Browsing by study line "Class Teacher, Educational Psychology"

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Objective: The aim of this article-type master's thesis was to examine agency of pupils in primary school during phenomenal learning. this is article-type master’s thesis is a study of child perspectives. The aim of the study was to study what kind of agency occurs during a phenomenal learning process. Students’ views and experiences of phenomenal learning were studied as well. Research concerning student’s agency during phenomenal learning process is limited. Previous research refers that there is still a resistance in school that limits the possibility for students to act as active agents of their teaching and learning environment (Mameli ym. 2020). Methods: The data of the study were collected by observation and thematic interviews with students (n=24) and a teacher at a school in Southern Finland. The students were asked to describe their experiences and views of phenomenal learning and how their agency occurs during this learning process. The data were analyzed using theoretical content analysis. Results and conclusions: The results showed that pupils’ agency occurred individually and collectively within a group or within the whole class and instructed by the class teacher as well. During phenomenal learning process pupils have to take more responsibility than in teacher-centered environment. Learning during the phenomenal process occurs by peer learning. Teachers at the school were providing pupils opportunities to agency during phe-nomenal learning and also during teacher centered learning process. The article “The agency of pupils’ in primary school during phenomenon-based learning process” is to be published in Journal of Educational Change.

Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills are recognized as an important asset in the transition phase of society that we are living in. The attitude climate in entrepreneurship education is mainly positive and has developed significantly over the past decades in Finland. The importance of entrepreneurship education as part of the Education Curriculum has been strengthened since the 1990s. Despite this, the role of entrepreneurship education in the everyday life of elementary schools is small. In my research, I wanted to find out why entrepreneurship education does not appear in basic education according to POPS (2014)? The goal of my research was to form an understanding of the current state of entrepreneurship education in basic education based on the views of entrepreneurship education experts, and thereby define measures that support the future of entrepreneurship education in basic education. I approached the research question through three sub-questions: "What kind of role does entrepreneurship education have for the individual and society?", "What kind of opportunities and challenges are associated with entrepreneurship education?" and "What kind of views do entrepreneurship education experts have about the future of entrepreneurship education in basic education?" My research was based on the theory of entrepreneurship education (e.g. Seikkula-Leino 2018, Lackéus 2017) and guidelines defining entrepreneurship education. The research was carried out as a qualitative case study by interviewing seven expert teachers of entrepreneurship education and was analyzed using content analysis methods. The research results showed that entrepreneurship education has a significant role for the individual and society. The main influencing factors of entrepreneurship education were the attitude climate, financial resources and the role of teachers. The most important challenges were the lack of teacher training and teachers' skills, as well as the school's marginal conditions and lack of resources for multidisciplinary learning that crosses subject boundaries. In their views, the experts criticized the division of subjects and knowledge-based nature of the current school and emphasized that the school should serve the student's interests more strongly than it currently does. As conclusions, POPS should provide a stronger backbone for entrepreneurship education than at present, which forms an integral learning path for basic education. POPS should strengthen its concreteness and clarity, as well as the importance of multidisciplinary and broad competence skills. So that in the future every student has equal opportunities to receive entrepreneurship education, the Board of Education must use financial resources and training to support the realization and implementation of POPS in elementary schools and university teacher training more strongly than at present. School curricula should include an annual calendar of entrepreneurship education, and the management should provide sufficient resources for teaching that crosses subject boundaries.

The aim of this study is to find out whether self-esteem or well-being are related to socio-emotional skills measured according to the CASEL framework, which classifies socio-emotional skills in the categories of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. In addition to this, the relationship between self-esteem and well-being will be looked into. The theoretical framework for this study lies in the theory of social constructive learning, which will be used to formulate the hypotheses of this study and which will also be used in interpreting the results. The study has been conducted as a descriptive quantitative study using a data set collected in the Learning 2 Be research project. The analyses have been run on SPSS 28. The methods used in this study were Spearman’s correlation analysis and Welch ANOVA with Games-Howell post hoc tests. According to the results, every aspect of socio-emotional skills has a positive correlation with all the other aspects of socio-emotional skills, as well as with self-esteem and well-being. The strongest correlations were found between relationship skills and responsible decision-making, as well as between self-awareness and responsible decision-making, while the weakest correlations were found between well-being and social awareness, as well as between well-being and self-management. The results of the ANOVA show that greater perceived well-being is related to better skills in every aspect of socio-emotional skills measured, at least when well-being is measured by life satisfaction. Greater perceived well-being is also related to higher self-esteem, when well-being is measured by life satisfaction and when self-esteem is measured by an adaptation of the classic Rosenberg self-esteem scale. The results of the correlation analyses are in accordance with the results of the analyses of variance and they both also agree with previous studies conducted on the subject. Based on these results, numerous ideas for possible future studies can be named so that more light can be shed on different factors related to socio-emotional skills in the future.

