Browsing by Subject "positiivinen pedagogiikka"

Purpose and aim of the study. The aim of this study is to examine the different methods how teachers support mental health skills of primary school pupils. The aim is to research how primary school teachers can support mental health skills in their teaching and outside the classroom, for example during breaks. Mental health skills is a new concept mentioned in the educational curriculum of 2014, and includes different dimensions, which are for example self-esteem, social skills and emotional skills. Furthermore, mental health and mental health skills are topics that have been covered a lot recently in the media in the context of schooling. Examining the different methods to support mental health skills helps primary school teachers to recognize them and to benefit from them. Moreover, it can provide primary school teachers the opportunity to reflect on the subject more often. Methodology. This study is a qualitative research. The research data of this study was collected in half-structured interviews and by observing. Three primary school teachers, who all work as first grade teachers, were selected to be interviewed. The interviews were recorded and transcribed after which the results were analyzed using theme analysis. Results of the study and conclusions. The interviewed primary school teachers considered that the methods to support mental health skills on a daily basis consisted of four different dimensions: daily interaction between a teacher and a pupil, feedback, maintaining fairness and supporting peer relationships. The interviewed teachers strive to support mental health skills by including discussions and assignments on mental health topics in lectures and subjects such as art, biology and religion. The interviewed teachers found it helpful to use additional materials besides the material they use for the subjects in order to teach comprehensively about the topic. Supporting mental health skills during the first year of school is especially important in order for pupils to feel safe whlist studying and functioning at school. Moreover, it is important to practice and support mental health skills during the first year of school so that pupils can realize their own skills and improve them if needed when they are growing up.

Objectives. Positive classroom climate has direct effects on students’ school satisfaction and motivation to learn. Character strength interventions implemented in schools also have a connection with students’ school satisfaction and their enjoyment of school. The aim of this study was to translate a classroom climate questionnaire for finding out whether the students’ and teacher’s experience of the classroom climate dimensions were similar before the intervention and whether the character strength intervention affected the classroom climate dimensions from the perspective of the students and the teacher. In the study, a 10-lesson-long See the Good! -intervention was implemented to introduce students to character strengths and help them harness those strengths for everyday use. The structure of the intervention lessons is based on versatile See the Good! -material by Lotta Uusitalo and Kaisa Vuorinen. The classroom climate theory in this study is based on the five dimensions of classroom climate by Barry Fraser, Gary Anderson and Herbert Walberg (1982). Methods. The study was conducted as a mixed method intervention study, where quantitative data was obtained from the students of experimental group and control group using the MCI questionnaire and qualitative data by interviewing the teacher of the experimental group. The study contained two measurements, an initial measurement before the intervention and a final measurement after the intervention. Both measurements included the MCI questionnaires of the experimental group and control group and the teacher’s interview. 37 third grade students (experimental group N=19, control group N=18) and one teacher participated in the study. Quantitative data was collected using an anonymous electronic questionnaire and the data was analysed using the Mann-Whitney U-test of two independent samples. The reliability of the MCI questionnaire was examined using Cronbach’s alpha values. Qualitative data was collected with the teacher’s semi-structured thematic interview and analysed using data-driven content analysis. Considering the sample size of the study, the study does not aim for broadly generalizable results. Results. Experimental group’s and their teacher’s experiences on classroom climate dimensions before the intervention were somewhat similar and somewhat different. Both felt that the dimensions of satisfaction and competitiveness were present in the classroom climate and there were no strong signs of friction or difficulties. However, the teacher felt that the classroom climate includes cohesiveness but according to the students’ experience, there were not much cohesiveness in the classroom climate. The teacher found that the intervention had positively improved four of the five dimensions (cohesiveness, friction, satisfaction and difficulty). The teacher didn’t notice that the intervention had affected the dimension of competitiveness. According to the students’ experience, the intervention had a positive effect on two dimensions (cohesiveness and friction), of which the effect on cohesiveness was statistically significant. The intervention had not statistically significantly affected other dimensions. The intervention improved the dimension of cohesiveness according to both the students’ and the teacher’s experience.

