Browsing by Subject "työssä oppiminen"
Now showing items 1-6 of 6
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(2015)The aim of this study was to describe the experiences of the mentors of adult practical nurse students. The focus was on "how the mentors experience the process of on-the-job learning" and "how the mentors can support student's professional growth during the on-the-job learning period". The data of this study consist of 12 semi-structured interviews of mentors of adult practical nurse students. The interviews were first tape recorded and then transcribed verbatim. Mentors described mentoring of students' as a process, that consist of elements such as mentor's own perceptions of her role as a mentor, adult learner's attitude towards learning, support of professional growth and the meaning of environment and support. The mentoring was seen as a process. Mentoring of an adult student was seen as a challenge but also as a chance because the adult learners do have plenty of experiences. Mentors pointed out various factors that have an effect on success of mentoring. Such factors were: mentors experience of their own role, students' attitude towards learning and guidance, supporting professional growth and importance of working environment as well co-operation with educational institution. Mentors experience of being an expert of their own work was important as well to be able to adjust guidance in benefit of a student's individual needs and goals. Adult learners were expected to take an active role of their own learning and to take benefit of their own experiences. Mentors did feel that they were responsible for students' professional growth. Working environment end co-operation with educational institution had important role in successful guidance. Mentors opinion was that guidance during the work-place learning should be mainly emphasized on mentor and workplace. Co-operation with educational institution was considered important but mentors also felt that they are best experts of their own work. Mentors hoped and expected support, resources and respect to their mentoring. .
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Aliupseereiden työssä oppiminen : tapaustutkimus sosiomateriaalisten oppimisverkostojen näkökulmasta (2017)This study analyzed the workplace learning processes of Non-commissioned officers (NCO) in the companies of the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF). Workplace learning was studied using the theoretical tools provided by cultural-historical activity theory and knowledge-creating trialogical learning. The theoretical framework was summarized in the concept of sociomaterial learning-network, defined as the set of relations between the individual, his/her community and the material artefacts formed around the common object of activity. The aim of the study was to understand how the NCOs learn through their work and how the learning is guided. The sub-questions approached workplace learning through the concepts of agency, networks and tools. The study was conducted as a case study in three companies of one brigade-level unit of the Finnish Army. The data was gathered from the unit-commanders (n=5) and the NCOs (n=10) of the studied companies with semi-structured interviews consisting structured interview parts. Additionally an egocentric network interview was conducted with the NCOs. The interview data was analyzed with abductive content analysis. The egocentric network-data was visualized with Cytoscape-software. The results suggest, that despite certain expansive features, the studied companies were mainly restrictive learning environments. The workplace learning of the NCOs was based on their own active agency and the support of their personal learning-networks. Additionally the material aspects of the activity, such as different standardized written documents and learning-materials, had a major influence on the NCOs' learning processes. A distinctive feature of the guidance of learning was the aim to standardize and unify the learning processes. A contradiction in the goal-setting of workplace learning was identified. The activity guiding standard operating procedures of the FDF emphasize comprehensive development, but the learning-practices in the unit are primarily guided by the obtaining of certain licences needed in activity.
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(2020)As shown by prior research, primary school student teachers feel a lack of practical experience in their studies. Nowadays the part of practical training in teacher education studies is becoming even smaller. This thesis argues for the advantages of working on a summer camp for primary school student teacher’s professional development during their studies. This thesis describes how working on a summer camp affects a student teacher’s professional development and what factors they consider important for their own professional development. The presumption for the research was that working on a summer camp has positive and important effects on the professional development of a primary school student teacher. The method used in this thesis was a qualitative case study. The data consisted of interviews with seven primary school student teachers that had worked on a summer camp during the past three years. The interview was a half-structured individual interview. The data was analyzed by using thematic analysis, and six themes were found from the analyzed data. Due to the diverging answers of the respondents, the thematic analysis was extended by categorizing the test subjects into four different groups. The factors affecting a primary school student teacher’s professional development of working on a summer camp were increased experience, reflection, co-workers and teamwork, difficult cases, interaction with children and the young and reflection on teaching. The respondents experienced that working on a summer camp was beneficial for their professional development. Based on their answers, the test subjects were categorized into test subjects with converging answers and test subjects with diverging answers. The first group consisted of four respondents that emphasized the six main themes in their answers. The second group consisted of three answerers and they were named further as self-reflector, novice teacher and the exceeder. Based on this study, working on a summer camp can be recommended for all student teachers. This study can act as inspiration for applying for a job on a summer camp and as a reason for hiring student teachers.
