Browsing by Subject "mixed methods"

Objectives. The objective of this study was to develop a Easy to Read Survey of character strengths to be used with intensive special education students. With this survey and interviews this study examined the beliefs concerning strengths that the intensive special needs youth had. Theoretically this study is based on positive psychology and the VIA-philosophy of character strengths. The research done in the field of character strengths education in the context of intensive special education has been scarce. Assessment tools of character strengths suitable for Finnish intensive special education students have not been available. Character strengths education is one way to approach teaching intensive special education students focusing on their strong areas instead of their weaknesses. With this approach the learning environment of these students can be modified to better notice the student's individual qualities. By doing this, we can take another small step towards an inclusive school and society. Methods. This study utilized a mixed methods approach, and both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. The first phase of the study included the modification of the survey of character strengths to answer to the needs of intensive special education students. In the second phase of the study the Easy to Read character strengths survey was piloted in an intensive special needs class. Eight youth aged 12-14 years participated in the piloting and interviews. One special needs class teacher and three classroom assistants that worked with the students were also asked to evaluate the character strengths of the eight students. In the qualitative analysis, the interview data was analysed using a narrative approach, and different types of beliefs concerning strengths were sought from the interview narratives. In the quantitative analysis, the data describing the youth's character strengths that was collected from three different sources (the survey, the adults' evaluation and the students' self-evaluation) was compared. Finally, the result of the narrative analysis and the quantitative analysis were combined, when the narrative belief types connection to the coherence of the results of the survey and the conformity of the different evaluations was examined. Results and conclusions. The analysis of the narratives found three types of beliefs concerning strengths. These types differed in how the youth saw the meaning of the character strengths in their lives, and what kind of situations the students thought the strengths were needed in. The quantitative analysis found, that when the beliefs were more personal, the different evaluations of the students' strengths were more consistent. Overall, the result of the study showed, that the Easy to Read survey of character strengths identified some of the signature strengths of the intensive special education youth. However, the modified and shortened survey is not equal to the original VIA-survey in accuracy. Nevertheless, the results of this study show that the Easy to Read survey of character strengths is a useful tool in assessing the character strengths of intensive special education youth.

In the last few years, no extensive research has been done on schools' morning assembly practices. The last larger study was done in 1989. Since then, the Finnish school legislation and the Finnish National Curriculum have both changed significantly. The Basic Education Decree obligates the Finnish schools to have morning assemblies as a part of every school day. It states: "A day's work must be started with a brief morning assembly." This study had two main goals. The first goal of this study was to gather specific and intensive information on three schools' morning assembly practices. The tradition in Finland is to have both shared morning assemblies where the whole school gathers together, and each class' own morning assemblies. This study focuses on both types of morning assemblies. The second goal was to examine what the teachers of these three schools found to be the main purpose of morning assemblies, how meaningful they found morning assemblies, and what they thought about religious morning assemblies. This study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was conducted in two schools ("school 1" and "school 2") in November-December 2015 using questionnaires to examine the morning assembly practices. In the second phase of this study, in October 2016, the material was gathered from "school 3" also using questionnaires. Two teachers were interviewed from each school; six teachers in total. The respondents to the questionnaires were teachers and classroom assistants. A mixed methods –strategy was used to analyse the results of this study. The material gathered by questionnaires was organized in Microsoft Excel; percentages were used to express the results. The interview material was analysed using thematic analysis. According to the results, in all three schools it was usually the teacher who organized the class' own morning assemblies. In "school 1" morning assemblies were usually held in the class room every day. In "school 2" only 66,7% of respondents answered that they had morning assemblies every day in the classroom, and in "school 3", only 60 % of the respondents answered that they held morning assemblies every day. According to the respondents, shared morning assemblies were held at least once a month in "school 1". In "school 2", shared morning assemblies were not held as often. In "school 3", shared morning assemblies were held multiple times in a month, but some of them were held via the tannoy. In all the schools the Evangelical Lutheran Church had a significant role in the shared morning assemblies; more so in schools 1 and 2. The teachers found the class' own morning assemblies to have a lot of social importance. According to the teachers, both them and especially their pupils liked to share things about their lives during the morning assemblies. The teachers also stated that morning assemblies were especially important for pupils with special needs; they need a lot of structure in their schooldays, and that is what morning assemblies can provide. According to the interviewed teachers, the shared morning assemblies helped to create a sense of community in the schools. Most interviewees had positive or neutral reactions towards religious morning assemblies, although some teachers were worried about the pupils who don't participate in the religious morning assemblies; the interviewees thought that those pupils miss out on the sense of community. The religious morning assemblies were also thought to be too difficult to understand for the pupils. Most of the interviewees were somewhat open to the idea of other religions' (than the Evangelical Lutheran Church) representatives to hold morning assemblies, but none of the interviewees had themselves considered that option before the interview.