors. Target-oriented action to achieve a good life and responsible human agency to increase solicitude both between the family members and in community. Everyday life was connected to the environment on many levels, through economical and emotional factors. There was a wide variety of the artifacts that families used. They can be categorized whether they were used in housekeeping, if they promoted functionality at homes or were used during the leisure time. Societal factors have a great impact on forming the relationship between everyday life and environment. To raise the standard of living through target-oriented action is dependent on the development of the infrastructure. Political actions to promote the welfare state have been a carrying force of development of the 50 s, having a positive effect on households activity. Societal factors to promote welfare improve health and increase equality in education.

Change is often viewed as the essence of fashion, but many who operate in the field have observed that certain features and events recur either in a linear, cyclical, swinging or fragmented matter. The purpose of my thesis is to forecast the next 1950s revival by developing and testing a new tool for forecasting. To achieve my goal I examined, if the revivals show common always recurring features and what the similarities and differences are like. I studied the two most recent recurrences in the years 1996 and 2012 by focusing on two retrotrends, apparel and Zeitgeist. The perspective of my thesis was a qualitative and hermeneutic future study. I examined the apparel features with photographs of Chanel's and Dior's collections. For the interpretation of the Zeitgeist factors I used Mitä, missä, milloin -books and collected the research material from the section on culture, news and international politics. For the analysis I employed the hermeneutic circle and two types of qualitative content analysis. On the first round I expanded my pre-understanding and defined the factors with which I grouped, measured and interpreted the material in the content analyses. On rounds two, three and four I analyzed the photographs by applying content analysis of visual images, and examined the text with inductive content analysis. On the fifth and final round I formed the base for my forecast by comparing my expanded understanding and the results of the previous rounds with one another. According to the results the most common characteristic features of the dresses and jackets, in Chanel's and Dior's collections from the years 1996 and 2012, resembled the features of the 1950s. The greatest differences where in the lengths of the sleeves and skirts. All of the Zeitgeist factors recurred in each revival, except for the "racial riots", youth culture and the buy now pay later -mentality. Based on my findings I predict that the common characteristic features of the 1950s apparel and Zeitgeist will recur in the next revival.

The purpose of this study was to examine what type of sleep pedagogy is used in kindergarten groups consisting of 3- to 5-year-old children. The term sleep pedagogy, in this content, means such pedagogical practices, which enhance falling asleep and gaining restfulness. The goal was to increase information about attitudes and pedagogical practices regarding naptime. At the same time the intention was to learn more about how children's needs for rest and sleep are catered to and on whose conditions naps and rest time is organised. There is very little prior research done on kindergarten children's naps and rest time. Most of the existing knowledge is about toddlers sleep or is focused on sleep disturbances. The study was conducted in April 2012. It included 14 kindergarten groups from one municipal day care area. The data was collected by interviewing the kindergarten teachers and by observing the groups. The observations were based on a semi-structured observation sheet, which focused on the physical environment as well as on the events and the atmosphere. The observations were carried out so that they began when the activity prior to naptime was ended (typically lunch). They lasted until most of the children were peaceful and the adult stopped the activity (for example reading a story) in the nap room. The study was performed during one day in each group. Besides the interviews and observations, kindergarten teachers filled in a background form and the nap rooms were photographed. The analysis method was phenomenological, which means that the subject was examined as a phenomenon entity. The interviews were analysed following the stages of the phenomenological analysis method. For analysing the observations a specific scale was created. The scale consisted of four parts, which measured 1) the structure of the activity, 2) the quality of the adults interaction, 3) the adults essence in the nap room and 4) the physical distance between the adult and the children. These four areas were measured, and compared to the tranquillity of the children. The results of this study show that the groups of 3- to 5-year-old children are balancing between different sleep needs. Besides the different needs, the attitudes of the pedagogues, the whole system of kindergarten tasks, the physical environment and children's' parents all have their impact on the way how nap time is arranged. The interviews indicate that kindergarten teachers value highly the naptime, but they underline the difference in napping and resting. The study shows clear connections between children's' restfulness and the pedagogical acts. According to this study, factors that increase children's' tranquillity are a tranquil essence and a child-oriented interaction of the adult as well as the clear structure of the transition activities and naptime. The study offers valuable information on kindergartens naps and rest time. This information can directly be utilized in planning naptime and especially in situations were naptime is considered challenging.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine the motivation of 7th to 9th graders in secular ethics and the factors related to that. The study also examined the connections between the factors behind motivation and connections related to pupils background information. Pupils' interest in different contents of secular ethics was also explored. Method. This study was a quantitative survey, but it also included a qualitative section. The motivation scale of the questionnaire is based on Pintrich's (1988) MSLQ ((Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire) and Ruohotie's (1993) APLQ (Abilities for Professional Learning Questionnaire). The data was collected in April 2015. 75 pupils from four schools in Helsinki answered the questionnaire. The quantitative data was analyzed by using PASW Statistics 18. The answers from qualitative section were analyzed by using content analysis. Results and conclusions. The study showed that pupils were motivated by and interested in secular ethics. Secular ethics was also regarded as an important and useful subject. Several correlating factors affected to pupils' motivation. The intrinsic orientation correlated with many motivation factors. One of the crucial findings was the strong correlation between intrinsic orientation and the way teachers interacted with the pupils. There were no differences between boys and girls in their motivation factors except (in relation to) teaching material and methods. Good grades were connected between expectations of success and beliefs of intrinsic succeeding. The study also revealed that pupils were motivated by several contents of the secular ethics but moral and ethics were the most important. The results of this study can be utilized in the teaching of secular ethics in increasing pupils' motivation.