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(2019)In recent rapidly changing working life, learning is seen as pivotal to be successful at work. For example high competition and changes in the working environment have led to lower hierarchies among organizations. Current working life thus emphasizes the responsibility of the individual worker in carrying out work properly. Professional agency is therefore important. However, it is not self-evident that companies offer the possibilities to exercise professional agency. The aim of this study is to examine how software professionals practice professional agency and learn in work. In addition this study aims to answer which factors restrict or enhance professional agen-cy and workplace learning in a software company. The theoretical framework of this study concentrates to examine professional agency from the subject-centered socio-cultural approach and considers job crafting as a mechanism by which workers may exercise professional agency. Additionally workplace learning is examined from different points of view. I collected the data in November 2018 by interviewing one hr-professional and six software professionals from one software company. I analyzed the tran-scribed and coded interview data by using content analysis. The results show that software professionals have high autonomy over their work when exam-ining the employer company. Professional agency was practiced and manifested especially when professionals made choices and exerted influence that affected their own work. Professional agency and workplace learning were restricted in different levels among customer projects. Re-garding workplace learning, learning was continuous and took place by doing daily work tasks, searching for knowledge independently or solving problems. Software professionals thought that there were not enough possibilities to learn collectively or seek and get help in the organiza-tion. Thus, there was an urgent need to organize venues for learning from others within the company. One possible solution mentioned by the interviewees was to create a learning arena based on workshops. In conclusion, to foster learning, it is important to create social events and arenas that offer possibilities to learn from other professionals across professional boundaries. The findings of this study support earlier studies by proposing that professional agency and workplace learning are intertwined and are also understood as social and contextual phenomena.
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Rajankäyntiä alttiuden areenalla : klassinen grounded theory -tutkimus työelämän arjen käytännöistä (2016)In knowledge-intensive work, knowing and learning are integrated in numerous ways with other areas of activities. On the other hand, the work itself and workplace learning are multiform phenomena. These factors can manifest themselves as rhetoric tensions, paradoxes or gaps between public discourses, private discussions and empirical experiences of working life. The main focus of the discussions and studies on working life is often directed towards development and learning. Less attention is given to daily mundane activities and routine tasks or problems. This study is stimulated by tensions and gaps between the views of working life expressed in public debate, in the research literature as well as in the empirical experiences of employees. The study focuses on everyday working life practices, in which various phenomena from different theoretical traditions are connected to each other to form heterogeneous configurations. This study applies theoretically open and empirically based approach so that the issues of everyday working life are not shaded under dominant discussions or pre-adopted theoretical frameworks. The aim of this study is to form a conceptual model based on empirical data on what is going on in everyday working life. Classic grounded theory was used as a research method because it is a data-driven approach that produces conceptual knowledge. The data was gathered in open interviews with ten men and women of different ages who represented a variety of professional groups, educational backgrounds and work organisations. The interview data contains information about everyday working life in the form of events, experiences and thoughts such as those told by the workers themselves. The results of the study form an abstract model, which is named border faring theory. This theory is formulated on the basis of empirical data and it explains, by border and related concepts, what is going on in everyday working life. The core concept of the theory is border faring – a process that includes the steps of pressurising the border, activating the border, and manoeuvring on the arena of exposure as well as updating the premises of border faring. The border, in turn, is understood as a setting for the border faring process. The setting includes five discrete but inter-related elements: the area of preconditions, the area of supply and the area between the last remaining areas, called the arena of exposure. These areas are separated by two borders, called the border of preconditions and the border of supply. This view of the border differs from those concerning working life or workplace learning where borders are treated as single entities. The areas of preconditions and supply give border faring premises, which can be divided into themes of valuing, being and state of affairs. The border of preconditions or the border of supply can be activated