Browsing by Subject "fyysinen oppimisympäristö"
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(2016)The purpose of this thesis is to explore children's views of their physical learning environment. The aim is to take part from the child perspective in the discussion surrounding the development of learning environments. The study seeks to make children's viewpoints more visible and strengthen their role in both planning and evaluating their learning environments. The information that has been gathered in this thesis can be used in practice of pre-primary education to renew the existing praxis. The study concentrates on which elements of the physical learning environment children value and how does the interaction between a child and the environment show in their discourses. The theoretical base of this study is in transactional environmental psychology which emphasizes on the two-way interaction between a person and the environment. The elements of the physical learning environment are based on theoretical literature and the Finnish curriculum for pre-primary education. The interaction is examined based on the self-determination theory and themes of meaningfulness. The thesis was executed with qualitative methods by combining studies of child perspective and case study research. The research material consisted of photos and thematic interviews collected by children. The subjects were two classrooms designed for pre-primary education: the other was the children's own classroom and the other Playful Learning Center in the Teacher Education Department at the University of Helsinki. The research material was collected separately from both subjects. The photo material was coded and categorized by data based analysis. The transcribed interview material was categorized based on theory. The two classrooms differed in several respects in the children's accounts. In their own classroom the children took photos mostly of the toys, preschool associated material and their own lockers. The material showed how meaningful being part of a group and identifying oneself as a preschooler is when connecting with the environment. At the Teacher Education Department the children paid more attention to the colorful walls and activating furnishings. It could be seen that an indoor environment which supports physical activity can be motivating and exciting for children in pre-primary education. In their own classroom the children expressed strongly a type of intellectual competence over the environment. They also expressed strong group cohesion in their discourses. These factors can be seen significant in building a positive human-environment relationship. The experiences of competence were not as strong at the Teacher Education Department. Instead the children strongly brought up physical activity in their discourses. It could be associated with children's natural and meaningful ways of being.
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(2022)Aims. School buildings have gone through a change in recent years in Finland. Many schools have more open spaces and traditional classrooms have turned into open physical learning environments. An open physical learning environment refers to a large space where there could be several teachers teach several groups of students. There is little re search or studies on open physical learning environments. The purpose of this study is to find out the views of class teachers about open physical learning environments. In particular, the research aims to find out how open physical learning environments affect learning. The theoretical framework of the research is formed around the concept of learning environment. The research questions of the study are: 1. What perceptions do class teachers have about open physical learning environments? 1.1 How do open physical learning environments support learning in the class teachers' views? 1.2 In what way do the open physical learning environments make learning more challenging in the view of class teachers? Methods. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study. The data was collected using a semi-structured interview. Seven class teachers from the same southern Finnish school participated in the study. The interviews were conducted between November 2021 and February 2022. The research material was analysed using theory-driven content analysis. Results and conclusions. Based on the research, there are factors that support and hinder learning in open physical learning environments. The results were a lot like previous studies. In the teachers' answers, the problems of the stimulus environment of open physical learning environments were seen as factors making learning more difficult. Concerns arose especially in matters related to the planning of the school's everyday life. The simultaneous teaching of different subjects in the space and the passage of groups of students in the space were particularly highlighted. In addition, open physical learning environments were not seen as suit able for all students. The teachers were especially worried about students with special needs. On the other hand, according to the teachers, the advantage of the open physical learning environment was the opportunities it offered for versatile and individual work. The possibility of co-teaching was seen as an advantage of the space. Different learners should be considered when planning open physical learning environments. In addition, it would be important for new schools to know the possible problems that may be encountered in open physical learning environments. In this way, a painless transition to new types of open physical learning environments could be implemented.
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(2015)The purpose of this study was to determine primary school's classrooms as physical spaces, and how and by whom the seating arrangements have evolved. Another aim was to find out if teachers thought that it's possible to transmit their own conceptions of learning and values via class seating arrangements. I will try to explain does the classrooms' physical learning environment relate to the current conception of learning. Physical learning environment of classrooms has not been studied in Finland from the aspect of interaction. Prior studies about the physical learning environment in schools have focused on the school yard and other common spaces. I gathered my data by photographing classrooms in six different schools in the inner city of Joensuu during the spring of 2013. My data consists of 50 classrooms varying from 1st to 6th grade classes. In addition to the photos I did focused interviews with four teachers from two different schools in Joensuu during the autumn of 2014. The cores of the interviews were formed on the basis of image analysis of the photographs taken. The interviews were analyzed using content analysis methods. My research shows that classes differ as physical spaces between different schools as well as within the same school. Based on the class photographs, the size of the classroom does not have a great impact in the shaping of the seating arrangements, but some teachers do find the lack of space a great challenge. The aim was to examine different kinds of ways to organize classrooms to support learning and to learn teachers' experiences and conceptions of a functional classroom. A common objective behind the seating arrangements seemed to be to strive for teamwork. In spite of this, it was usually the teacher who made the seating arrangement. Based on the analysis of my data, it appears that the effects and opportunities of the classrooms as physical learning environments have not been full recognized yet.
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