Browsing by study line "Luokanopettaja (kasvatustiede)"
Now showing items 21-40 of 126
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(2020)The aim of the present study was to examine how ninth graders’ self-reported anxiety symptoms are related to their time on task and task performance in low-stakes assessment. The aim of the present study was also to examine if there are gender differences in how ninth graders’ self-reported anxiety symptoms are related to their time on task and task performance in low-stakes assessment. The relation between self-reported anxiety symptoms and time on task and task performance in low-stakes assessment, has presumably not been studied before. However studies show, that in most cases, anxiety correlates negatively with cognitive processes and task performance. The present study’s data is a part of MetLoFin longitudinal data that was collected in Helsinki metropolitan area in 2011 and 2014. The study examined lower secondary school pupils’ learning to learn, achievement, well-being and their relations. The first phase of the main data was collected in the fall of 2011 when the pupils were at seventh grade. The second phase of the main study was collected in the spring of 2014 from the same students, who at the time were at ninth grade. In the present study, only the data from 2014 was used which consisted of 5813 pupils from ninth grade. Anxiety symptoms were measured with three different indicators that measured emotional difficulties, academic pressure and somatic symptoms. The data was analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 25. The study showed that when examining the whole data, emotional difficulties and academic pressure correlated negatively with time on task and task performance. The relation between somatic symptoms and time on task and task performance was weak and conflicting when examining the whole data. The study also showed that with boys, the self-reported anxiety symptoms correlated negatively with time on task and task performance. With girls, the relation between self-reported anxiety symptoms and time on task and task performance in low-stakes assessment was notably weaker.
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(2021)Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract This Master's Thesis originated with an assignment from LUMA2020-program to create mathematics materials to primary education. Previous studies have shown interest to be a major factor in learning mathematics. Therefore, the goal of the material is to be interesting. This thesis leaned on the model by Aunio and Räsäsen (2016) about the development of mathematic skills in children under the age of 8, so that the material could be developed to fit the zone of proximal development. This thesis examines the factors that influence interest in mathematics material. The goal of the thesis is to create interesting mathematical materials for children in primary education. This Master's thesis has been implemented as a design research. Empirical problem analysis has collected data on the aspirations of mathematics materials from teachers and educators who participated in the LUMA2020 program in primary education. The poll was sent to 126 people in total. Based on the responses to this survey (total of 18) and previous research, I created the first design solution. This design solution was assessed as a case study by interviewing the five people who tried the material. Based on the results of the interviews, I created another design solution. According to this master's thesis, meaningful and interesting mathematics material aimed at children in primary education is of the right level and it makes it possible to stream pupils. Functionality and an interesting story that makes actions logical increases interest towards the material. Good and clear instructions for children and adults affect positively to commitment and interest towards the material.
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(2020)The aim of this thesis is to describe, analyze and interpret the meanings that the administrative representatives of the City of Jämsä Education and Culture Department give to the Music Institute as part of the Education and Cultural Services. The study is a qualitative case study and the data is analyzed according to phenomenographic analysis. The research is motivated not only by the researcher's personal interests in music and musical hobbies, but also by the interest in decision-making and its preparation. The research questions are based on the history of the national music school system and the local music institute, research on folk and music school and their social significance, research on Finnish leisure music hobbies, documents and regulations governing the activities of the city and the Music School, their organization and strategy. Three administrative representatives of the Education and Cultural Services in the City of Jämsä were interviewed for the study. The theme interviews were recorded and transcribed. The analysis of the material proceeded according to the phenomenographic analysis. The results of the study show that the Music School has also cultural, service and collaborative responsibilities in addition to its educational duties. The music school’s strengths include competent, long-term and motivated staff, content and collaboration. Weaknesses are related to financial aspects. The life-cycle perspective of the Quality-of-life Services is comprehensively realized in the Music School. According to representatives of the educational administration, the Music School is an actor to prevent inequality and exclusion, although fees and entrance examinations limit the opportunities for participation. From a communal point of view, the Music School creates a community in itself and it has many successful partners. Related to health improving aspect, the Music School first and foremost improves mental health. According to the interviewees, the Music School strengthens both local music culture and cultural activities. Through its activities, the Music School has been a part of the nationwide history of music schools, for example, by training experts in important musical positions. There have been structural, operational, economic, political and cultural changes in the administration and services of the City of Jämsä. In particular, the Music School supports the fields of well-being and vitality of the “Jämsä 2025” strategy. Economic, cultural and operational challenges are mentioned for the future.
