Browsing by Subject "children"
Now showing items 1-7 of 7
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(2019)The material that has been analyzed for this study consists of video recordings from Natur & Språk’s [Nature & Language’s] multilingual summer camps. The aim was to study the children’s interactions and conversations at the camps, focusing on their stances towards other languages. A further aim was to study the results in relation to the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014. The research questions focus on how the children in their conversations express their stances and positions towards other languages, and how this can be related to the views on language stated in the national core curriculum. The respondents were between 8 and13 years old and spoke either Swedish or Finnish while some were bilingual. The video recordings of the conversations between the children were transcribed and analyzed through thematic analysis. The transcripts were additionally analyzed through a sociolinguistic perspective by studying the children’s stance. The theoretical framework of this study was based upon stance. As a result of the analysis, four main categories were found that represented the children’s varied ways of expressing their stances towards other languages, as well as other people’s language choices and backgrounds. The children categorized themselves and others in relation to languages and/or language groups. They showed expectations regarding their own and/or other’s competence. They expressed comments or whishes about language choice and showed orientation towards language learning. These results demonstrate that multilingual practices with language encounters create opportunities for children to challenge themselves and develop their language awareness, their stances and interests in other languages. In relation to this, parallels were drawn to the views on language stated in the National Core Curriculum, with its aims concerning language awareness and cultural diversity. Therefor this study can contribute with insight in regard to the potential that multilingual practices and activities have to offer in different educational contexts. This study is written in collaboration with the project Natur & Språk [Nature & Language], a collaboration between the Finnish Society for Nature and Environment, the Finnish Nature League and the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki.
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(2019)Objectives. Attachment theory is a theory of social development and personality, known around the world. According to the theory, children have an innate tendency to develop a biologically based and central nervous system-regulated attachment bond to their primary caregivers in order to ensure safety, care, and survival. Early attachment experiences contribute to the way one sees oneself and others and lead to secure, insecure, or disorganized attachment styles, which affect rest of one’s life. Previous research has confirmed the universal nature of attachment, different attachment categories and styles, and early attachment’s links with future relationships and various internal and external problems. Attachment research has traditionally concentrated on early childhood and early childhood environments, whereas middle childhood, adolescence, and school context have been studied less. The objectives of the present study were to find out what kinds of links there are between attachment and the lives of school-aged children and youngsters, what kinds of attachment-related challenges teachers encounter at school, and how teachers could support their students with those attachment-related challenges. The aim is to explore attachment in the lives of school-aged children and youngsters, including at school, to gain a better understanding and to create a valuable foundation for future research. Methodology. The present study was conducted as a systematic literature review, which allowed the gathering of diverse and comprehensive, yet relevant research material, while also supporting objectivity and reproducibility aspects of the study. The material, available through electronic databases, was comprised of research articles from around the world, published in peer-reviewed international research journals. The material was analyzed thematically by research questions and topics, which were then used as a framework in the Results section. Results and conclusions. Early attachment and attachment styles were directly and indirectly linked to the lives of school-aged children and youngsters, including teacher-student relationships, peer relationships, family relationships, and academic achievement, as well as internal and external problems. Various attachment-related challenges and problems were visible at school, but teachers had many ways to buffer them. Current attachment research has not affected or changed school environments enough. Much more attention should be given to attachment within schools, teacher education, and in-service training programs in order to give students better support for their attachment-related problems and challenges.
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(2019)This thesis examines children’s citizenship in recent empirical research in the field of child-hood studies. The thesis will examine the questions, themes and theoretical approaches that have framed the studies of children’s citizenship. Childhood studies is a multidisciplinary field and the research concerning children’s citizenship is embedded within multifaceted social and political contexts. Children’s relationship with the citizenship is unsettled. Children are being given many rights, responsibilities and possibilities to participate but at the same time they are excluded from citizenship. Children’s place as becoming citizens has been persistent in societies where especially political citizenship remains a field fully open only for adults. This under-standing frames the recent research of children’s citizenship. The study data consists of 17 research articles that are examining children’s citizenship through empirical data. These articles were reviewed and analysed applying narrative analysis. The study data shows that children’s citizenship is constructed in social, political and historical contexts. Political and legislative structures are the basis of children’s social participation. In in-stitutionalised settings, children’s participation is enabled in participatory activities. These par-ticipatory settings facilitate children’s agency and advocacy but also demonstrate some re-strictions. The approaches of lived citizenship have opened new interpretations of the ways that children enact citizenship. The studied articles show that citizenship is a concept that illumi-nates the aspects of the relationship between children and adults and may generate some under-standing of ethical encounters. Examining the marginal positions of citizenship is helpful in discussing children’s place in society. Citizenship as a concept unfolds the different aspects of inclusion and exclusion in society.
