Browsing by study line "Class Teacher, Education"

Language is an essential part of education, whether written or spoken. Teachers constantly make language related choices, both consciously and unconsciously. Language awareness is a mindset that guides attitudes and choices related to language and is also found in the curriculum (Opetushallitus, 2014, p. 28), but there seem to be ambiguities in its concrete application (see Tainio & Kallioniemi, 2019). Especially subject-specific language awareness has been studied very little, and in the context of mathematics, there is almost no research. The aim of this study is thus to understand prospective teachers' perceptions of language awareness in mathematics education. The research task is to increase understanding of subject-specific language awareness and how future mathematics teachers understand the concept's practical significance. I collected my data by interviewing five teacher trainees using semi-structured thematic interviews. My research was qualitative, and I analysed the data using means offered by phenomenography, inductively. Typically for phenomenography, I sought to identify and compare different conceptions of language awareness in mathematics education. Teacher trainees conceptualized language awareness through six different practice categories: precise use of terms, clarity of language, the verbalization of mathematics, language choices in assignments, utilizing different languages in teaching, and using language as a social tool. Based on these, teachers’ understanding of language awareness was divided into two different perspectives: teaching the language of mathematics and utilizing classroom languages. Although these results are not generalizable, they offer insight into language awareness and its internalization, especially from the perspectives of mathematics and subject didactics.

Mål: Avhandlingens syfte är att undersöka samarbetsformer mellan klasslärare och speciallä-rare i svenska skolor i Helsingfors. Samarbetsformerna är indelade enligt Coordination, Cooperation och Reflective communication. Detta ämne är av relevans då Finlands skolsy-stem strävar mot en mer inkluderande skola, där specialpedagogiken spelar en betydande roll. Gentemot tidigare studier, som har genomförts i finska skolor, riktas fokus nu mot den finlandssvenska kontexten för att erbjuda en unik och specifik insikt. Även meningsfulla sam-arbetsmoment mellan klasslärare och speciallärare undersöks. Metoder: Studien var av kvalitativ metod med en fenomenografisk forskningsansats. Materialinsamlingen skedde under vintern 2024 genom enskilda intervjuer av klasslärare. Fem klasslärare intervjuades. Intervjuerna var semistrukturerade. Data analyserades med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat och slutsatser: De fem klasslärarna blev indelade i två olika samarbetsformer. Endast samarbetsformerna Coordination och Cooperation framkom i klasslärarnas svar. Klasslärarna hade fått meningsfullt stöd av speciallärarna gällande skrivande av planer, lektionsplanering och differentiering i klassen. En av klasslärarna hade även ett samarbete med en specialklasslärare och blev uppdelad i två kategorier, på grund av varierande samarbetsformer. Inte en enda klasslärare hade fått anvisningar av skolans ledning om samarbetets form, vilket kan förklara varför samarbetsformerna Coordination och Cooperation var det mest framkommande.

The empirical objectives of this thesis were twofold: to investigate how perceived closeness as a component of friendship relationships manifested in the usage patterns of social media platforms among 18-29-year-old university students, and how respondents described their usage time on the three most frequently used social media platforms in relation to the intensity of perceived closeness on the given platform. The research topic is relevant in different educational contexts for individuals of various age groups as social media and increased internet usage have become integral parts of the lives of young adults. Closeness and close friendships also play a significant developmental role in the lives of young adults, as several studies suggest that close friendships contribute to school satisfaction, fulfillment of social needs, sense of unity, reduced loneliness, and the development of social skills. The thesis' third research task was to examine how reward learning was reflected in the usage behaviors of young adults on social media platforms and how previously mentioned is seen in the algorithmic structures of social media platforms. The study specifically focused on the algorithmic structures of social media, utilizing concepts such as feedback loops and prediction errors in reward learning. The section also discussed potential risk factors for problematic use of social media platforms and the positive empowering aspects of social media. The theoretical section begins by examining reward learning, which provides a biological approach and one feasible way to look at an individual's use of social media through the lens of reward learning. The neurobiological perspective provides nuanced information that complimentary understanding of why social media platforms are extensively used among young adults. It also helps to contemplate the growth of popularity and the impacts of social media platforms on university education. Findings are interpreted within the framework of critical pedagogy. The second half of the theoretical section delves into the significance of friendships and closeness in the social relationships of young adults. The mentioned concepts of friendships and closeness are also explored in social media. After a descriptive statistical interpretation, the reliability of the survey instrument is tested, and the questions that best measure closeness are identified within the questionnaire instrument. As a result, the empirical research. The values of perceived closeness were higher on the most frequently used platform compared to less used social media platforms in this sample. Four questions were found in the survey data, and those were used to build a scale suitable for measuring perceived closeness in friendship relationships, especially on WhatsApp or Instagram. The unity values in the same closeness scale were at a sufficiently reliable level across the variables compared. Reward learning was manifested in the literature on young adults' usage patterns of social media in several ways, including receiving likes, selective consumption of content, and seeking social approval from peers. Some social media algorithms were also found to incorporate reward learning structures that are typical for humans. In literature, robust link between reward learning and algorithmic structures remains mostly unsolved and needs more thorough investigation.