Objective. The aim of this intervention study is to examine which character strengths sixth graders spot in themselves and how do they present the character strengths in their everyday lives. The effect of the intervention is being determined as the changes in an observation group are discussed. This study is a part of Tämä Elämä –project, which emphasizes co- working and aims at preventing social exclusions of teenagers. Method. The study was carried out with a sixth grade class (19 students) in the Spring 2019. The class was given lessons on character strengths for a week with the help of Huomaa Hyvä! –materials which are composed for the purpose of bringing out the strengths of an individual. The students filled out an online form both at the start and in the beginning of the week so the effect of the intervention was opened for evaluation. The observation group of 24 students took part in the study. They didn’t receive classes on character strengths during the week. Results and conclusions. The most presented character strengths in the class are fairness, prudence and creativity. The students discussed the strengths through the topics of me-oth- ers, values, cognitive skills, emotions, emotional skills and attitude. The activities they pre- sented discussing their character strengths were e.g. games, activities with friends, home- work and exams. The knowledge and usage of character strengths expressed by the students was tested with repeated measures ANOVA in the software of Statistics Analysis Software SPSS. The factors of time or being a member of either of the groups was not classified as primary effect. The knowledge and usage of character strengths expressed by the students didn’t change signif- icantly.

The aim of this study was to understand the experiences of children outside a day-care center. Children photographed moments when they felt that they had exceeded themselves. The photographs were viewed in the day-care center during common morning gatherings. In this study it was examined how visual tools and narration support the mediation of child's experience. In addition it was also examined what kind of experiences were photographs mediating. In this study the experience is defined by the interaction between individual and environment (Vygotksky 1978 & 1998b). When examining experiences different environments are taken into account by using Bronfenbrenner's (1979) theory. The theoretical framework is based on socio-cultural theory. Research material was collected in peer group whose activity was guided by the principles of the positive pedagogy. Positive pedagogy highlights child's active role and participation in different environments. Aim of this orientation is to support children's well-being in everyday life. Children's meaningful experiences and positive feelings are in the center in positive pedagogy. These feelings were tried to be reached by visual methods. The study is qualitative case study that examines the experiences of one group of children. It is based upon 'children as co-researchers' methodology. The study involved 20 three to five year old children from a one peer group. Research material consists of photographs that children have taken at home, captions of the photographs, narration of children and notes of the kindergarten teacher. The material was analyzed by using method of content analysis. The results of the study indicate that visual tools encouraged child to narration. Children photographed themselves and their close relatives at home and in the neighborhood. During the common morning gatherings the child was the expert of the situation because he knew what the photograph was about. The project which was directed by the positive pedagogy also helped parents and the staff of the day-care center to better co-operate. The study indicates that visual tools and narration are valuable methods in the pursuit of child's experience.

Positive education is a new application of positive psychology. The main purpose of positive education is to increase the well-being of individuals, to wrap learning and well-being in school together, and to harness character strengths as resources. Positive education is used in many Finnish schools. This educational trend is currently very topical, as studies show that mental disorders in children and young people has increased both in Finland and globally. There is little research data on positive education. The views of the working teachers and the experiences of the pupils have been studied in a few master's thesis. The views of classroom teacher students have not been studied nearly at all. The purpose of this thesis was to find out what views do students have on positive education. The study was conducted with qualitative approaches. 26 classroom teacher students from master’s degree participated in the study. The data was gathered by using an electronic questionnaire. The data was analyzed by content analysis. According to this study, classroom teacher students had a positive attitude to positive education, but also critical. Positive education was seen to contribute widely to well-being. The students felt that the focus on well-being was appropriate for their own teach-ing philosophy. Strength-based education was perceived as the core of positive educa-tion. Positive education was thought to focus for the most part on supporting individual needs and development. Individual support that requires strong student knowledge was seen easily to overstress teacher. Students saw that positive education especially bene-fits students with special needs, who often threaten to be criticized for their own actions. Students believe that positive education promotes learning and schooling positively through many factors. Lack of knowledge was seen as a challenge for positive educa-tion. Students felt they knew about positive education a bit. They also pondered the sci-entific origins of positive pedagogy. Students were concerned about the possible way of positive education to ignore challenges in an overly positive way and to neglect the study of academic skills. This study shows that positive education needs more research.

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract My master's thesis is part of This Life of Mine research project, which aims at developing life management tools for young people who are struggling with their life choices and decisions concerning postgraduate studies. The project approaches these issues through positive pedagogy, character strength and inclusive education, which may help young people to develop features that help in decision-making regarding their future education and careers. I participated in the first pilot phase of the project and I used action research approach. The project workshops were built on several positive pedagogical solutions, such as inclusive groups, positive experiences and character strength development. My research focuses on the impact that that these positive educational solutions could have on young peoples’ capability to make decisions regarding their lives and careers. The data for my study was collected during the workshops by means of video recording and interviews. My data-driven analysis are conducted with grounded theory and Atlas.ti program. In this thesis, the features that support young person’s decision-making process consist of personal social development domains, educational achievement and lifelong learning domains, as well as career management domains. I focus predominantly on the personal social development domains. Young people’s understanding of their skills and character strengths developed during the course of the workshops. The development started from individual skill recognition, went through character strength specification and ended up with more profound deliberation of the character strengths. During the final days of the workshops, the participants used character strength vocabulary quite fluently in their career thinking processes. The use of character strength terminology developed as its own path and the development of the character strength terminology gave the participants more diversified perspective of their future career decisions. Therefore, the role of character strength terminology should be considered more strongly, when assessing the features that are needed in young people’s decision-making process. In addition, the importance of peers’ influence as a starting point of individuals’ skill and character strength thinking was noticed during the analysis. Therefore, it might be fruitful to develop understanding of the character strength in a peer group.

