Browsing by Subject "civic education"

Objectives: In my thesis, I studied the fourth, the fifth and the sixth graders views about the conceptions of the influence at school. In the thesis it was also surveyed what kind of matters the pupils wanted to influence at school. Furthermore, it was studied what kind of influencing skills pupils thought they have. The theory part of the thesis consisted in an overview to the children's and youth's different kind of needs for participation as well as an overview to the curriculum system which forms the base of the school work was studied. In addition, in the theory part of the thesis the democracy expressed at school and the awakening of the children's interest in civic matters were studied. Methods: The thesis was a survey-research and structured questionnaires were used when information was collected. The research group consisted of 112 pupils who studied at the fourth, the fifth and the sixth grades in the primary school situated in the Southern part of Finland. The data was analyzed with the quantitative research program SPSS. At first different numbers such as averages and standard deviations were examined and after that factor analyses were used. Correlation examination was also used. Results and conclusions: The results showed that the pupils had a positive image about their own influencing skills and they trusted their own opinions. They felt that it was important to have influence on they own matters as well as on the common matters at school. However many of the pupils felt that they didn't have possibilities to influence what happens at school during the school day. In addition, the pupils didn't want the teachers or the headmaster to decide solely how the work at school was carried out. The things that the pupils wanted to influence the most were the lunch and the snack at school, the seating arrangement in the classroom, the visits carried out at school and the optional subjects. According to the results it's possible to draw a conclusion that the pupils' participation at school is necessary. The pupils value the possibilities to take part in and seem to understand that it is needed them to contribute themselves so that it is possible to enjoy more the time spend at school. It's also possible to draw a conclusion that although the possibilities to participate are valued there is a lack of real enthusiasm to participate. This is why it seems that there is a need for different kinds of ways to participate since the current ways to participate at school lack to motivate many pupils. Also the work of student body needs to be improved since many of the pupils didn't want to participate to the work of student body although they thought the work done by the student body was important.