Previous studies have shown that students studying preparatory education and the Finnish as a second language and literature curriculum have weaker reading skills compared to students who speak Finnish as their first language (e.g. Ståhlberg et al., 2023). Due to increased immigration, the number of foreign-language students has increased, so preparatory teaching, the teaching of the Finnish as a second language and literature curriculum and their evaluation must be developed. The purpose of this study was to deepen the understanding of the level and challenges of newly arrived students' disciplinary literacy. The research is based on the theory of linguistic socialization, according to which a child is socialized into society by using language (Duff, 2010). The research was carried out as part of the Valu project, which develops a multi-literacy assessment tool for newly arrived pupils. Valu is a research and development project of the The Centre for Educational Assessment CEA in the University of Helsinki. 118 third-grade students participated in the study, doing subject-specific reading skills in Finnish language and literature on computers. Half of the material consisted of ready-made material and half was collected for this study, enabling a quantitative study. The data were analyzed task-specific for time, attempts, points and use of aids using averages, standard deviations, medians, ranges, and the Mann-Whitney U-test. The main result of the study was that the newly arrived pupils mostly answered the Finnish language and literature tasks well, but some of the tasks caused challenges. Newly arrived students spent more time on the tasks on average, needed more attempts on average and scored less on average than other students. Newly arrived students used aids in only a few tasks. In the future, therefore, attention should be paid to the development of preparatory teaching, Finnish as a second language and literature curriculum, and language teaching in general.

This study investigated whether the introduction of a new student support model had impact on letters to the editor about school and teaching as a job. Previous studies show that the introduction of the new model has had an impact on teaching and has made the occupation more mentally straining. The research material consist of letters to the editor in Helsingin Sanomat magazine from two decades, introduction of the support model splitting them half. The material was narrowed down to consist only writings about teaching and elementary school. The analysis was carried out by means of text mining and natural language processing methods using R programming language and tidy text -package made for it. The results show a difference when compared the two halves of data but it was not possible to conclude if the difference was the result of the introduction of the new support model.

In the spring of 2020, primary school students were transferred to distance education for health safety reasons. Distance education environments were set up from a wide variety of teachers’ and schools’ starting points at the expense of equality. The need for design-based research on IT-mediated teaching expanded from adult education environments to primary school, where the importance of self-determination was emphasized. The purpose of the study was to form recommendations for the primary school distance education provider by looking at the experiences of the guardians. For the description of distance education arrangements during the 2020 state of emergency this is a case study, and a design research for the development of distance education recommendations. The foundations for the thematic analysis was the theoretical distance education description by Simonson and Seepersaud (2019). The secondary data was received from an extensive national distance education and well-being project. 526 Helsinki-based guardians’ multi-perspective open text form responses were demarcated for examination. In the phenomenographic research method, experiences of the guardians were summarised using quantification. Recommendations for teachers, education organisers and guardians were formed through interpretation of the data. The perspective of guardians was well suited for the educational design research. According to the results, the most challenging situation in distance education was caused by weak selfdeter-mination of primary school aged children, which was best supported with the help of the teacher, if not the pupils’ own parent. Inequality was highlighted both in the quantity and quality of teaching provided by the teacher and in the home's ability to support the child. Surprisingly, the results described the normal conditions of modern school as a scene of noise, fears, bullying, stress and strain. About 10 % of guardians described distance education as a better learning environment for their child compared to normal conditions. As a guideline based on the design research, it is recommended that the primary school teacher provides daily support and assessment for the pupil, instructions available to the pupil, contact at home - but flexibly to case-by-case and depending on the teacher's competence, and continually developing one's own work.

