Browsing by Subject "ylioppilaskirjoitukset"

Objectives. Health Education has been a subject within the general studies group of exams in the matriculation examination, since spring 2007. The exam has been criticized for being easier than other subjects offered, and has gained a reputation with the students for being a subject in which they can obtain good grades with comparatively little effort, to other subjects. In the upper secondary school curriculum, the subject of sex education is integrated into health education. This study examines how the knowledge provided by formal learning, is in addition supplemented by knowledge gained from informal learning and incorporated into the students answers for the Health Education matriculation examination. The aim of this study is to find out what kind of information the candidates' answers are reflecting: is the used knowledge based on formal knowledge and sex education or informal learning. Methods. The research approach of this study was qualitative. The research data consisted of 66 essays completed as test answers in the 2011 matriculation examination for Health Education, within the general studies group of subjects. The task for the candidates was to explain the changes in Finnish sexual culture in the last four decades. The data was analyzed by qualitative content analysis, which was guided by the theory and the collected qualitative material. Results and conclusions. The results showed that in the research data, the knowledge based on informal learning was more obvious than information provided by formal learning. In the result section, essays were divided into two different categories based on candidate's scores. 73% of all responses were placed in the lower rating category. From these responses, only 31% expressed information based on formal learning. The unifying feature of the informal learning based explanations was an attempt to argue the changes in sexual culture with personal opinions, incorrect interpretations and incorrect information.