The purpose of this study is to find out how boys are portrayed in the Finnish ABC books through different decades. The data of the study consist of ABC books from the 1950s, 1970s, 1990s, 2000 and 2010s. The newest ABC book is published in 2016, and it follows the Finnish study plan of 2014. The ABC books chosen for this study have been published during the last 60 years. With 10 or 20 years' time difference between each book, it is possible study the changes in the portrayal of boy characters. The study focuses on the texts and pictures where the boy characters are shown. Special attention is paid to the looks and action of the boys in the ABC books. The boy characters are compared to the girl characters presented in the ABC books, in order to analyze whether the way the boys are being described differs from the way the girls are being described. The assumption is that there are some remarkable differences in this portrayal, especially when comparing the oldest ABC book from the 1950s to that of 2010s. Previous research has shown that the great changes taking place during the 1960s has also had its effect on the ABC books of that time; there should be a considerable decrease in stories and pictures related to national identity. As a new feature after the 1960s, the equality in friendships between the boy and girl characters has emerged. However, a gendered portrayal of the characters is still to some extent visible in ABC books until end of 1990s. The method of the study was content analysis. Each ABC book was first analyzed in detail after which the results were compared with each other. Special research questions were used to find out how the boys were shown during different times and to what extent the portrayal of boys and girls differed from each other. A context analytical approach is visible in the way that the norms and values of each ABC book were mirrored in relation to their own time. The results of the study show that even if the way boys are described has changed a lot from 1950s to 2010s, some features have remained the same. In the ABC books from 1950s and 1970s boys are shown as brave and active actors. Starting 1990s there is more sensitiveness in the way boys are described than in the earlier ABC books. Starting from the 2000s the boy and girl characters do not differ remarkably from each other. In the ABC book of 2016 the boys are clearly portrayed as background characters, being more quiet than the girls.

Attention is an essential part of learning and academical performance. At the moment attention is being assessed mainly by subjective evaluations. Attention Concentration Test pursues to measure attention objectively on the basis of Inhibition Theory. The aim of this thesis was to examine the connection between success in Attention Concentration test and success in visuospatial working memory task. Previous studies imply that functions of attention and working memory are tightly connected. In this thesis, visuospatial working memory test worked as a reference meter to attention. The thesis is a part of a broader Helsinki University Centre for Educational Assessments study which examined ACT-tests usability and ability to identify pupils with significant attentional problems. The thesis studied also genders, mother tongue and receiving intensified and special supports connections with attention and working memory. In addition, the thesis researched what factors predict success in Attention Concentration Test. The study was attended by 159 third grade pupils from four different schools located in Helsinki region. The data was collected between November 2016 and January 2017 at the schools. The tests were completed by computer over one session. The data was analysed by quantitative methods examining correlations and using One-Way Analysis of Variance and Mann-Whitney tests on purpose of finding distinctions between different groups. Furthermore, it was endeavored to create a model that would explain success in Attention Concentration Test using Regression Analysis. Examining the whole material only a weak connection was found between success in Attention Concentration test and success in visuospatial working memory task. Examining the data by gender a medium connection was found with boys. With girls, a connection wasn't found. Girls were more accurate than boys in Attention Concentration Test, but boys were faster than girls in working memory task. Non-Finnish-speaking boys and students receiving intensified and special support succeeded more poorly than other students in both tests. Due to small correlations, a model explaining success in Attention Concentration Test could not be formed.

