Browsing by study line "Luokanopettaja (kasvatustiede)"

Previous research shows that more and more teachers are considering a career change. Indicators measuring working conditions provide information on the fatigue experienced by teachers. The number of applicants for classroom teacher’s education programme has decreased from time to time, and graduates of teacher education may not be employed as teachers. The purpose of this master’s study was to better understand why a candidate for classroom teacher education ends up choosing not to do the work of a classroom teacher. The study examines why teacher students who give up classroom teaching have initially applied for classroom teacher’s education programme. In addition, the focus is on how different applicant profiles explain the abandonment of teaching. The research is guided by Watt and Richardson's (2007) FIT-Choice model of applying for a teacher and the model of giving up teaching based on the research results of Räsänen and partners (2020). The study was carried out using qualitative methods. The research material was collected by interviewing nine teacher students who are giving up classroom teaching at the University of Helsinki. Theory-guided content analysis was utilized in the analysis of the material. The analysis process began with a background study on the application of subject persons for classroom teacher training. The background study served as a support for the theory-guiding content analysis in the interpretation of the actual research problems. Disappointments with changes in the school system, challenges in interaction, heavy workload and lack of commitment contributed to the abandonment of classroom teaching, as discovered in previous research. In this study, the abandonment of teaching was further explained by the overturned ideals and negative experiences. For each teacher student, there were a number of interrelated reasons for giving up classroom teaching. The result of the research was a circle of abandoning classroom teaching. Applicant profiles did not differ significantly in terms of the factors behind the abandonment of classroom teaching. The heavy workload of the work explained the abandonment of classroom teaching most strongly for each applicant profile. However, several interrelated reasons were found between applying for a school teacher and giving it up. The research results can be utilized in the development work of the classroom teacher's profession and teacher education in order to keep future teachers motivated for their work. The research results support claims that teachers’ working conditions should be improved and the respect towards their work increased.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze children’s relationship to the forest. Forest relationship of Finns has been a lively debate in recent years, and there is a debate about what kind of forest relationships Finns have. Studies have shown concern about the distance between children and nature – children's freedom of movement has narrowed, children's leisure time has become more adult-led indoors, and concerns have been raised about children's poor skills in identifying plant species. The theoretical starting points of this study are in environmental education. I examine the forest relationship through the observed, experienced and shared dimensions. The material of this study consist of the writings and drawings of Helsinki's fifth-graders about their memories in the forest. Thirteen students participated in the study. All participants in the study and their guardians were asked for written permission to participate in the study. The material was analyzed according to phenomenographic analysis. The research results show that the forest relationship of children is multidimensional. The stories of the fifth-graders emphasize the experienced (subjective) and shared (social and cultural) meanings of the forest. Demonstration of observed (scientific) knowledge was emphasized only in some reports. Forest memories are often made possible by adults, but also independent interaction with the environment are sought in the forest. The forest is described and valued through personal meanings. The forest is used for leisure and being together with others. The results show that environmental education deserves special attention, especially in the areas of environmental information and environmental protection. Not all students’ forest memories convey a knowledgeable, close, and caring relationship to the forest. More up-to-date research data on the state of children's forest relations are needed to develop environmental education.

Gender diversity is one of the notable concepts that has been recently incorporated into the field of education by the new Finnish national curriculum. Gender diversity challenges gender binary. This study researches the concept of gender from the perspective of gender performativity, focusing on masculinity. Multiple forms of masculinities exist, with hierarchies within. The goal of this research is to find out how children analyze gender performativity, especially masculinity, and how they categorize a child from a video according to their gender performativity. This research was conducted through semi-structured thematic interviews where participating children watched provided material. Interviews were mostly admistered as pair interviews. The interviewed children were between the ages of 7 and 12. There were a total of 30 interviewees. The collected data was analyzed by membership categorization analysis and partly using ethnomethodology and discourse analysis. The results indicate complexity of gender category, a category of an abnormal boy and a category of the bullied. Also, the discourse of courage and the discourse of tolerance were evident from the data. Complexity of gender category included negotiation of the features that belong to the categories of a boy and a girl, and whether the child’s performative was an act or real. In the category of an abnormal boy, the child was viewed as odd and peculiar. In the category of the bullied, the child was seen in a role of a bullied person, which raised empathy among the interviewees. In the discourse of courage, the child was presented as courageous and daring because he was not afraid of exposing himself to bullying. In the discourse of tolerance, the interviewed children followed the surrounding discourse of tolerance and mirrored polyphonic speech. The research shows that children are perceptive and versatile at analyzing gender performativity. The research highlights the need for children’s perspective in gender and sexuality research.