in two ways: the border is opened in the direction of the arena of exposure or the border is locked. On this basis, the activation can be classified into the principles of border opening, border locking and the principle allowing both opening and locking. The features of the arena of exposure are organised as paired characteristics, and manoeuvrings on the arena of exposure are represented as typology. The aim of border faring is to seek continuity by using, searching, finding, retrieving, providing, fighting, refusing, securing, exchanging and sharing – in other words, by combining in different ways different resources of areas of preconditions and supply in various settings for border faring. In connection with the process of border faring, the setting for it will also change. The desired continuity can be by its nature, stabilising or altering. It seems that working life studies and discussions emphasise the breaking of boundaries instead of stabilising or consolidating them. The border crossings are justified by learning or development needs, even if the crossings can lead as a whole or for the future to negative consequences. Among the studies that utilise the concept of the border, border faring theory advocates the view that borders and border-related activities can be both valuable and problematic. Instruments such as border faring theory are needed for studies on workplace learning and development activities because of their indirect, unforeseen and undesirable effects. The settings of border faring apply to various participants differently, resulting in diverse border activities. Different tactics are used at the arena of exposure and various combinations are implemented, and thus a variety of outcomes are generated in terms of learning and knowledge. So, for all parties, border crossing does not necessarily always mean learning or development in the desired direction. According to border faring theory, borders are crossed for various reasons and common motives or objectives are not always a guarantee of proactivity. Borders are also maintained to ensure learning, development and task performance. Border faring is an approach to cope in everyday working life and it can be applied to the examinations of dynamics and settings of daily practices we well as interactions of working places. The model with two borders illustrates how performance can be easy or laborious, and why changes, development projects or daily routine tasks are sometimes difficult and long-lasting processes. Border faring theory presupposes neither change nor maintenance in advance as desirable for the state of affairs. To working places or communities, the theory provides a starting point for development tasks and activities to enhance reforms and tools to detect and support existing good practices. Border faring theory can be applied in addition to working life to other areas, such as formal education. To scientific research activities, the ideas and concepts of border faring theory can serve as starting points or stimuli to new studies. The concept of the border is a useful tool in working life research and its practical applications, but in the increasingly complex world of working life, the border and border-related activity are understood as a more diverse phenomenon as single borders, their characters and border crossings.
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(2017)The objective of this master's thesis was to describe the workplace practices in which knowledge is created and shared. The theoretical framework of reference for the study was Nonaka's and Takeuchi's Model of the Creation of New Knowledge. The model describes the four phases of this process, which are socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. The model includes the spiral of knowledge formation, where explicit and implicit knowledge interact with each other while creating new knowledge. The model also describes the circumstances of an organization that supports this knowledge creation process. The study is topical because information changes and ages rapidly, which is why employees are required to continuously develop their knowledge and skills in order to meet the requirements of their work environment. The target group of the study consisted of 12 employees in supervisory and managerial positions living in Finland. The data was collected using a semi-structured e-mail survey in January 2016, and the data was analysed using a qualitative content analysis method. The results of the study indicated that the following practices contribute to the creation and sharing of knowledge: a confidential and pleasant working atmosphere, an open-plan office as a working environment, social moments in the workplace, active monitoring and observing of the work of others, discussions between subordinates and superiors, regular meetings, pop-up working groups, various types of knowledge communities, and joint events involving the work community. Implicit knowledge was made visible and distributed using intranet and several social media tools as well as various other distribution methods. Practices that helped workers internalize new knowledge were receiving feedback, development discussions, self-reflection, and freedom to attempt new ventures and make mistakes. The data showed that workers understand the importance of work-place learning but they do not have a sufficient overall understanding of what concrete methods, practices, atmosphere and other supporting factors it requires.
Now showing items 1-6 of 6