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(2012)Objectives. Children's food behavior trends in Finland are threaten by snacking, especially increased sweet snack consumption, fewer family meals and alienation from the food source. Encouraging children to health-promoting eating habits is important, as childhood diet has been found to often continue into adulthood. New methods are welcome in addition to traditional Nutrition data sharing, that take into account the child characteristic way to explore food. The topic was based on the question whether the focus on food experiences can be a factor when building the children's interest in food. The aim of this study was to describe and interpret the food experiences received by children. The study focused on the interaction between children and food culture. This study was conducted in cooperation with Centre for Food Culture Ruukku in the project Tiedosta taidoksi. New methods, such as taste classes, were used to involve children in the word of food. Methodology. The research participant group was consisted of fourth grade students (n = 44). The data contained text, observation and visual materials. The methods used were observation, questionnaire, essay writing and photography. The data was collected during the period from October to December in 2011. The analysis had two stages. At the first stage, the data was examined with Experience Triangle model. The goal of the second stage was to build a deeper understanding of children's food experience. Results and conclusions. The results show that the children's food experience requires the use of senses, the child's own participation, joy and interactivity with other people. Children have a natural interest in food, as long as made possible. Children need a stimulating and supportive atmosphere, where they can learn about the world of food. When they get the child-oriented tools, they can develop their skills, which can influence their own well-being.
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(2013)The aim of this study was to investigate children's well-being by using the principles of child perspective research (Karlsson and Karimäki 2012). The purpose was to hear children's voice and listen to children's perspectives about their well-being in schoolyard. This study is part of the project "Children tell of their well-being - who listens?" TelLis, project number 1134911). The project is led by Liisa Karlsson. In the project the aim is to gain a new understanding of children's lived and experienced well-being by listening to children's narratives of well-being. I analysed 38 photographs and 38 stories that children had told by using the Storycrafting Method. The study was qualitative. Based on the results, it was found that following factors influence on children's well-being in schoolyard: possibility to act and play, cosy environment, friends, possibilities to influence, feeling of safety. The results show that following factors prevent children's well-being in schoolyard: restrictioning of play and action, untidy and unsuitable environment, problems in peer relationships, the lack of possibilities to influence, insecurity and dangerousness.
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(2022)Abstract The theoretical framework for this study comes from Carol Dweck’s (2000, 2006) theory of mindsets. Mindsets impact on core beliefs that individuals hold about the malleability of qualities of the human condition. A person with a growth mindset believes that abilities can be developed. A person a with fixed mindset believes that people have a certain amount of abilities, such as talent and intelligence. Mindsets have an impact on learning results, persistence and goals. Mindset also affects on how person reacts to challenges. Whilst theory of mindsets is internationally known and well researched, there has been less research regarding young children’s mindsets. The aim of this study is to examine what are the school subjects third grade pupils like and which factors influence that. In addition, study aims to examine what factors in learning motivates third grade pupils and how mindsets are presented in pupil’s answers. This study examined third grade students from two primary schools in Helsinki. The data of this study was collected as a part of Kirsi Tirri’s Copernicus research project’s intervention which utilized growth mindset pedagogy. The data of this study was gathered before intervention. The study utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis was performed using inductive and deductive content analysis. Statistical methods were used to examine how two factors, gender and school, impact on pupils answers. The results of this study showed that mathematics was clearly the most popular subject, which differs from the previous study. Results suggest that subject-specific motivation was most often affected by a factor inherent in the nature of the subject, such as calculation. Factors behind learning motivation highlighted learning environment, especially it’s social dimensions. Mindsets were one of the factors that affected subject-specific motivation and learning motivation. Most pupils reflected a fixed mindset. Mindsets were presented in many ways. Pupils answers highlighted attitudes towards challenge. The results also implicate that mindset can differ in different subjects.
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(2019)Today, children in Finland live in a complex linguistic environment, which offers interesting opportunities for studying how they perceive and discuss their own and others’ language use. The objective of this study is to analyse and interpret how children express stance (Du Bois, 2007; Jaffe, 2009) in relation to language use and language skills in the context of a group interview. From the perspective of stance, interaction is viewed as the central process of meaning-making and identity construction. The study is based on qualitative, thematic focus group interviews on language use, language learning and language skills with students in second grade in a bilingual municipality in Finland. A total of 15 students participated in the study, of which 9 students attended a school with Finnish and 6 students a school with Swedish as the language of instruction. The interaction of the children is analysed from a stance perspective, aiming to demonstrate how the children use available resources to position themselves and others as language users, and how their stances can be interpreted in the sociocultural context. The results illustrate how children both implicitly and explicitly position themselves and others as language users by using social categories, topicalizing and not topicalizing language skills and by negotiating epistemic authority. In the interviews, the children positioned themselves in relation to each other and to their collectively constructed ideas about language identities, language use and language skills. The study adds to the growing body of research that applies stance theory to study how cultural and language identities are expressed in interaction, and exemplifies how stance can be used to analyse the interactions of children. It also relates to the larger discussion on how individual interactions serve as opportunities for stancetaking and meaning-making, and how they can contribute to the construction of more enduring identities and ideas.
Now showing items 1-7 of 7