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(2020)Objectives. The changes to Basic Education Act (624/2010), which came into force on January 2011, as well as the enforcement of the Pupil and Student Welfare Act (1287/2013) in 2014, has restructured the operation of the Finnish education system. The model, known as the support in learning and school attendance, operates on a three-tiered support system, and is based on inclusive principles as one of its goals is to include pupils with special needs to mainstream classes with additional teaching support. This study aims to investigate how the amendments have affected classroom teachers’ work tasks, workload, and well-being at work, and as well as to highlight the ways in which classroom teachers have adapted to the changes. Methods. The research approach of this study was qualitative. The data was collected by interviewing four classroom teachers using semi-structured theme interviews. The participants were selected for the study based on their year of graduation and by municipality, as they had worked as classroom teachers before the enforcement of the previously mentioned amendments, and as they all were working in schools in different municipalities. The data was analysed using a qualitative analysis of content. Results and conclusions. According to the teachers, adoption of the new support model has not created any new work tasks or responsibilities to the teachers although the changes have affected how the workload is divided between different work tasks. Majority of the participants brought up how the adoption of the three-tiered support model had increased work bureaucracy and workload, in the form of preparation of pedagogical documents, multiprofessional cooperation and cooperation between home and school. However, the teachers underlined that the model had created positive developments in teaching as well. There were major differences in teachers’ experiences regarding the changes in the work and well-being at work, as the teachers experienced changes in different areas of their work in different ways. Similarly, teachers' ways of adapting to change were different, where the results of this study can provide different perspectives on examining and developing teachers' well-being at work.
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(2020)The purpose of this study was to examine in more detail the factors behind the inheritance of the teacher’s profession. This topic has been studied widely in Finland and abroad. The previous studies have shown that the teacher’s profession tends to inherit in the family. The information that one could have from the results, could be used for example in student counselling. The data was collected by sending a questionnaire via email to five teachers who are from families that include teachers. The questionnaire had nine questions which were based on previous studies and this thesis’ research problems. The previous studies that were used in this study were both Finnish and international. Thematizing was used as an analyzing method when questionnaires were analyzed. The Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on the method which was used to collect the data: originally it was planned to collect it via interviews but because of the pandemic the data had to be collected via questionnaire. As a conclusion in this study teacher occupation tends to inherit for example because of the support from the family and information about the occupation that is given by them. Being in a family that has other teachers has positive impacts, like for example common holidays. Knowing that occupations in families have an impact on a child's decision about education and future occupation, give student counsellors important information that they could use when working with the students.
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(2021)Objectives. Geomedia has been part of Finnish elementary school curriculum for five years in grades 3–6. Geomedia as a concept gathers old content with new one in the pursuit of devel-oping geography in school. Success of geomedia in teaching derives from perceptions of teachers, textbooks, and local curriculums. According to expectation value theory teachers perceived competence, task value of content and expectancies for its success in teaching ex-plain the motivation of how teachers invest in teaching of variable teaching contents. The re-search problem was to clarify the state of geomedia in 3rd to 6th grades. Methods. The study was conducted in the form of pragmatic exploratory mixed methods re-search using parallel convergent design. Design combined quantitative and qualitative data and methods. Data consisted 846 quantitative answers and 21 qualitative answers from open-ended question in the survey research conducted in the autumn 2020 by order of the Finnish National Agency for Education. Additional qualitative data was provided through the analysis of three textbook series and five local curricula. Quantitative data was presented though table and analysed using correlation. Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. Results and conclusions. The concept of geomedia was not defined in any local curriculum and it was verbalized in one textbook only. Due to the broad formulation of the concept of ge-omedia, all textbooks included geomedia in its mainly older form and in such way, it was not consciously used by teachers and pupils in learning. The perceived expectancy value to teach geomedia was clearly lower compared to other main contents of geography in science teach-ing. This result was explained by the teachers lack of understanding about geomedia. Fur-thermore, teachers didn’t have the applicable teaching materials and had not received any additional training for the usage of geomedia in teaching. Since the poor competence of teachers leads to reliance on learning material, it can be stated that geomedia is not rooted as a conscious concept in teaching. If geomedia was defined and instructed from the pupil’s point of view of using technology in their daily lives, it could renew the teaching of geography. Developing the perceived competence of teachers through additional training and research based-learning materials would, based on expectation value theory and results, increase the importance of how the teachers perceive content in their teaching. In this way, it would be possible to redeem geomedia among the more entrenched teaching content of geography.
