Browsing by Subject "opettajuus"

Aims. The aim of my research was to study those teachers who have not undergone any teacher education and their thinking about teacher's work. This phenomenon was chosen as the research subject because it has been studied very little compared to the research on regular teachers in Finnish schools. My research task was to study the thoughts on and experiences of working as a teacher and formal qualifications of teachers without teacher education. Moreover, the aim was to outline the teaching career of these teachers as well as their thoughts on and experiences of teacher education and professional development. Methods. The research was conducted through literature and through the narratives of six people who either are working or have been working as teachers without any teacher education. Three of these people worked as teachers without any teacher education at the time of the research whereas the other three had applied and been accepted into teacher education after having already worked as teachers. One of the latter had also already graduated with a certificate of education. This was a qualitative study and the data was gathered by doing theme interviews and analysed by using inductive qualitative analysis. Results and conclusions. Many similarities were found in the narratives of the interviewees and a more detailed examination of the themes revealed some outliers. The ways the interviewees had ended up working as teachers were very similar but their plans for the future differed. The thoughts on and experiences of working as a teacher were quite similar whereas formal qualifications elicited contradictory thoughts among the interviewees. Teacher education also divided their opinions. The interviewees who had undergone teacher education evaluated the effectiveness of the education in a similar manner. Nearly all the interviewees also criticised teacher education widely. The interviewees felt they had progressed in different areas during their career, even though most of them had not actively sought personal or professional development. Overall, the research elucidated a phenomenon that had been studied very little beforehand. It also revealed some important themes in education policy, which merit further study.

Aims. This study aims to find out what kind of views vocational teachers working on second level have about their job, entrepreneurship education and actualizing entrepreneurship education. Previous research has shown many changes in vocational teaching during past decades. Changes in labour market have made entrepreneurship education more significant in education. Research questions are: 1) What kind of challenges does vocational teaching include?, 2) What kind of views do vocational teachers have on entrepreneurship education? and 3) How is entrepreneurship education part of vocational teaching? Methods. Data for this study was collected by semi-structured interviews during spring 2010. Five second level vocational teachers working in South Savo were interviewed. One of the interviewees no longer worked on second level education. Research material was analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Results and conclusions. Teachers experienced two kinds of challenges in their work. Firstly challenges rose from heterogeneity among students and big role of "raising" the students (e.g. good behaviour). Secondly challenges were caused by changes in work and lack of resources. Entrepreneurship education was viewed as necessary and beneficial, and it was part of teaching in forms of learning contents, teaching methods and learning environments. As a term entrepreneurship education was viewed problematic since it is often misunderstood as entrepreneur education (how to be an entrepreneur). For entrepreneurship education to be implemented in all teaching, should the aims and practices of entrepreneurship education be clarified to all teachers.

In my study I examine expatriate teachers' experiences of working abroad and the development of their professional identity. The starting point of my study is the idea that a person's identity is formed through interaction with other people and is a constantly changing process. My study is based on a narrative inquiry. This is because my intention has been to open up new perspectives to better understand the experiences of expatriate teachers, instead of trying to get measurable results. My research questions are: 1. What kind of image(s) do teachers give about expatriate teacher's work? 2. How do teachers reflect on their professional identities after their working period abroad? a) How do teachers experience the fact that they have been expatriate teachers? b) Have teachers' professional identities changed according to their stories? Four teachers who taught in Abu Dhabi as part of EduCluster Finland's education export program were interviewed. In my interviews I used the method of thematic interview which gave space for stories. In the data analysis I used the perspective of the different roles teachers held. This approach is based on Hermans' (2001) positioning theory according to which people have different roles depending on context and interaction with other people. In my first research question I used content analysis as a method to find out the different roles teachers held in their different social contexts. In my second research question I used Webster's and Mertova's (2007) critical event analysis to outline the conflicting roles from the data. In the end I focused more on the conflicting roles by using dialogical analysis based on Hermans' (2001) positioning theory. The results revealed that expatriate teachers have multiple roles many of which are in conflict with each other. From the roles of expatriate teachers were formed four different classes of conflicting roles through which the teachers reflected on their professional identity. As a result of their self reflecting process the teachers created an in between identity in order to survive among all the conflicting roles. In the end the teachers found their experiences as expatriate teachers positive but also educational. They experienced that the period abroad had an influence on their professional identities in different ways and that it brought change to their thinking as well as to their teaching in practice. The results of the research can be used in the development of teachers' international mobility and teacher education.