The purpose of this study is to examine, whether there have been changes in the forms or quantity of bullying before the corona pandemic (covid-19) compared to the duration of the pandemic. Traditionally, there has been various definitions for bullying, the latest of which is that there is a power imbalance between the bully and the person being bullied, which causes discomfort to the victim. Starting from late 2019, Coronavirus caused the covid-19 pandemic. Pandemic is an intercontinental epidemic that poses significant threat to public health. Due to the pandemic schools were closed from March 2020 until late May, during which teaching was done remotely online. By autumn of 2020 in-person teaching mostly resumed, with some special arrangements. The method chosen for this study is qualitative interview survey. Five teachers and one special needs teacher were interviewed. Five of the interviewees worked in the capital region and one in Varsinais-Suomi. All the interviewees had long experience working as a teacher. The interviews were conducted orally individually. The result of the study is that there haven’t been noticeable changes in the quantity of bullying, but the forms of bullying have transformed. This is partly because during remote online teaching there wasn’t any face-to-face interaction between pupils, and bullying was done mainly in virtual environments through the Internet, for example in games and WhatsApp. The same phenomenon has persisted after resuming in-person teaching.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate how flipped learning could be utilized in teaching mathematics in primary school from fourth to sixth grade. Another aim of this study was to examine the benefits and challenges of utilizing flipped learning in teaching mathema-tics from the perspective of both the teacher and the pupil. Flipped learning is a pupil-oriented learning culture which involves supporting the development of autonomy and self-determination of the pupil. Flipped learning enables individual learning pace and also utilizes collaborative learning. Flipped learning investigated in this study has been marginally studied as the majority of flipped learning studies focus on examining flipped classroom method. Methods. This study is a qualitative case study. The participants in this study were class teachers who had utilized flipped learning for the past five years as well as one pupil who had been in flipped learning utilizing class for the past three years. The research material was collected by conducting theme interviews and the results were analyzed with theory-based content analysis. Results and conclusions. The mathematics class investigated in this study utilized flipped learning by means of digital games and weekly achievement plan. The pupils made progress at their own pace and studied in small groups. From the point of view of both the teachers and the pupil, the benefits of flipped learning in this study turned out to be well-being and school satisfaction, the development of studying skills, collaborative learning, clarity of lear-ning objectives and increased motivation. From the point of view of the teachers, the challen-ges presented themselves in maintaining a peaceful working environment as well as concern for the proactivity of the pupils when in need of assistance. From the point of view of the pu-pil, the challenge of flipped learning method appeared as stress involved with scheduling the studies and matching the weekly achievement plan. It can be concluded from these results that in the class investigated in this study, flipped learning resulted in more benefits than chal-lenges although some of the pupils experienced the responsibility involved in flipped learning as burdensome.

Aim of the study. Community is a very important topic of discussion. For example, in the schools of Porvoo, community well-being was broad theme of the 2021–2022 semester. The importance of community has been underlined during the coronavirus pandemic, when traditional community means, for example events, have had to be avoided. Previous research has been done relatively little concerning school’s communal operational culture. The aim of this study was to find out what the principals think about community means at schools, how the communal operational culture of the schools appear and how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the sense of community in schools. Methods. The research was implemented by interviewing principals of the Finnish language elementary schools in Porvoo. Six very different types of schools were selected for the study in terms of location, size, and student material. Semi-structured interviews were implemented using a remote connection. The interview focused on three themes: principals´ views on community, the school´s communal operational culture and the school´s community during the coronavirus pandemic. The research material was analysed by using phenomenography analysis. In phonomyography research the analysis is based on the search for meanings and thereby the formation of categories. Results and conclusion. Working together, good cooperation and feeling good in the community were emphasized in describing the community. The principals mentioned cooperation, student participation, common rules and goals and openness as structures that promote community. Community as a value appeared on the background of the school´s operating methods, and community as goal emerged from the values. Communal activities were, for example, common events, trips, and activities. Professional interaction was mainly promoted during the common planning time. The principal´s role from the point of view of community was to be its leader or enabler. The principal also had to be interested in the subject, open minded and appreciative. The cooperation of the school community was aspired promoting, for example, shared leadership. The coronavirus pandemic had no positive effects on community, but it emphasized the value of community and improved teaches´ ICT skills.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of primary school teachers on school´s readiness to accommodate all diverse learners. The subject topic captivated my interest due to the emphasis placed by the interviewed primary school teachers in my bachelor's thesis on the readiness of the school, even though the actual research focused on children´s school readiness. Additionally, since the 2000s, discussion in Finland regarding school readiness have shifted towards the organization of education rather than solely focusing on children's readiness for school. Several research also support this shift. Readiness of the school has been extensively investigated as part of inclusive education. On the other hand, in the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2014), the word inclusion is mentioned only once. The aim of this study was to determinate the requisite preparedness of educational institutions to accommodate the diverse needs of incoming students, and to clarify the strategies of implementation of inclusion. In my qualitative research, six primary school teachers who work in elementary education participated. Thematic interviews were used as data collection method, as they allowed clarifying questions to be asked from the participants. The interviews were recorded, videotaped and transcribed for further analysis. The chosen method for analysis in my research was theory-guided content analysis, supported by thematic categorization. The data was then categorized into seven themes, which will be referred to as "upper-level categories" in the following study. These upper-level categories consist of resources, competent teacher, leadership, collaboration with preschool teachers, inclusivity, resources, and differentiation. My research findings strongly imply that primary school teachers considered resources to be the most important factor in the readiness of the school and the implementation of inclusion. However, primary school teachers described school resources as inadequate to meet the needs of all incoming students. Primary school teachers discussion about the most important readiness factors for accommodating all incoming students were centered around resources, teachers' professional skills, leadership, and collaboration with preschool teachers. Primary school teachers instead reported focusing on the implementation of inclusion through various inclusion-related actions, available resources, and diverse differentiation. Generally, five out of six primary school teachers had a positive attitude towards inclusion and the readiness of the school to accommodate all diverse learners. This study provides valuable information especially for primary school teachers, but also for principals interested in inclusion and implementing inclusive education.