Browsing by department "Opettajankoulutus"

The purpose was to study the reasons why Finnish jewellery designers and artists have chosen jewellery as their means of expression, what are the starting points for designing and making their jewellery and what it means for them to make jewellery by hand. Jewellery designers and artists often find it difficult to verbalize their work. The purpose of the study was to reveal the world of ideas of jewellery designers and artists and the backgrounds of these difficult-to-say things. The theoretical framework of the dissertation dealt with the development of artistic jewellery in Finland, jewellery designations and the significance of making jewellery by hand for jewellery makers. The study was a qualitative interview study using phenomenography as a research strategy. The data was collected using a thematic interview as an interview method. Five jewellery designers and artists were selected and three of the target individuals participated in the group discussion and two of them were interviewed as individuals. What all the interviewees had in common was that they design and make their own jewellery by hand. The group interview data consisted of 35 spelled pages, person D's interview of 20 spelled pages, and person E's telephone interview of 15 spelled pages. The analysis of the data was theory-based and used thematic design as a method. The themes of the analysis arose from the concept of the theory, but their meanings and contents came from the data. The reason for the choice of jewellery as a means of expression appeared to be essentially related to the nature of jewellery as a bodily object and its relation to the proportions of the human body. Jewellery was seen as a fascinating, limitless, and opportunity rich means of expression. The accuracy and technicality of jewellery making were also reasons for choosing jewellery, as well as how the design and manufacture process of the jewelry feels like the right way for the interviewees to express themselves. The starting points for designing and manufacturing jewellery were largely based on the jewellery makers themselves, their values, thoughts, and preferences, both in terms of the materials, themes and the usability of the jewellery. The meanings of touch, creating, self-expression as well as the mental well-being and lifestyle of the jewellery makers came to the fore in the meanings of making jewelry by hand. The professional perspective also emerged, as the focus of the research was on the professional design and manufacture process of jewellery.

Objectives. The aim of this study was to find out what kind of practices craft teachers have at their disposal to support the student in multilingual teaching groups, where communication in the language of instruction is challenging for the student. In addition, the views of teachers on a multilingual school and the consideration of multilingualism were examined. Teachers' practices were examined from the perspective of language aware teaching. Language awareness has been emphasized on national core curriculum (2014) as a part of school culture but meaning of the concept has been left quite open. Previous research on the subject shows that teachers experience uncertainty about how language-aware teaching is implemented in practice. Language awareness is often seen only as a component of studying theoretic subjects or languages. However, art and crafts contain their own subject-specific symbols and concepts where used language is also meaningful. This situation created a starting point for a study that sought to identify the ways in which craft teachers operate from a language aware perspective. Methods. The study was conducted as a qualitative study. The research material was collected through a semi-structured thematic interview with four craft teachers from the Helsinki metropolitan area. All interviewees have multilingual students in their teaching groups. The material was analyzed using the methods of theory-based content analysis. Results and conclusions. The interviews showed that teachers generally have a positive attitude towards multilingualism, which is one of the most important starting points for language awareness. The interviews revealed language aware ways of working, some of which can be used as such in the teaching of multilingual children and young people. According to the results, parallel language during the lessons was relatively low, although the use of different languages side by side is mentioned in the curriculum and is also one of the factors of language awareness.Teachers recognize their role as a linguistic model well and are also able to identify factors belonging to the language practices of the subject of handicrafts. The most surprising research result was the lack of co-operation with teachers of other subjects, although the basic idea of language awareness at school is language as a unifying factor in the teaching of all subjects.