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(2020)Safe learning environment is a student´s right based on the Finnish law (2013, 29 §) and national curriculum (POPS, 2014, s.29). Taking care of safety is a requirement of student wellbeing (Noble etc., 2008, s.7-10). Safe learning environment is based on physical and mental safety. Physical safety includes state security and physical integrity while mental health includes social, psychological, and pedagogical security. Emotional security is based on all these five areas. (Hurme & Kyllönen, 2014, s.28-29.) My personal interest and the lack of research available in Finnish has led me to study the use of dogs in education. The purpose of this master`s thesis is to describe, analyse and interpret how teachers think service dogs affect safe learning environments. This thesis tries to increase understanding of safe learning environments and describe how service dogs affects those. I researched the following question: How teachers see a service dog affecting a safe learning environment (state security, physical integrity, social, psychological, pedagogical and emotional security)? This thesis is a qualitative research and it is made with semi-structured interview. I interviewed six teachers for this thesis. All teachers have used a service dog in education for at least one and half years and some of them have used service dogs for more than five years. The inter-views are analysed by using content analysis. This thesis shows that a service dog can help students` emotional security and mental security however there are few exceptions. The biggest concern teachers have on the use of service dogs is ensuring the physical security of all students. As the benefits of service dogs on students' wellbeing and safe learning environment exceed the negative effects, I suggest that they should be more widely adopted based on the available research.
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Keksimisen pedagogiikkaa erityiskoulussa : opettajien kokemuksia keksintöprojektin toteuttamisesta (2020)The aim of this thesis was to find out what kind of experience teachers acquired in an inven- tion project in a special needs school. The thesis also examines the foundations of the ped- agogy of inventing. In this study, the invention project was examined through three central categories: teachers’ views on pedagogy of inventing, teachers’ views on actions of the pu- pils during the invention project and teachers’ experiences in organizing the invention pro- ject. The aim was to give a broad general view about organizing an invention project in a special needs school. The material for this thesis was collected with semi-structured interviews of the teachers in the special needs school. The qualitative analysis was done by thematic arranging and it was data driven. ATLAS.TI was used in the arranging of the data. The data was organized in upper and subcategories around unified themes. During the thematic arrangement 50 subcategories were found and they were organized into 13 different upper categories. The teachers saw the pedagogy of inventing as an approach that utilizes cognitive skills, creativeness, innovativeness and self-support of the pupils as well as different methods across different subjects in an open-ended problem space. The major upper category in the actions of the pupils during the invention project was cognitive skills. Teachers felt that the project developed the pupil’s skills in reflecting and planning their work. The project also improved their social skills and the teachers were surprised how well the collaboration worked between the older and the younger students. The students were strongly committed to the project and got many experiences of success. In the central category of teachers’ experiences in organizing the invention project, the teachers brought up communication and interaction problems with their colleagues. Some of the teachers didn’t get to participate to the planning of the project and felt isolated during the project. The teachers came up with many ways to improve the project’s organizing for the next time. The teachers also felt that it is possible to do invention projects with special needs pupils, but they still need same kind of support that they normally get in their learning.
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(2021)Tässä kvalitatiivisessa pro gradu -tutkielmassa tutkin luovuuden tukemisen merkityksiä. Tutkimus sisältää kolme narratiivista haastattelua ja niistä syntyneet kertomukset luovuuden tukemisen merkityksistä. Toinen tutkimuksessa käytetty metodi on systemoitu kirjallisuuskatsaus, jossa tärkeimmiksi teorioiksi on valittu J. P. Guilfordin divergentti ajattelu, A. H. Maslow’n teoria luovuudesta itsensä toteuttamisena ja M. Csíkszentmihályin flow-teoria. Luovuuden tukemisen merkityksiä voidaan löytää niin yksilön kuin yhteiskunnan näkökulmista. Tämän tutkimuksen parasta antia ovat luovuuskertomukset, joita analysoin muun muassa rohkeuden, vapauden, ideoinnin ja itsevarmuuden rakentumisen näkökulmista. Yhteiskunnallisia näkökulmia tutkimukselle on luovien produktien tuottaminen ja yhteiskunnallinen osallistuminen.