In this study liberal adult education teachers tell about themselves as teachers. Full-time teachers from metropolitan area make up the majority of my research subjects. Liberal adult education is the institutional context of teachers' work and their work environment. Context gives general guidelines for teachers work. My research presents teachership as a three-dimensional phenomenon, which consists of career path, teachership and textbook selection. Dimensional model of understanding teachers and teachership functions as the main structuring principle throughout this report. Out of three dimensions, textbook selection is least researched. Still, it is a very important part of teachers' work. I see textbook selection as a vital part of pedagogic planning and curriculum. In my study, I have a narrative approach on teachers' world. As a research material collection method I have used episodic interview. I have analyzed my research material using narrative research method. I have chosen narrative analysis to construct narratives from semantic and episodic knowledge. My results consist of situational and thematic narratives that intent to describe three-dimensional teachership and type narratives that describe two different teacher ideal types.

Objectives. This study aims to examine a class teacher’s work from the teacher’s point of view. The objective is to find out how a teacher’s primary task is perceived by teachers themselves. Another goal is to examine the teachers’ experience on carrying out this primary task, focusing on the factors that have an effect on this. The role of a teacher has lately been a subject of an active debate. Teachers themselves feel their workload is too big and burdensome. Re-examining the primary task can clarify a teacher’s own assessment of their professional role and thus support their everyday work. Analysing the primary task as well as its implementation also provide a better understanding in how to better organize the teaching and how to invest in the teachers’ well-being. Methods. This study was conducted using qualitative research methods. The data was collected by performing thematic interviews with five class teachers, each of whom had worked as a teacher for at least 15 years. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed, and finally the data was analysed following the principles of thematic analysis. Results and conclusions. The class teachers perceived the primary task to consist of six segments: following the law, teaching, raising the child together with parents, encouraging self-direction, caring, and developing one’s own professional skills. The class teachers felt they are still able to perform their primary task but were concerned about the future of the profession. Different factors related to the teachers themselves, as well as to interaction, job description, and boundaries of the job were considered to have an effect on the teachers’ ability to perform their primary task. The teacher’s own attitude, work experience, and possibilities to develop professionally and cooperate were seen as reassuring factors. Challenging factors included impractical cooperation with parents, classes growing in size and diversity, and an excessively expanding job description.

Constantly changing work life has placed new demands and challenges on the Finnish education system. The respond to these demands and challenges is a General Upper Secondary reform, which was launched in 2017. The General Upper Secondary reform includes renewal of curriculum, a new Act on General Upper Secondary Education and amending the regulations for the matriculation examination. The reform challenges the traditionally strong autonomous position of teachers as teachers are expected to adopt new ways of working. According to previous studies, the change in teacher work towards a team work culture requires new professional skills from teachers. The purpose of my study was to find out what possible changes and challenges the renewal of curriculum (LOPS) might have on the LOPS-tutors work. Furthermore, I wanted to map out whether the competencies of teachers need to be updated after possible changes in competency requirements. I studied the phenomenon qualitatively by interviewing six LOPS- tutors who, in addition to their teacher work, are working closely on reform of General Upper Secondary Education. The material of this study was collected by semi-structured theme interviews. As a theoretical part, I defined the General Upper Secondary Education in the Finnish context, the history of school development, teachership and teachers work. In addition, I presented the key themes of the reform, the new Act on General Upper Secondary Education and renewal of curriculum. The method of analysis in this study was theory-guided content analysis. According to the results of my study, the teacher work life will change due to the new curriculum (2019). The most essential changes affecting to teachers’ work were increasing amount of team work and interaction, multidisciplinary study modules and the expansion of supervision. Lack of time, concern for well-being of teachers, as well as the structural challenges and bureaucracy emerged as key challenges in the implementation of the reform. Interviewees did not agree on whether teachers would need in-service training. My study supports the view that teachers have a contradictory attitude towards school changes. Although school development was seen as an important and necessary factor, the changes did not appear to be realistic taking into account the everyday reality of the school.