The purpose of this research is to get knowledge of what has been written in the electronic media about dog-assisted education. All the articles, which has been used in this research are available for anyone. There has been a lot of research about dog-assisted education in the eyes of teachers and students, but no one has done research of the written media. Media is an important way to get knowledge about things in this global world. It is even more important in this time, when everything is in Internet and almoust everyone has access to see it. The way media handles dog-assisted education is even more important, because the interest of the work has been increased. Media also creates and changes how people see the world and media is an importand way to get information all the things around us. The data has been collected using mainly Google, but some of the articles are from the sites, which are making the news for the people. Those sites are for example Yle, Helsingin Sanomat, Etelä-Suomen Sanomat and Turun Sanomat. The data has been collected using terms like schooldog, dog-assisted pedagogy, dog-assisted, dog-assisted intervention, animal-assisted and animal-assisted intervention. 20 articles includes in the research of dog-assisted education in the media. After having all the material, the themes of the articles were collected and categorized. The research came out with 4 main categories and some subcategories. The main categories were dogs in the part of schoolinstitution, dog’s tasks and influencess, the views of the persons which includes the schoolsystems and research based information and future directions. The three main categories has four subcategories and only one has less categories. In the category of dogs in the part of schoolinstitution includes how to bring dog in the schoolinstitution, education for the dog-assisted pedagogy, dog’s suitability for the work and safety. Dog’s tasks and influencess includes dog’s tasks and dog’s influencess, dog’s wellbeing and dog’s ”experiences”. In the third category, the views of the persons which includes the schoolsystems, has subcategories called teacher’s, student’s, parents’ and other staff’s views of dog-assisted education. In the last category, the subcategories were research of dog-assisted pegagogy, future directions and critical view of dog-assisted education. 20 articles came out with diverse views and experiences of dog-assisted education in the practice. In the articles it can bee seen, who has educated in the area and who hasn’t. In the future, when the interest of dog-assisted education arouse, it should bee important to raise those who has education and experiense for the work. That way, it is possible to arouse right knowledge of dog-assisted education, professional qualification and guard future work in the schools.

The purpose of this study is to examine supervision experiences of special education teachers and how supervising affects their ability to carry on in their duties and how their pro-fessional development. The main reason for this subject was the lack of previous studies on the matter and also my own history in the field of supervision.Working as a teacher in special education is often very taxing and for the employees because the work itself requires buil-ding individual relationships with students in a work environment as hectic and yet bureauc-ratic as schools are. Special education teachers are taking care of students and children who are in the most vulnerable positions of society and need the most care and affection in their lives. But who cares for the teachers themselves? Professional supervision is the key in supporting special education professionals in their daily life both mentally and professionally. Regular and accessible supervision services should be viewed as the primary method to se-cure the well being of the special education teachers, which in turn would help to maintain a healthy workforce in the field. The study was conducted as online research through social media. The background survey and research invitations were conducted in the Erityisopettajat Facebook group. The actual study was then conducted in closed Facebook group called “Erityisopettajien pohdintaa” by interviews of the focus group of seven (7) special education teachers. The materials gathe-red from the studies were the analysed by using content analysis methods. The final results of the conducted research enforced my understanding that supervision should be instituted as a regular part of the support structure of special education professi-onals. Based on the results the study, the accessibility of supervision varies a lot between workplaces. The availability of supervision appears to depend mostly on the employers un-derstanding of its benefits for the employee and the work environment itself. The survey succeeded in covering both the good and the challenging parts of special education. The fi-nal conclusion from the study is that the teachers in special education felt that the supervisi-on as a direct impact on their well being and professional development.