The purpose of this article-based master’s thesis is to validate the Finnish translation of the teacher subscale of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS 2000). Previous studies have shown that perceived teacher social support is associated with many positive outcomes, e.g., academic achievements (Tennant et al., 2015, 11) and mental health (Rueger et al., 2016, 1045). While the original CASSS has been properly validated, the same validity cannot be assumed for the translated version because validity is context specific (Griffee, 2001, 1). For future studies on perceived teacher support in Finnish schools, the validation of the measure is needed. This study examines the translated subscale, its factor structure, and its ability to associate with background variables similarly with the original. The data for this study are a part of larger data collection collected in a project called Schooling, teaching and well-being in the school community during the COVID-19 pandemic (CEA, University of Helsinki; REAL, Tampere University; NEDIS, Tampere University; Ministry of Education and Culture). The data were collected in the spring of 2021 and total of 51 105 students from 4th–9th grades participated in the study. The methods used in this quantitative study included exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and variance analyses. Different ways of assessing the reliability of the translated subscale were used as well. The results showed that the translated version of the teacher subscale of CASSS is a valid and reliable instrument for researching Finnish 4th–9th grade students perceived teacher social support. Both EFA and CFA demonstrated sufficient results in this regard. While analysing the criterion validity of the subscale, associations between teacher support and academic outcomes, and depressive symptoms were found. These results are in line with prior research (e.g., Tennant et al., 2015, 11; Sikora et al., 2019, 93). These results indicate that the Finnish translation of the teacher support subscale can be used in future studies. The article manuscript The Validity and Reliability of the Finnish Version of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS 2000) on Teacher Support in Basic Education is intended to be published in the European Journal of Psychology and Educational Research.

In recent years, newly qualified teachers have found their first years in the profession stressful and the work-related wellbeing of early-career teachers has been the subject of widespread public debate. Previous research has shown that collegial support has been a valid way to increase the wellbeing of newly qualified teachers. The purpose of this study is to examine what kind of experiences newly qualified teachers have concerning the effect of collegial support on their work-related wellbeing. The goal is to discover the possible ways to implement collegial support in the school world. Five newly qualified teachers participated in the study. Four of the examinees worked in the Helsinki metropolitan area and one elsewhere in Finland. A theme interview was used to collect the data. The data were analyzed in the style of theory-driven content analysis. Collegial support played an important role in the newly qualified teachers work-related wellbeing. Collegial support that has an influence on the experiences of work-related wellbeing was obtained either through informal interaction or through the respective school’s operating culture. Collegial support obtained through informal interaction included everyday encounters with friends and easy access to collegial help. Collegial support obtained through a school’s operating culture included a positive and encouraging operating culture, high-quality school management, a culture of appreciation and feedback, mentoring or other organized collegial support, and a communal atmosphere. Increasing mentoring seems to be one strategic way to improve the work-related wellbeing of newly qualified teachers.

There have been many studies concerning the organization and management in classrooms and the disturbances that violate it. Most of them, however, have been done from the point of view of teachers. The goal of this study is to bring out the views of the pupils on this subject. This study aims to find out more information for the teachers on, how the students think the classroom disturbances could be reduced and what can the teachers do to improve classroom management. This study was done as a qualitive study. The material used in the study has been collected by interviewing ten ninth grade students. In the interviews, the students were asked different questions concerning classroom management and disturbances with an aspect of the role of a teacher involved. The material was then analysed using data-driven content analysis focusing on the views of classroom management. The results were formed from consistent themes found from the material, from which the researcher formed the main categories. The students brought up the usage of phones, talking with classroom friends and extra disturbances (for example, extra personnel in the classroom) as the main causes of classroom disturbances. The students showed that they understand their role in the cause of classroom disturbances but underlined the role of the teacher in their answers, as the key to a peaceful classroom. Teachers were expected to be clear with their rules and be justful in their actions which were aspects that the students respected. Results showed that the students felt that the classroom is more peaceful when the teacher has planned the lesson to match the students’ needs. Results also showed that teacher-student relationship and classroom atmosphere have an impact on the peace of the classroom.