The growth towards class teachership – what kind of a teacher one is as an individual and in relation to others and what one strives to achieve – continues throughout teachers’ whole career. Teaching practice and related supervision which are part of teachers' education have a significant effect on their growth. Cooperative teacher supports and advises the student teachers and prior studies have discovered that cooperative teacher's conceptions are easily transmitted to the students. The purpose of this thesis was to examine how cooperative teachers’ conceptions affect their supervision, what significance they perceive their supervision has towards students' growth towards teachership and what kind of challenges they experience in supporting the growth of their students. Data was collected by interviewing eight cooperative teachers from one official training school as well as municipal schools. The interviews where analysed using phenomenography with a data-driven approach. Answers to the research questions were explored by constructing categories from the conseptions of the cooperative teachers. Theoretical framework consisted of the concepts of teachership, teacher practice supervision and cooperative teacher. Cooperative teachers perceived that class teachership consists of diverse duties of a class teacher and that teachership is a profound phenomenon. The teachers' conceptions of class teachership were similar to their conceptions of a good class teacher. The cooperative teachers did not seek to transfer their conceptions of teachership to the students but they acknowledged that they transfer nevertheless. Teachers strove to improve their students and teach them that there is no one correct way to be a class teacher. There was variation in the cooperative teachers’ perceptions of the significance of their supervision in students' growth towards leadership. The cooperative teachers did, however, believe that they had several ways of supporting the students' growth. The experienced challenges in supervision were difficult students, problems in supervision relationships and challenges rising from the practice environment. Attention should be paid to the selection and further training of the cooperative teachers in order to guarantee equal and qualified supervision of the students in their growth towards teachership during their teacher training.

The purpose of this study is to find out why adults with a profession change career into teaching. This study also aims to find participates motives to perceive a career in teaching, their perceptions about teacher's profession and the reasons behind the career change. The research approach of this study was qualitative. Ten subjects, teachers and teacher students, participated in this study. Three of them were primary school teachers, one secondary school teacher and one vocational teacher. Five of the participates were teacher students, four of whom studied to be a special education teacher and one a primary school teacher. Nine of the participates were women and one man. The data was collected between years 2014-2015 using open, electric questionnaire. Questionnaire included background information about participates and eleven open questions. The data was processed using content analysis. Results that came up from this study were processed in regard to theories and earlier studies. According to this study the most important motives to become a teacher were the participates strong respect for teacher's profession. They felt that teacher's profession is significant and important in the society. Important motives were also the desire to work with children and adolescent and the possibility as a teacher to influence positively in children and adolescent's future. In this study the inner motives to perceive teaching as a career were more significant than the outer motives. As outer motives the participants mentioned benefits of the profession such as a long summer vacation, regular, family friendly working hours and academic education. Much more positive aspects were linked to teachers profession than negative aspects. Teachers profession was seen as important and significant in the society. Humanity, variability, diversity, creativity and the possibility to work with children and adolescents were seen as positive sides in teachers profession. Negative aspects in teachers profession were the society's demands for teachers, hurry, intensity and lack of resources. Participants changed career for many reasons. Student teachers motives to become a teacher have been studied for many decades. This study brings new, positive aspects to why older career changers with more life experience perceive career in teaching.