Aims. The aim of this study was to examine coping challenges and school exhaustion in elementary children and also how much home, self-regulation and well-being estimate student burnout. Idea is also examine wheter there are any differences between gender in field of student burnout. Coping challenges and school exhaustion are a phenomenon that affects more and more young children as well as young people. Previous research has shown that the causes of coping challenges are due to the poor atmosphere in school, the social environment and the student own lack of motivation. Previous studies have also shown that school exhaustion can lead to depression and educational exclusion. Methods. The data was collected with questionnaires as a part of #newschool -project during fall 2019. The participants (N = 212) were 11–12-years-old students from elementary schools in southern Finland. Coping was measured with a 10–point questionnaire in which children were allowed to assess their own coping. Welfare was asked using a 10–item questionnaire that measures subjective well-being. Self-regulation was measured with six-point statements and home-affairs were measured with five-point statements. I analysed how children cope at school by looking at the means and variances of responses. In addition, I used regression analysis to analyse how well-being, self-regulation and home affairs explain coping in school. Finally, I used the t-test to compare gender differences in coping at school. Results and conclusions. Most sixth graders felt that they were coping well or moderately at school. However, about 15 % of sixth graders experienced some degree of school burnout or school exhaustion. The better the children feel their well-being is, the better they cope with school. Well-being was the only background variable that explained coping in school in a statistically significant way. According to the results of the dissertation, there were no differences between boys and girls in coping at school. The results were largely in line with previous results. The results suggest that more and more young people are experiencing intolerance at school as well as school exhaustion. The results also showed that children’s well-being plays a major role in coping at school. From this it can be concluded that investing in the well-being of children results in happy and enthusiastic learners, as well as well-being adults in the future.

Objectives. Multilingualism will become more and more visible in schools with immigration. According to the forecast, by 2030, one in four residents of the Helsinki region will speak a foreign language, ie speak their first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. This means that at least one in four school-age children speaks more than just their school language at home. The diversity of students' language backgrounds must also be taken into account in school teaching. Research has been conducted on the challenges and opportunities of multilingualism in basic education from the perspective of teachers and schools, among others. The perspective of children and young people who speak Finnish as a second language, ie multilingual, has received less attention. The aim of this study is to bring the student’s perspective on the topic, as they themselves are best placed to tell about their own multiplicity in terms of both the challenges and opportunities involved. Methods. The study examines the challenges and opportunities of multilingualism from the student’s perspective. Research has three needs, which are research need, supporting the development of multicultural schools, and increasing understanding of multilingual students. The extract of the study was a qualitative case study, the material of which has been collected through semi-structured thematic interviews. The material was collected by interviewing three young people who speak Finnish as a second language. Interviewees were selected for the study based on their multilingual backgrounds. Content analysis from data sources was used as the data analysis method. Results and conclusions. According to the interviewees, linguistic challenges arose in learning Finnish, studying in another language and especially in reading comprehension and language fluency. The challenges experienced in the school environment were strongly related to situations that were perceived as difficult to adapt to. The potential for multilingualism in this study was not combined with teaching at all. Multilingualism was perceived as an empowering factor in maintaining friendships, an important part of one's own identity and a tool for self-expression. Although summaries of young people’s responses could be made, despite the similarities, young people’s experiences of the challenges in primary education varied widely. The research provides information and increases educators ’understanding of what issues should also be addressed when encountering a multilingual learner.

Previous studies have shown that there is a link between personal achievement goal orientation, intrinsic motivation and teams motivational climate in youth sports The purpose of this study is to investigate what kind of relationships can be observed between players' goal orientation and team motivational climate in children's and adolescents' football teams. The second objective is to examine what differences in goal orientation and motivational climate can be detected between teams by grouping respondents by gender, age and team level. The aim is also to investigate the goal orientation profile groups that respondents form and to analyse the ranking of team players in these groups and the relationship between goal orientation profile groups and team motivational climate. The survey involved 94 respondents (72 boys and 22 girls) aged between 9 and 17 years (average age 12.67 years). Responses were collected via an online questionnaire between April and May 2021. All respondents belonged to the same football club in Southern Finland. Differences between groups were examined using the non-parametric Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. K-means cluster analysis was used to form achievement goal orientation profile groups. Statistically significant correlations between the different dimensions of goal orientation and motivational climate were found in the data. Statistically significant differences were found between gender, age groups and between teams at different levels. Three groups of goal orientation profiles were identified from the data: task-oriented, task- and achievement-oriented, and disengaged. The links between goal orientation and motivational climate were also reflected in the team-level analysis of players' goal orientation profiles and the motivational climate within the team. Task orientation and task climate were strong throughout the data, but perceived autonomy was rather weak. Based on the results, it would be worthwhile to investigate what means could be used to support perceived autonomy.

The purpose of this research is to produce knowledge of languaging. The research strives to describe how students talk about their thoughts and actions while playing games designed to teach mathematics. This research is based on Jorma Joutsenlahti’s theories of languaging. The speech of the players is rated by four languages: natural, symbolic, figure and ac tion. These languages and their specific traits are presented in the theory chapter. There were six participants from different parts of southern Finland. The players were from grades 2nd to 5th . The games were from DragonBox - School. The material was col lected by recorded videostreams, because current Covid19-situation made it impossible to meet face to face. This is a case study research. The analysis was made by content analysis using both quality and quantity methods. In the light of this research, the amount of the talk has effect on mathematical speach. The more student talked during the game, the more there were use of mathematical lan guage. Also, the familiarity of mathematical terms increased the use of language. All the four languages were noted in the players talk. The natural language was in the largest role, strongly connected to action through gaming. Also, the symbolic language was used during the games. The games itself contained lot of figurative language; the players recognized some of the figures. There were no tasks in the game to produce figures. The result of this study gives information about languaging.