The school world has long focused on the problem-based assessment of students. When the focus is on the pupil's deficiencies and areas for improvement, the aspects that should be valued and praised may be left behind. Positive education is a pedagogical application based on positive psychology that focuses on enhancing the well-being and learning of students. The focus is on the student's strengths and successes rather than weaknesses. In recent years, the emphasis on positive education has also increased in Finnish schools. Research has typically focused on measuring the effectiveness of methods and developing well-being measures in the form of intervention or action research. Since teachers' perceptions of positive education have not been studied much, this study aims to chart how positive education has been carried out in the ordinary Finnish classroom environment. The research was carried out by using qualitative research methods. Six classroom teachers that were interested in and using positive education were interviewed about their perceptions and experiences of positive education. The interviews were conducted with a semi-structured theme interview and analyzed by theme analysis. According to the results of this study, teachers perceived positive education as character strengths and their further development, positive perception and positive feedback. Teachers shared their thoughts and experiences of teaching positive education from the point of view of their desires, benefits, hands-on teaching, attitudes, recommendations, distribution and applicability. Based on the positive experiences of teachers, positive education can be taught in school as separate lessons or as embedded into other lessons. The study suggests that positive education could be implemented more widely in schools, as it could be a potential way to increase the well-being of the whole school community.

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.

Wellbeing skills and the teaching wellbeing have already been researched to a certain extent abroad. Research results have been promising. It has been established that wellbeing can be taught to children. Teaching wellbeing has also been shown to improve children’s wellbeing, behaviour as well as academic performance. Teaching wellbeing is starting to become adopted in Finland as well. As far as I know, teachers’ views have not yet been investigated in Finland. The present study’s aim is therefore to understand teachers’ views on pupils’ wellbeing and experience on teaching wellbeing. The theory section of the thesis introduces theories of wellbeing and concepts concerning school wellbeing. I also delve into different fields of teaching of wellbeing and examine the significance on the pupils’ wellbeing of teachers’ skills, the general atmosphere and the entire school’s involvement. The study adopts a qualitative approach. The research encompasses interviews with five class teachers all of whom had many years of teaching experience. Interviews were conducted using semi-structured thematic interviews. Thematic analysis was conducted on the material. The class teachers considered the pupils’ wellbeing to be affected by several factors. Wellbeing was seen to be promoted especially by the pupils’ social and emotional skills and the teacher’s own skills and perceptions. Additionally a safe atmosphere, performing tasks together and a culture of communality, noticing strengths and good behaviour, as well as the perceived sense of meaning were seen as affecting the wellbeing of pupils. The Finnish teachers did not, however, emphasize the meaning of positive emotions that constitute one of the pillars of positive education. The class teachers had mixed experience with teaching wellbeing. The teachers perceived the resources for teaching wellbeing as partly sufficient and partly lacking. They had noticed positive effects in their pupils by teaching wellbeing. Teaching wellbeing seemed also to positively affect the teacher’s own growth and wellbeing. The teaching of wellbeing does indeed seem to be affected by many interconnected factors.

Positive pedagogy is a pedagogical approach that has gained popularity in recent years. In this thesis, I research how the culture of abledness appears in the discourses of the positive pedagogy guide Huomaa hyvä! - Näin ohjaat lasta ja nuorta löytämään luonteenvahvuutensa. I connect the increased popularity of positive pedagogy to the rise of therapeutic ethos in education, which includes for example the popularisation of interventions in mental health and wellbeing as well as the way societal issues are located in individuals as disorders. My aim is to understand how abledness is discursively constructed and how these developing definitions of abledness support special education in its goal to improve equality. I examine discursive conventions in the context of disability studies (and especially crip theory), using the concept of compulsory able-bodiedness by Robert McRuer. In the analysis I follow critical discourse analysis. I categorise three intertwined discourses from the material: the discourses of natural potential, becoming fully human, and abled happiness. Abledness is linked to being human in all three discourses. The meaning of abledness is mostly found in being dynamic – abledness essentially means to become more abled. I identify that compulsory able-bodiedness does not extend to everyone in the material – it’s compulsiveness is limited. The naturalised responsibility to improve one’s character strengths only applies to those who are able enough to begin with.