Browsing by Subject "muuttuva koulu"

The aim of the study is to research the students’ views about optional home economics as a subject and its teaching at the junior high school level. Previ-ous studies have examined home economics teachers´ and students´ perceptions of the sub-ject, its future perspectives and what determines good teaching. The research material was collected during spring 2015 from one junior high school´s opti-onal courses of home economics. The material consisted of short essays about the subject of home economics written by the students. In total, there were 84 papers given: 42 from stu-dents at 8th-grade level and 42 from students at 9th-grade level. The study was conducted as a qualitative research and the material was analysed using the qualitative content analysis method. The students´ views of home economics as a subject and the teaching of home economics were mainly positive. The students experienced that home economics as a subject was in-spiring and something that brought variety to their normal school day. Teamwork and practi-cality were seen as positive factors and food and working with the food were seen as interest-ing activities. Teacher´s positive and motivated attitude, approachableness and encouraging feedback were also important. A peaceful class environment was seen as an essential factor to a good learning experience. The study showed how home economics is a popular optional junior high school subject. Teamwork and practicality are teaching methods that interest students and the positive and motivated attitude of the teacher encourages students to perform well in the class. The re-sults showed how the subject of home economics is an important and topical part of the na-tional core curriculum in the times when social changes are more present in the school world than ever.