Browsing by Subject "tablet-tietokone"

Goals. The objective of this Master's Thesis was to examine the connection between tablet computers and motivation, in this case with motivational beliefs according to the action control beliefs theory (Skinner, Chapman & Baltes 1988). The specific interest was to find out the differences and similarities between the students with special educational needs and general education students. Most of the previous research regarding to the subject indicates that the use of technology and tablet computers has positive impact to learning and motivation, concluding that technology-assisted teaching motivates students. On the other hand there has also been studies that report no impact or even negative impact on learning and motivation. This study aims to gain new insight of how the use of tablet computers influences on students' attitudes towards learning in Finland. Particular attention is directed to the students with special educational needs and the practical applicability of the results – the role that tablet computers could play in the development of special education. Methods. The participants of this study consisted of the 4th graders in the city of Vantaa, who responded to the Centre of Educational Assessment's tablet research online survey in the autumn of 2015 and spring of 2016 (N = 208). The data was analyzed by multivariate methods (e.g. one-way variance-, the GLM-analysis) to investigate the possible relations between the variables and to verify the differences between the groups. Results and conclusions. The general use of the tablet computers among the students was not found to be related to their beliefs that support learning. However, in the subject-specific review the use of tablets in mathematics was positively related to the students' learning supportive beliefs. In particular, within the students receiving intensified or special support, the use of tablet computer was related to students' agency beliefs about effort and competence and means-ends beliefs about effort. According to the previous research these beliefs are related to school performance within students who do well in school.