Browsing by Subject "valinnainen kotitalous"

The aim of my thesis was to find out how the tray of the optional subjects was shaped in the upper secondary school and what things influenced to the process of making the tray of the optional subjects. The second aim of this thesis was to find out which reasons pupils had for choosing or not choosing home economics as an optional subject. Home economics is a subject that typically ends as a common subject in the spring of year 7. At the end of this the development of household skills at school is left to the optional home economics’ hands. The aim of this work is to help home economics teachers to find ways to motivate students to con-tinue studying home economics more often. My research questions in this thesis were: 1. How are the tray of optional subjects formed in the upper secondary school? 2. How do pupils justify their choices to choose or not to choose home economics as an optional subject in secondary school? For the first research question, I interviewed the headmaster of a school in southern Finland, who brought an education provider’s perspective to the topic. On the basis of head-master’s answers, I outlined the process of creating the tray of the optional subjects. To answer the second research question, I interviewed ten pupils from the same school. They had made elective choices in secondary school. I analysed the interview data using content analysis by making reduced expressions from the quotations and gathering different categories from them. Finally, I examined the differences between the responses of students who had chosen home economics and those who had chosen something else than home economics. The process of forming the tray of optional subjects was initiated by the need to make changes which were caused by the reform of the national curriculum. National curriculum, local policies, pupils’ interests and future competence needs guided the develop-ment process of optional subjects’ tray. Pupils’ choices of optional subjects were most influ-enced by their own interest in learning and their experience of subjects they liked. Differences between those who chose home economics and those who chose something else than home economics were found in how stressful or easy they found home economics lessons and how good they perceived their own home economics skills to be. Pupils wanted optional subjects to be relaxing and meaningful for themselves.