The aim of this study was to find out how the municipalities are applied the three-tiered support model in their own ECEC (early childhood education and care) plans and what means general, intensified and special support in ECEC. In addition, the aim was to find out if or not the municipalities provide support in the same way or if there are differences between them. Previous studies on three-tier support in early childhood education have not been conducted, so this study provides new insights into the provision of three-tier support in kindergartens. The subject of the study is very topical. Three-tier support is also likely to be introduced in early childhood education in the next few years, so knowledge of its implementation is needed to prepare fluent support for early childhood education. This study is qualitative and the data is used from the municipalities ECEC plans. These ECEC plans included three-tiered support, or detailed general, intensified, and special support. Ten municipalities of different sizes from all over Finland where examined in this study. The data was analyzed using content analysis and approached using an abductive approach. The data was analyzed using the Atlas software, which supported the coding and classification of the data. The results of the study showed that the municipalities had applied the three-tiered support model in different ways, but there was a high degree of consistency in general. The levels of support were set very similarly by the municipalities and most of the differences were found in the definitions of special support. There are differences as well as similarities between municipal plans at different levels of support. Differences between municipalities were found in the practice of intensified and special support. The differences in general support were minor. In the case of intensified support, differences were mainly found only in the recording of support. In the case of special support, differences were found in the recording for the support, the eligibility criteria, the decision on the special support and organizing environment. According to findings of this research, it appears that there are differences in the implementation of three-tier support in early childhood education, especially in special support. Municipalities may have followed the example on three-tier support models for pre- and / or basic education, and this is reflected in coherence between levels of general and intensified support. Differences between municipalities in the level of special support may lead to inequalities when accessing the support. More precise entries in the Early Childhood Education Act and in the grounds of the ECEC plan are needed to ensure that the support is distributed uniformly throughout the country. In particular, special support needs a common line on when a child is entitled to special support, where the support is recorded and who makes the decision on the special support.

Aims. The study explores different ways to speak about the phenomenon of touch in the written memories about touching in school context. The aim is to specify, based on the data, the presence of public and broadly shared meanings given to touching in school context. Personal memories are interpreted in the socio-cultural context. The broader socio-cultural context is defined as public discourses in the Finnish media and as the official normative documents and discourses defining touching policies in school context. This study is connected to the Koskettava koulu -research project (Tainio et al., 2017-2020) which aims to explore the multidimensional phemonon of touching in comprehensive school context. Previous research on touch studies interaction, meanings and norms defining touching in comprehensive school. Methods. The data were gathered by an open invitation in social media to write about personal memories about touching in past school years. 51 short memoirs (seen as oral histories) were received and analyzed using discourse analysis. The data consisted of both teacher and former pupil positioned memories. Conceptual tools applied in the analysis were voice, dialogue and hidden dialogue based on Mihail Bahtin’s theory of dialogue in language use. Results and conclusions The results indicated that oral history contains present-day public, broadly shared ways to form meanings in interpretative element of the memory. There were three main discourses constructed from the data. First, the teacher discourse argued touching by the essential persona of a teacher and by the professional ethics obligating teacher’s ways to touch students. Second, student discourses indicated touching as a culture guided by the official norms of conduct and comparably touching as directed by the subcultural rules among students. Third main discourse was problematic touch in the school context which indicated molesting as a recognized phenomenon but also silenced tabu-like theme.

The main purpose of this qualitative study is to identify home economics teachers’ perceptions and experiences of the integration of special needs students into home economics education. The research questions are: 1) How do home economics teachers experience the effects of integration of special needs students in their teaching? 2) What factors have teachers determined lead to the perception of integration either as a positive or negative result? This research topic is largely understudied in the area of home economics science. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to raise awareness of home economics teachers' views on integration and the lasting effects in the classroom. Six home economics teachers from the Helsinki metropolitan area participated in this study. The qualitative data were collected through a semi-structured thematic interview. The data were analyzed using the methods of qualitative content analysis. In the analysis, answers to the research questions were sought through five different themes: quality of support for the integrated students, quality of teaching, teacher’s ability to meet the demand of a special needs student, means of differentiation, and teacher's own well-being. The main results demonstrate that home economics teachers perceived the differentiation of teaching for special needs students challenging. This had a negative impact on special needs students as well as general education students. The increase in workload was perceived as the most significant factor and weakened the overall well-being of teachers. An increase in students’ tolerance and acceptance of difference was perceived as a positive factor. The special needs students in the heterogeneous teaching group who exhibited underdeveloped attention spans negatively affected the teachers’ conscience.