Objectives. In 2010, an amendment to the Basic Education Act introduced a three-step support model and its introduction has had a significant impact on the operational culture of schools. At the same time, it has also significantly shaped the work of teachers. When evaluating three-step support and its introduction, it is important to highlight the experiences of teachers who practice it on a practical level. In previous studies, teachers have highlighted several challenges related to three-step support and its practice. Teachers have experienced their skills to support students with special educational needs as weak. The purpose of this study was to find out how novice teachers in the early stages of their careers experience three-step support and its practice. The aim of the study was also to find out what kind of skills novice teachers felt teacher training had offered them to practice three-level support. Methods. The study involved four novice teachers, all of whom had less than three years of work experience after graduation. All teachers had graduated from the University of Helsinki. Teachers had experience of practicing three-step support in their own work. The data was collected by semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed using data-driven content analysis. Results and conclusions. Teachers felt that the three-step support model included some functional elements such as the structure of the model, collaboration, and the structure brought by pedagogical documents. The model also saw much to be improved such as flexibility, boundaries of support steps, consistent practices and resources. The practice of the three-step support was stressful due to poor know-how, laborious documentation and high responsibility. Teachers experienced that co-operation with the work community and other professionals supported their work. Teacher training was perceived to provide mainly theoretical skills, while practical skills had remained weak. Teacher training was felt to contain lot of theory and the importance of learning through practice was emphasized.

Objectives. The aim of the study was to find out what kind of perceptions parents have about the sexual and safety skills education offered by the school and what effect they have on their safe use of social media. More and more younger children have their own smartphones. The commonness of smartphones and smart devices means that children may have free access to the Internet and through it to social media. It would be absolutely essential that some party will teach to children how to act on social media. Children should understand dangers of social media, so it will be able to prevent, for example, child abuse and mistreatment in the virtual world. The content and amount of sexual and safety skills education is not defined in the Curriculum for Basic Education (2014), but the implementation of education depends completely about the school and the teacher. Essential questions are do parents know how sexual and safety education is implemented in their children’s school and what contents are conversed on the education. Research methods. The target group here were the parents with a child in primary school (N = 75). The study was carried out as a mixed methods study, where the research data came from both quantitative and qualitative orientation. The data was collected a questionnaire by social media, so the answering based on voluntary. The qualitative section of the data was analyzed using content analysis. The quantitative part of the data was analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U-test and the Kruskal-Wallis’ H-test. Results and conclusions. The results showed that parents are somewhat concerned about children’s use of social media. Parents felt that sexual and safety skills education organized by the school was not enough. The co-operation between the school and the home on issues related to sexual and safety skills education was also dissatisfied, as the parents consider it to be low or non-existent. Parents felt that sexual and safety skills education was important and it should start early enough, even before school age. Parents also felt that having conversation about sexuality and safety skills is easy with their own children even though they didn’t always know how and when things should be discussed. Even though the discussion may seem easy to parents, they think it would be nice to have some additional information on how they can implement sexual and safety skills education themselves at home. Based on the results, it can be concluded that there should be a little more sexual and safety skills education in school so children can prevent dangers on social media.

Aims. The aim of this study is to examine teacher students’ perceived competence to teach 21st century skills and phenomenon-based learning and their connection to their epistemic beliefs, that formed two epistemic theories. Epistemic beliefs refer to our theories and beliefs that we hold about knowledge and learning. The aim is also to find out whether there were differences between the means of subject teacher students, classroom teacher students, or participants in the “21st Century Skills and Phenomenon-Based Projects” course in the perceived competence to teach 21st century skills and phenomenon-based learning. Methodology. The data (N = 274) was gathered from teacher students at the University of Helsinki in autumn 2019. The questionnaire used in the study is based on an assessment tool developed to assess the 21st century skills of the Finnish curricula. First, I used exploratory factor analysis to examine what kind of entities 21st century skills in this material were formed into. In addition, I formed two epistemic theories (reflective-collaborative theory and knowledge transmission theory) from the data using sum variables and used correlation coefficients to examine how respondents’ perceived competence to teach 21st century skills as well as phenomenon-based learning was related to their epistemic beliefs. Finally, I used the one-way analysis of variance to examine whether there were differences between the means of the subject teacher students, the classroom teacher students, and the averages of those who took the elective course. Results and conclusions. 21st century skills were formed into seven dimensions, but mainly in a different way than in the curriculum. The theory emphasizing collaborative knowledge building was statistically significantly related to the perceived competence to teach both 21st century skills and phenomenon-based learning. Knowledge transmission theory had almost nothing to do with perceived competence to teach these skills. There were very few differences between the groups when looking at the means of the responses. The only statistically significant difference was found between classroom teachers and subject teachers in the perceived competence in teaching “collaborative skills and performance”. Based on the expectation value theory, perceived competence predicts success in the task, so supporting an epistemic theory that emphasizes collaborative knowledge building in teacher education can improve students’ competence to teach 21st century skills and phenomenon-based learning in the future.