Browsing by Subject "21st century skills"

The purpose of this work was to clarify how lecturers and university lecturers in Finland's third-stage educational institutions experience the use of learning platforms in their education work. I wanted to investigate if there is a connection between perceived control of data and openness for learning new skills, trust in authority and experienced stress levels at work. The subject is relevant because the use of digital aids in support of teaching has expanded in recent years, but the consequences of this have remained obscure as few scientists in the past have been sufficiently involved in research of digital teaching to successfully produce objective knowledge of the phenomenon. This survey was quantitative and aimed at describing Finnish university lecturers’ experiences using digital learning platforms in teaching. Learning platforms are tools for designing, producing and managing online courses. Data was collected by a questionnaire sent to the lecturers in four different colleges. The questionnaire contained 31 multiple choice questions in perceived openness, stress, trust and subjective control. The collected material was analyzed using SPSS. The results indicated that universities need more specific training programs in using learning platforms. Non-commercial platforms were used more often than commercial ones. The frequency of use and time of commercial learning platforms was less than for non-commercial ones. Lecturers seem to prefer to use non-commercial platforms. This can be linked to data security and the trust that authorities handle data carefully was high in all reference groups investigated. Openness and stress correlated positively and the more open the informant was towards the platforms the more they used different platforms actively, which increased the stress. It is important to remember that the stress can also be perceived as positive. Another interesting find was that there were no statistically significant differences between any of the background variables in terms of subjective control.

Digitalization and globalization have led to increased global competition, which has set new standards for the skills that employees ought to possess in working life. In this study, these capabilities are referred to as the 21st century working life skills, which includes both professional know-how and professional skills, life and career skills, ability to influence, thinking and learning skills, and technology skills. Absorbent workers are seen to bring competitive advantages to companies at national and international level, and now higher education institutions are expected to produce innovative experts with 21st working life skills to their service. The aim of this thesis was to examine the elements of the method of teaching the 21st century working life skills to higher education students. The research has been carried out by analyzing the reflection essays and feedback forms of the participants participating in hackathon events in 2016-2017. Hackathon events were selected for collecting data as their work habits resembled a great deal of future work-related and problem-solving-oriented working life. The material was analyzed by a material-based grounded theory method. The first research question examined whether the hackathon participants felt that they had developed professionally during the event regarding their own working life skills. Based on the research material, participating a hackathon event can support the participants’ professional development. The participants explicitly brought up the social, knowledge and skill related benefits of hackathon events. The participants reported that by participating a hackathon event they were also able to develop as individuals and felt empowerment regarding their future working life and their private lives. The main experience of the participants was that the hackathon event offered them something that their previous studies have not yet been able to offer. The second research question was used to determine what elements of the hackathon event supported the accumulation of 21st century working life skills. In other words it was studied, of what elements a teaching method that successfully transfers 21st century working life skills to higher education students is built. Participants' responses highlighted particularly event facilities, characteristics of their working groups, external supporters, positive and negative emotions as well as meaningful hackathon challenges and ways of working, and collaboration with businesses. As a conclusion it is to say that with such collaborative innovation pedagogy method, such as hackathon, the development of professional and 21st century skills of students of higher education institutions can be supported. By utilizing these kind of methods, the higher education institutions are also able to successfully answer to the new requirements set by the increased global competition.

Objectives. The theoretical framework of this study is based on the Innovative School model, which takes a holistic view of school development factors. The purpose of the study was to find out what kind of experiences the school staff have with working in an innovative school and to what extent the school studied represented the dimensions of the innovative school. The study looked at the school staff's experiences and perceptions of the role of the innovative school, orchestration of school activities and cooperation networks. The aim of the study is to increase understanding of the policies that have been developed in the school to support school development and the learning of 21st century skills, and to form a coherent picture of the school culture. Methods. The study is a qualitative case study, which research material consisted of nine semi-structured thematic interviews. The research context was a school, which has been a learning center and development community for many years. The research participants worked in different positions at the school. The research material was analyzed with theory-guided approach using the ATLAS.ti software as a technical aid. Results and Conclusions. According to the results, the main task of the school was to teach students 21st century skills. Team teaching and different learning environments supported this goal. Another task of the school was to build partnership with the parents. School development was identified as important for the school's operations. A significant part of the development took place in the school’s daily operational processes. The results show that the school's practices were based on a collaborative, team-based, way of working. School leadership was based on distributed leadership and the results highlighted the positive experiences associated with it, such as participation in decision-making. The results show that parents and other stakeholders were key part of the collaborative networks. However, the results indicated that not all opportunities for out-of-school stakeholders had yet been identified. This was a topic that requires development. Relying on community resources advances the development of the school. Individuals have different knowledge, ideas and expertise that can evolve by working together.