The National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014 provides an opportunity to teach Home Economics as a part of optional studies in primary schools. The National Curriculum emphasizes transversal competence, integrated curriculum and phenomenon-based learning. Integrative instruction, and approaching other subjects in the context of everyday life is the core of Home Economics. Until the 2016 Home Economics was mainly only taught in secondary and high schools and the goals for the competence and subject matter for teaching Home Economics in primary school is still not set in the National Curriculum. Consequently, there are no comprehensive educational material for Home Economics at the primary school level. Seven Master’s theses are completed with the focus on Home Economics in primary schools in 1990’s and 2010’s. There has been a demand for bringing back and re-branding Home Economics in international research field and discussions. Bringing Home Economics to primary schools can be seen as a step towards developing it into a subject that supports students’ growth as a human being throughout their studies by teaching important life skills. The aim of this study is to make groundwork to facilitate the planning of local curriculums, in-service education and teaching materials. The research data were collected by conducting nine expert interviews. The interviewees were selected to give the widest possible frame for Home Economics with different backgrounds like experience in teaching, writing teaching materials, working in third sector related to the field and being part of making the National Core Curriculum. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The results of this study show that Home Economics is perceived as relevant and meaningful subject due to comprehensive life skills it teaches. It is important to teach Home Economics also in primary schools because learning those skills is worthwhile for all ages. Teaching Home Economics should be based on a complex and rich interpretation of the subject and the aims set in the curriculum. That is the only way the significance and effectiveness of the subject can come to fruition. Attention should be paid to the versatility of teaching materials and to provision of adequate in-service education to those who teach Home Economics in primary schools in order to ensure that the objectives of the subject are met.

The objective of this study is to highlight traumas experienced by a student and to examine how the traumas arise in school context. I also examine what kind of support school was able to provide for the traumatized student. Purpose of this study is to provide knowledge and possible means for caretakers to encounter a traumatized child. In this study the voice is given to a young person who has been struggling with traumas during her time in school and her narrative is used to determine the student’s personal experiences of reconciling the traumas and school. The person who participated in this study was a former youth in a youth detention centre, whose traumas passed throughout her whole school time, especially throughout the secondary school and beginning of high school, which are the main subjects of this study. Purpose of this study is not to generalize, but to bring out this youth’s valuable story to the public by collecting relevant data. The study is a qualitative case study and collected material is used to highlight information about the factors that led to the traumas and in particular, what kind of support was available at school and what kind of support would have been needed. Data collection methods were observation, daily reports and open interviews. Analysis of the collected material was carried out according to methods of content analysis. Study results showed that traumas had significant links to a child’s well-being, learning and need for support at school. Trauma was caused by attachment problems and lack of basic needs of the child. My study is partly related to the attachment theory. Based on this, the early age problems of interaction seemed to affect later social life, psyche and coping with school. Problems reflected to school as social challenges and caused learning, concentration and behavioral problems. Hiding behind defenses, loneliness and labelled difference led to a decline in school motivation and performance. Support provided was not sufficient and all parties; teachers, classmates and the youth herself were exhausted. Traumas appear in school context in many ways in all areas of studying. In school context, there does not always seem to be enough time, means, skills or resources to face children who are severely traumatized and therefore mentally unstable.

Children’s and adolescents’ well-being as well as school well-being has been a headline on many news recently. The aim of this study was to examine compulsory school students’ perspectives on school factors that have influenced on their school absenteeism. The aim of this study was also to view student’s perspectives on the support the school has offered them. The aim was also to find out what kind of support the adolescents would consider to be effective in preventing absenteeism. Many researchers have done research on truancy but only few studies have focused on students’ perspectives on truancy. This research was conducted as a theme interview. Research material consisted of five theme interviews from compulsory school students that have been absent from school and school is concerned on their school absenteeism. Themes covered school aspects from a wide range. Themes covered also student’s views to their school absenteeism. The research material was analysed by using content analysis. Results from this study indicate that school bullying is one of the major reasons behind school absenteeism of the interviewed adolescents. Interaction with teachers play also an important role. Only one of the adolescents interviewed stated that her absenteeism is due to her own motivation. The results show that school has not offered enough support against or preventing bullying. The results concerning support in school matters other than bullying vary from not getting enough support to getting all the support student could ask for. Results from this study show that students hope the school to act stronger in preventing school bullying. Also schools should place more effort on the school atmosphere and the interaction between students and teachers. Strengthening school engagement and preventing school bullying could help reduce school absenteeism.