Browsing by Subject "ryhmäytyminen"

Working in groups, and developing children’s group experiences and group skills, are a crucial part of primary school (Trach, Lee & Hymel, 2018). Grouping is a part of group’s developmental process, where a group gets to know one another and becomes functioning, tight, and safe for its members (Jauhiainen & Eskola, 1994; Karlsson & Riihelä, 2004). According to earlier studies, focusing on the exercise and doing one’s own part in that, working together, and using collaborative skills are important to children when working in small groups (Cera Guy, Williams & Shore, 2019; Ladd, Kochenderfer-Ladd, Visconti & Ettekal, 2012). Based on database searches of the thesis, grouping has only been studied little from the perspective of children. At child-focused research children are listened, considered, and participated into making the research (James & James, 2012). This thesis adds understanding and knowledge of grouping, shows children’s views on groups and so develops small group actions at school. This thesis studied what children think is a good small group and how it relates to the concept of grouping. The data of this study was collected at a third-grade class in Greater Helsinki by observing a few classes with small group studying and by interviewing 11 pupils. The data was analyzed with content analysis. Codes found from the data were first grouped to 12 theme categories. After that theme categories were typified to five categories which depict phenomena that occur in groups. ATLAS.ti, Microsoft Word and digital notepads were used as a practical aid with the analysis. As the results of the study was stated that according to children, groups are joint spaces where it is salient to be together, do together and plan together. Important elements were also enjoyment in a group, a common goal, safety, sense of belonging, interaction and things that relate to performing the exercise. Challenges at groups were similar to those Cera Guy and colleagues (2019) found. Challenges were, for example, related to goofing around in groups, group size and collective decisions. Being a member of a group was understood to be a relatively permanent feature. However, children thought that a group and its members could change for example if somebody changes their mind or a member talks to others about their behavior. Children’s concepts about good small groups had many similarities with grouping’s central parts and features. Therefore, grouping may refer to becoming good groups. According to what children said to be the challenges in groups, it would be good to support small groups at schools by supporting especially interaction skills and conflict solving, setting a common interesting goal, and focusing on a task.

Objectives. The main task of the study was to find out what kind of pedagogical knowledge, methods, practices and models does a teacher take advantage of when building a class into a well-functioning group. This study investigated primary school teachers' use of pedagogical theories and practices in creating a communal and supportive classroom atmosphere. The research problem was formulated into two research questions: What kind of pedagogical knowledge does a teacher use in grouping a class? What kind of methods, practices and models does a teacher use in building a cooperative attitude in a class and a safe and positive learning atmosphere? Methods. The research strategy was based on a qualitative study. The data collection strategy was based on reminiscence and reports methods. The data was collection by requesting essays from experienced teachers. The call for essays was published in the Teacher-journal and in Facebook. Also other methods were used in the data collection. Eight essays were received. The teaching experience of the surveyed teachers ranged from 3 to 38 years. The teachers were all women and they lived in different parts of Finland. The essays were analyzed through a data based content method in which the results were constructed based on the essays. The data was grouped and classified into themes and the results were reported based on the research questions and the used theory. Results and conclusions. The essays revealed the teachers' pedagogical knowledge and common methods in creating a class into a well-functioning group. The key concepts of teacher's pedagogical knowing were e.g. encouragement, positive feedback, building trust, teacher's own role, enticing students into trying, and noticing an individual student as a person. The used methods were e.g. common rules, responsibility and involvement of students, cooperation in the class, emphasizing belonging into a group and active participation. Group formation of a class was considered as an important part in teachers' work. However, not all teachers in the teacher profession see the class formation process so important.