Browsing by Subject "selkokieli"
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(2018)Good reading comprehension skills are important for everyone. Easy-to-read books can give struggling readers an opportunity to acquire knowledge and improve their reading comprehension – in other words, learn. However, there are very few studies on the reading comprehension of people with an intellectual disability. The aim of this study is to identify the discursive means in descriptions of reading comprehension in theoretical literature on easy-to-read Finnish and ascertain how they either invite people with an intellectual disability to learn or exclude them. The methods of Foucauldian and critical discourse analyses are used in this study. The data comprise all handbooks on the theory of easy-to-read Finnish that have thus far been published, between 1986 and 2015, excluding those that focus primarily on verbal interaction. In handbooks on the theory of easy-to-read Finnish, the reading skills of people with an intellectual disability are represented within the institutional framework of medicine, special needs education and social services. Discourses in this literature are designated as the medical model, the social model and the cultural model. All of them enable both an inclusive and an exclusive approach to the reading of people with an intellectual disability. In the theoretical literature examined in this thesis, the most notable discourse is the exclusive medical model which emphasises the permanent problems that those with disabilities have with reading. The exclusive social model naturalises the acknowledgement of reading problems and obscures the institutionalised nature of the unequal treatment of people with an intellectual disability as readers. This discourse occurs mainly in the literature written during the 2000s. The dominant inclusive discourse is the cultural model. It assumes that reading belongs to everyone despite their cognitive capacity, while reading problems also apply to anyone. The inclusive aspect of the social model is mainly limited to highlighting accessibility, however not giving any emphasis to equal educational rights. It would be crucial for learning to acquire a key role in the theoretical literature on easy-to-read language, because without an opportunity to learn, there can be no social equality
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(2017)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.
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(2019)Low reading comprehency is connected to pupils with low reading skills. There are several reading strategy programs that could be teached at schools in order to enforce reading comprehency. It is not clear though, how much and in which way do textbooks in average lend themselves for such teaching methods. In other words, are certain characteristics of a textbook (for instance in lay-out) likely to support reading comprehency or not? Reciprocal teaching (RT) is a method for enhancing reading comprehency and it is based on four reading strategies: predicting aims at activating relevant background knowledge before reading, clarifying aims at critical evaluation during reading, questioning aims at concentration on the main ideas of the text, summarizing aims at allocating attention to the major content and also checking one’s understanding. In this study two finnish textbooks are analysed from the point of view of RT. Aleksis 9, which is a textbook of finnish language and literature for 9th graders, is compared to Aleksis 9E, which is a special education version of the former. The analysis concentrates on certain characteristics of lay-out and content that are first linked to RT’s four strategies. Also the characteristics that help to use the book are analysed, as well as some principles of easy-to-read lay-out. The qualitative methods used are content analysis and linquistic analysis. The purpose of the study is to find out whether the books differ as they give opportunities for carrying out RT. The study indicates that Aleksis 9E suits better than Aleksis 9 for strategies of predicting and summarizing. In addition it seems to be better organized and is therefore easier to use than Aleksis 9. Aleksis 9E also achieves the principles of easy-to read lay-out better than Aleksis 9. Therefore Aleksis 9E gives more opportunities for carrying out RT in average than Aleksis 9. The lack of Aleksis 9E is though, that some of its text-elements reformed due special education seemed to be more thwarting for reading comprehension than the original text-elements in Aleksis 9. Aleksis 9E would also meet the demands for RT even better, if the sentences were split over lines as instructed in easy-to-read principles. According to results it is possible to utilize certain characteristics of lay-out and content for the use of RT, but the requirements for that depend on each textbook. Therefore, the knowledge concerning reading comprehency should be part of book-production allready very early on, even before the principles of lay-out are being established. Further reseach could be targeted for instance at generating, evaluating and realising certain pedagogical elements on the basis of studies about reading comprehency.
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