The Finnish National Core Curriculum 2014 sets a demand that schools should create a culture that supports student participation. This is based on, among others, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guarantees children the right to participate in issues related to their lives. The right to participate, however, does not by itself lead children to actually participate in a meaningful way. Participation skills can and should be learned. Therefore, as these also are significant concepts in the curriculum, we would assume to find them represented in the educational material also. Teaching and learning has been driven by the educational materials such as books and teacher's materials for decades. This study focuses on examining how much and in what ways these educational materials in Finnish and literature include the students' expression of their opinion. More specifically, in this study it is analyzed what kind development of participation skills the examined material is aimed at. The data consisted of the grade 3 and 4 Finnish and literature students' books and teacher's materials for from the two biggest publishers Sanoma Pro and Otava, based on the 2014 core curriculum. The analysis followed standard procedures of qualitative content analysis and contained some quantification of data. As the analytical concepts there were used, among others, the concepts of argumentation skills and agency. The results indicate the educational material examined were very conservative in using tasks and assignments that include the students own opinions. The tasks did contain some autonomy but were most often on a close-ended scope and included trivial topics with respect to the students' lives. As the scope of the topics was controlled, these kinds of tasks were not considered to be optimal in developing skills of participation. Also, the tasks did not guide the students in constructing an argument, even though it was required in many tasks. The results of this study should encourage schools into reflecting on how choosing the right materials could support students building of expressing their opinions, and thus, developing their participation skills. The authors of the materials, as well as the publishers, should also reflect on how to incorporate more tasks designed at building participation skills in various ways, as it is truly a crucial skill in the changing world.

Aims. The aim of my research was to study those teachers who have not undergone any teacher education and their thinking about teacher's work. This phenomenon was chosen as the research subject because it has been studied very little compared to the research on regular teachers in Finnish schools. My research task was to study the thoughts on and experiences of working as a teacher and formal qualifications of teachers without teacher education. Moreover, the aim was to outline the teaching career of these teachers as well as their thoughts on and experiences of teacher education and professional development. Methods. The research was conducted through literature and through the narratives of six people who either are working or have been working as teachers without any teacher education. Three of these people worked as teachers without any teacher education at the time of the research whereas the other three had applied and been accepted into teacher education after having already worked as teachers. One of the latter had also already graduated with a certificate of education. This was a qualitative study and the data was gathered by doing theme interviews and analysed by using inductive qualitative analysis. Results and conclusions. Many similarities were found in the narratives of the interviewees and a more detailed examination of the themes revealed some outliers. The ways the interviewees had ended up working as teachers were very similar but their plans for the future differed. The thoughts on and experiences of working as a teacher were quite similar whereas formal qualifications elicited contradictory thoughts among the interviewees. Teacher education also divided their opinions. The interviewees who had undergone teacher education evaluated the effectiveness of the education in a similar manner. Nearly all the interviewees also criticised teacher education widely. The interviewees felt they had progressed in different areas during their career, even though most of them had not actively sought personal or professional development. Overall, the research elucidated a phenomenon that had been studied very little beforehand. It also revealed some important themes in education policy, which merit further study.

The aim of this study is to find out how much teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of student affect the students’ mathematical and verbal self-concept. The study examines how parents’ and teachers’ perceptions differ and how much impact students support for learning has. In addition to teachers’ and parents’ perceptions the study also takes into account students’ actual performance in math and reading, to see their effect on students’ self-concepts. Self-concept refers to all concepts that one has about oneself as a subject and an object. Because of self- concepts multidimensionality, this study examines verbal self-concept and math self-concept separately. The participants of this study are 1247 sixth graders from Finland, their parents and teachers. Measures in this study were teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of student as a learner, students self-concepts from math and reading, the support that student had for learning, and the actual achievement in math and reading. The methods used in this study are paired sample t-test, linear regression and multivariate. The results showed that parents had more positive perceptions about their child than teachers had, and child’s support had negative impact on both adults’ perceptions. Teachers’ and parents’ perceptions had an impact both on child’s math self-concept and verbal self-concept, when child’s actual achievement was taken in consideration. However, adding the other academic self-concept both in math and verbal removed adults’ perceptions impact in regression analysis. When multivariate analysis was used mathematical self-concept, actual achievement in reading, parents’ perception and intensified support had an effect on child’s verbal self-concept. Special support and teachers’ perception had no effect. In multivariate analysis about math self-concept all but intensified support had an effect. In conclusion, this study proved that parents’ and teachers’ perceptions have an effect both on students’ math and verbal self-concept although students themselves have the biggest impact. Also, unlike other studies, this study found positive correlation between verbal and math self-concept.