Browsing by Subject "työrauha"

Aim. The purpose of this study was to examine classroom management problems and its effect on teacher's well-being. The objective was also to examine successful classroom management and ways to advance classroom management and teachers' well-being. The study introduces ways to advance classroom management and work related well-being. Class-room management is a current topic in schools. Schools should be safe for both students and teachers. Teachers' well-being has been studied widely but mainly from a negative point of view. Methods. The study was conducted as a qualitative research. The research data consisted of individual interviews with seven teachers who work in the Uusimaa area. The interviews were semi-structured and were held in April 2016. Data from the interviews was analysed by using theory oriented content analysis. Results. The effect of classroom management (problems) on teachers' well-being was evaluated as very strong. A teacher who didn't have classroom management problems in class was able to put more effort on work than a teacher who struggled with classroom manage-ment problems. It seems that it is challenging to recover from stress related to classroom management problems and this stress effects working life as well as personal life. The teachers used several methods to advance classroom management and to interfere with classroom management problems. The reasons for the problems were considered by most of the teachers as student-related. The teachers wished for more effort by schools on advancing teachers' well-being and classroom management. Serious and long-lasting problems could be prevented by advancing teachers' well-being. This study offers viewpoints for current and future teachers and others interested in the subject.

According to previous studies, teachers work has changed and has become more intense. It requires more diverse knowledge and skills from teachers than before. Because of inclusion and integration the school classes are more heterogenic. Teachers reports of different discipline and classroom management problems are increasing. The objective of this study was to understand how teachers and principles create and maintain classroom discipline and what are their options to act when someone or something threatens students right to study in a safe learning environment. They were also asked if they are pleased with their authorization to act in these situations. The data of this qualitative study consists of interwievs of five teachers, two principals and one special education teacher. The interviewes were semi-structured. Also three letters to the editor in Helsingin Sanomat magasin were used as a stimulus during the interviews. The data was analyzed by using directed content analysis. The results show that discipline consist of the interaction between the teacher, the student and the subject. Teacher plays a key role as a person who builds discipline and manages different types of disruption in it. Teachers and principals are mostly pleased with their authorization and feel that they have what they need to success in classroom management. However, they feel that students also have an independent affect on the classroom environment especially if there are too many students that have different needs or difficulties to manage school. That’s why students needs should be taken into consideration while forming groups. Interviewees also agreed that schools have too little resources to prevent or solve problems that threat discipline. Because of too few resources the student that have special needs but are ingrated in the normal classes don’t get the help and support that they need to learn and that they are entitled to. The teachers and principles also hoped that the schools would have the resouses to hire more professionals of different fields to the schools so that the co-operation of multiple professionals would help to support different students comprehensively.

New open learning environments have become more common in Finnish school con-struction over the past decade. Open learning environments are thought to offer opportunities for increasing students' self-directedness, group-based and active learning, and co-teaching. However, the effects of open spaces on learning and classroom management have not been thoroughly researched yet. Media reports have been critical of the noise in open schools, raising concerns about the burden on teachers and students. In this study, I examine the practices of classroom management in elementary education within an open learning environment. This includes how teachers prevent disturbances in the classroom, the types of disturbances that occur during the lessons, and the corrective practices the teachers use to address disturbances in an open learning space. I also explore the teachers' perspectives on the benefits and challenges of open spaces from the standpoint of classroom management. The research material consists of ethnographic observation data focused on two first grade elementary school classes and their two teachers, who partially work as co-teachers. In addition to the observation data, the study includes interviews with the teachers of these classes. The data was collected in November-December 2023 over three school days and analyzed through content analysis. The study found that in classroom management, the emphasis was on preventive practices against disturbances, including routines and structures, positive feedback and motivation, variation in teaching and learning methods, and the teacher's presence. Different methods supported each other and were integrated into the teachers' work. Classroom disturbances were minimal, with the most typical being speaking without permission or making extra movement or noise. The teachers consistently addressed disturbances with various corrective practices, such as a gentle touch and eye contact, and by mentioning the pupil's name, and having a private conversation with them. Teachers thought that open learning environments provided opportunities for versatile teaching methods, functionality, and physical activity, but if the use of space is not practiced with the pupils, the stimuli caused by the space can pose challenges to classroom management. It is important to keep different types of learners in mind while developing future learning environments. In elementary education, it is also crucial that the pupils have their own safe place or seat in the school.

The goal of this study is to find out how class teachers define an ideal working environment in a classroom, how they maintain this ideal working environment and how they react when it's disturbed. An ideal working environment is something every class teacher has to deal with in their job and it plays a great role in it. There's no absolute definition to what an ideal working environment actually is and every teacher creates the definition themselves. In this study knowledge about class teachers' definitions of the term was assembled in a configuration where the interviewed class teachers were experts of their own teacher being and their educational philosophy. The aim was to gather answers from class teachers without making any generalizations depending on the answers. Eight class teachers were interviewed for this study on the area of Uusimaa. Six of them have graduated within the last five years and two of them over 20 years ago. The interviewed teachers were chosen randomly for the interviews. In this study it occurred that the definitions for an ideal working environment that the teachers defined bore a resemblance to one another, even though the theme isn't discussed in the teacher education at the university. It seems that the atmosphere in the classroom plays an important role in the formation of the ideal working environment and so does the teacher's attitude. The teachers have various ways to prevent issues that can disturb the ideal working environment they have built in their classroom, to maintain it and to react to the disturbances. The teachers have taken many of the measures into their repertoire after having heard or read about them elsewhere.

Objectives. The aim of this study is to examine students' experiences of co-teaching in general education classrooms and to investigate how their experiences correspond to the teacher experiences found in co-teaching research. The research objective is to examine students' experiences of co-teaching in a case study classroom and to reflect them on the student benefits identified by teachers in co-teaching research. My research questions are the following: 1. What kind of experiences did students have with co-teaching in the case study classroom? 2. How do students' experiences of co-teaching correspond to teachers' experiences? Methods. I will carry out the study as a case study, where I aim to answer my research questions through previous studies and a student survey. The teacher research material consists of peer-reviewed Finnish studies on co-teaching and two doctoral dissertations. I will investigate students' experiences through a questionnaire where they are asked to respond to statements about co-teaching based on their own experiences. The voices of a few students were brought out in the research through thinking aloud. They spoke out loud while filling out the questionnaire and justified their decisions out loud. The thinking aloud was recorded and transcribed. First, I will explain what co-teaching is and how it has evolved. The second part of my thesis is a survey conducted through my case study on fifth graders' experiences with co-teaching. The central concept of the thesis is co-teaching, which also brings a new perspective to students' experiences of studying in a co-teaching classroom. Results and conclusions. The research results are divided into sections 5.1 Support, 5.2 Social and Interactional Situations, and 5.3 Peaceful Learning Environment. In studies of teacher ex-periences, the benefits for students identified include easy access to support, development of social and interactional skills, and enabling better learning environment through co-teaching. Co-teaching is not a straightforward or standardized model of operation, which is why the re-sults of teacher research also depend largely on how co-teaching has been implemented. This, as well as the subjectivity of student research, are also likely to be reasons why there is not much student research. The benefits of co-teaching for students identified by teachers are not fully confirmed through student surveys, but similarities can also be found in the research. Therefore, co-teaching can be seen as a beneficial model of operation for students when im-plemented correctly.