The study focuses on the Nepalese 8 grade Mathematics, Nepali language and Social study teachers' confidence to teach their own subject. Every skill, such as teaching skills, brings with uncertainty and insecurity creates a need for security. The aim of the master's thesis is to research how substance knowledge, the teacher's personality, pedagogical knowledge and classroom management, and their components are connected to each other. In addition, has been researched how much personality, pedagogical knowledge and classroom management, explain the teacher's self-perceived competence assurance to teach. Altogether, 1224 of Nepalese teachers responded to the survey. The survey sample was stratified. The questionnaire, teachers were asked to assess their teaching confidence in their teaching subject and its sections, on a scale of 1 to 4. Many studies have been done about teaching and the teacher's impact on learning outcomes. That has been considered as a possible cause of Finnish students' good learning achievements. Since the schools have small differences between them, it is easier to study the teachers and the teaching effect of the student's achievements in a country, where the school differences are considerable bigger. According to Hattie (2003, 2), the teacher effect is 30% of the student learning achievements, in Nepal the corresponding figure is 68% (Acharya, Metsämuuronen and Metsämuuronen 2013, 281 316). The study examined by tree-analysis how personality, pedagogical knowledge and classroom management elements are linked to educational confidence and by regression analysis how much these independent variables explain together the effect of the phenomenon. According to regression analysis, there are age, teaching years, assessment, professional development over the last two years, and the curriculum understanding and using, as well as the school equipment shortages. The study found that the most confident were those teachers who were under the age of 30 teachers; who had teaching experience five years or less; who used the project work as assessment; who experienced that they understood the objectives of the school curriculum, and in addition they experienced to implement it successfully. This study was empirical and explorative work and the results obtained on the regression model shows that the model explains 9.5% of teacher's confidence to teach their own subjects. As regression model explains less than 10% certainty, is the teacher's teaching confidence and competence a good follow-up research object. Another good object would be to compare the self-perceived reliability and the validity of the comparison of the measured whether teachers' own experience of the same qualifications as a measurable skill.

In this study, the actions of teachers are examined in the light of attachment theory. Attachment theory explains individual behavior based on early childhood caregiving experiences, leading to the formation of either a secure or insecure attachment model that influences an individual's behavior in close relationships throughout their lifespan. In attachment theory, the teacher-student relationship is seen as an attachment relationship closely resembling the bond between a child and a parent. The focus of this study is on the role of the teacher, aiming to investigate how the teacher's insecure attachment model affects the teacher-student relationship and whether it influ- ences the use of specific disciplinary methods in the classroom. Discipline is categorized into five common methods, as identified in previous research: angrily shouting at students, sarcasm, humiliation, collective punishment, and removing students from the classroom. The study employs a quantitative research approach, gathering data through an online survey from 134 teachers. The survey includes the use of ECR-R, STRS, and Discipline Scale instru- ments to examine teachers' attachment patterns, the quality of the teacher-student relationship, and the use of five different disciplinary methods. Data analysis involves analysis of variance and correlation testing. Respondents are categorized based on their attachment patterns, resulting in 101 secure and 33 insecure individuals, including 12 with avoidant attachment, 10 with ambivalent attachment, and 11 with fearful attachment. The results of the analysis of variance indicate that there is a statistically significant or nearly significant difference between teachers with secure and insecure attachment models in three var- iables measuring the quality of the teacher-student relationship. In the closeness variable, a nearly significant difference is observed between securely and ambivalently attached individuals (p = .040). In the conflict variable, a nearly significant difference is observed between avoidantly and ambivalently attached individuals (p = .024). In the dependence variable, statistical signifi- cance is found between securely and ambivalently attached individuals (p = .008) and between avoidantly and ambivalently attached individuals (p = .002). According to the correlation test, in- secure attachment has a statistically nearly significant correlation with angrily shouting at students (r=.35) and collective punishment (r=.377). Additionally, it is observed that secure attachment has a statistically significant correlation with the use of sarcasm (r=.311) and humiliation (r=.308), and a nearly significant correlation with angrily shouting at students (r=.229), collective punishment (r=.225), and removing a student from the classroom (r=.215). The findings indicate that teachers with secure and insecure attachment models impact the teacher-student relationship both positively and negatively in terms of conflict, closeness, and dependence. Securely attached teachers use disciplinary methods in a more diverse manner, while insecurely attached teachers primarily use yelling and collective punishment as effective means. The research emphasizes the importance of considering the teacher's attachment model in educational research, as its role in teaching is significant.