Browsing by Subject "työkokemus"

Aims. Meaning of the study was to find out teacher’s use of time, factors that have effect on their time usage and how to get rid of thoughts linking to their work at free time. Meaning was also to find out if teacher`s time usage has some effects on their well-being at work. The purpose of this study was to find out teacher`s time usage and well-being at work through teachers own opinions. It is important to research teacher’s time using because there is not a lot studies about that, although teachers coping at work is an important and much discussed subject. Theory part in the study consists of importance of teachers own personality, about many roles in teacher`s profession, teachers time usage, importance of free time as a counterbalance to work and about research about teacher`s well-being at work. Previous studies have shown that teacher`s time usage differs from other professions time usage and teachers face a lot of work-linked rush and stress. Methods. The study was a qualitative research. Five interviewees took part in the study. Two interviewees have less work experience than three others. Study was done with theme interview. Interviews were recorded. Afterwards interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Results and conclusions. According to results of the study class teachers have quite similar time usage models. They all tried to keep work life separate from their free time. They all had difficulties to get rid of work-linked thoughts in their free time. Teachers own personality in teachers work and having ideas for work through social media had a lot to do with getting rid of work related thoughts. Work community and work experience had a positive effect on teachers use of time. All interviewees had been more stressed and exhausted in the beginning of their careers when they still had not built their own ways to be a teacher and how to use time. Especially the first year as a teacher had been difficult. According to study it is possible to make a conclusion at least in some measure that teachers use of time has some effect on their well-being at work. According to the study work experience has great impact on teacher`s time usage and well-being.

Teachers’ job description changes along with the society, which creates pressure to update teacher knowledge and teaching. Indeed, teachership is a process that requires lifelong learning and not only systematic in-service training but also an understanding of teachers’ professional life cycles and meaningful learning. The purpose of this thesis was to survey the connection of in-service training in mathematics and work experience to the meaningful learning and teaching development of class teachers. The theoretical framework was based on models for teachers’ professional life cycles by Huberman, Leithwood, Lähteenmäki and Järvinen and theories of meaningful learning by Ausubel, Jonassen and Ruokamo and Pohjolainen. The aim was to increase the understanding of in-service training of teachers at different stages of their career cycles and to highlight the challenges associated with those cycles. Thus, this thesis seeks to support the need of the development- and evaluation work of educational continuum which became a topical issue at the beginning of the 21st century and has only become more and more relevant ever since. The data of this multi-method longitudinal study was gathered through surveys completed by classroom teachers who participated in the LUMATIKKA in-service training of mathematics teaching and learning in 2019 or 2020. Quantitative data, which measured meaningful learning consisted of preliminary and final surveys of classroom teachers (N=77). The connection of meaningful learning areas, formed on the basis of principal component analysis, and work experience was examined by using the Kruskal Wallis analysis of variance. The qualitative data, on the other hand, consisted of teachers’ open-ended responses (N=107) to the final survey’s questions on how they thought the in-service training experiences would influence teaching. Open-ended responses were analysed by means of content analysis and qualitative description. According to the results, the class teachers who completed the in-service training courses had the prior competence and expectations that supported learning well and learning during the courses was also found to be very meaningful. The most meaningful sections were the ones concretely related to the needs of working life, transfer of learning and the teaching of mathematics, although the training succeeded also in strengthening intentional learning. Experiences of reflectivity and cooperation, on the other hand, were slightly more moderately positive. Respondents’ work experience had a connection to their answers regarding learning, as teachers in the middle of their career cycles found their learning slightly less meaningful than teachers at the beginning or end of their career. Participants believed that their updated pedagogical con-tent, in particular, would change their own teaching. In addition, many of those more experienced than novice teachers pointed out the increase of specialized content knowledge, which is considered essential for teachers. Most teachers did not see obstacles to changing their teaching, although some novices regarded time as a problem. In the light of research, well-organized in-service training can be a very meaningful supporter of lifelong learning and a developer of teaching. However, the characteristics of various stages of career cycles and their typical challenges should be taken into consideration as an important factor in order to ensure the continuity of training for all teachers.

Objectives. Neoliberal education policies have put pressure on strengthening the relationship between universities and working life, and universities expected to better prepare students for working life. Universities have long sought to meet the needs of the labor market by, among other things, increasing more work-oriented teaching, but nevertheless students face many employment-related challenges in transition from studies to working life and the number of unemployed with a university degree has increased. The working life equivalence of university studies has studied a lot, but qualitative research on students' personal experiences has lagged behind. The aim of this study was to find out the experiences of educational students about their capital supporting their employment and the factors accumulating them during their studies. In addition, the perceived benefits of capital in the transition from university studies to working life were examined. Methods. The study examined the experiences of students studying for a master’s degree in education about the capital supporting their employment during their studies, the factors accumulating them and their benefits in the transition from university studies to working life. The data consisted of seven semi-structured theme interviews. The interview data were analyzed using abductive content analysis method. Results and conclusions. Students described that they had accumulated a variety of forms of capital during their studies to support their employment. Capital accumulated most through internships, optional studies, organizational activities or other student activity and work experience, and the importance of these factors as a supporter of one's own employment emphasized. Instead, the connection between the formal studies related to the degree and working life was felt to be insufficient, and more concrete information was desired for the studies from the perspective of working life, for example by adding internships. In the transition from university studies to working life, the clarification of one's own work goal, the ability to identify, say and make one's own skills visible, and useful networks and interpersonal relationships that provide information about hidden jobs or a referee to support one's own employment seem to be important. It could be concluded from the results that the main subject studies in education in particular should better develop in a direction that supports the strengthening of student employment.