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(2020)As shown by prior research, primary school student teachers feel a lack of practical experience in their studies. Nowadays the part of practical training in teacher education studies is becoming even smaller. This thesis argues for the advantages of working on a summer camp for primary school student teacher’s professional development during their studies. This thesis describes how working on a summer camp affects a student teacher’s professional development and what factors they consider important for their own professional development. The presumption for the research was that working on a summer camp has positive and important effects on the professional development of a primary school student teacher. The method used in this thesis was a qualitative case study. The data consisted of interviews with seven primary school student teachers that had worked on a summer camp during the past three years. The interview was a half-structured individual interview. The data was analyzed by using thematic analysis, and six themes were found from the analyzed data. Due to the diverging answers of the respondents, the thematic analysis was extended by categorizing the test subjects into four different groups. The factors affecting a primary school student teacher’s professional development of working on a summer camp were increased experience, reflection, co-workers and teamwork, difficult cases, interaction with children and the young and reflection on teaching. The respondents experienced that working on a summer camp was beneficial for their professional development. Based on their answers, the test subjects were categorized into test subjects with converging answers and test subjects with diverging answers. The first group consisted of four respondents that emphasized the six main themes in their answers. The second group consisted of three answerers and they were named further as self-reflector, novice teacher and the exceeder. Based on this study, working on a summer camp can be recommended for all student teachers. This study can act as inspiration for applying for a job on a summer camp and as a reason for hiring student teachers.
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(2021)The aim of this research is to clarify experiences of six teachers with different qualifications about Language awareness in a simultaneous teaching -pilot program. This program has been implemented in schools in Helsinki. My objective in this research is to sort out teachers’ experiences about planning, implementation, possible effects, or changes within this program and how translanguaging has been used in teaching. Important theoretical concepts of this research are language awareness and translanguaging. In addition, I examine mother tongue teaching, Finnish as a second language teaching, preparatory teaching for newly arrived students and multilingualism in Finnish schools from the perspectives of Finnish school system and Finnish primary school curriculum. The character of this research is qualitative content analysis. In this research I will specify the material which I have collected by using semi-structured interviews and I will present themes that were established from the material. The material contains interviews of six teachers which have been part of the pilot program. In the material we can hear experiences of mother tongue teachers, class teacher, subject teacher, and Finnish as a second language -teacher, from the middle and elementary school point of view. The results of my research give indication about capabilities of language awareness simultaneous teaching in practice and what types of thoughts teachers have about multilingual, language awareness and translanguaging utilised in teaching during this pilot program. The main results of my research indicate that middle and elementary schools have differences between teachers pedagogical planning which depend on the qualifications of the teachers. In planning, structural challenges and difficulties occurred during scheduling. In the implementation there were differences in using different languages, for example the languages were centre of the teaching or part of teaching to support learning. Experiences of possible effects of the pilot program were developed in language skills, changes in motivation, individual and peer attitude in language skills, learning and support in work, knowing students, interests of teachers outside of the pilot program and parents’ varying feedback. Utilizing translanguaging and various types of languages in classes appeared dissimilar and the teacher’s role in multilingual interaction differed based on the qualifications of the teacher. The teachers experienced the pilot program overall as a positive, useful, and necessary matter. The need for this kind of language awareness simultaneous teaching in which mother tongue teachers work together with other teachers were reflected within the teachers’ experiences. There were many advantages which display that there might be a lack or shortage in linguistic support and in multilingualism becoming a norm in the Finnish comprehensive school.
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(2021)The aim of the stydy is to present the perceptions and experiences of classroom teacher students about the effects of school physical education on the adoption of physical active lifestyle. Secondly, the aim was to find out the views and knowledge of classroom teacher studets about the factors influencing the development of physical activity lifestyle in physical education and to find out whether physical education in primary school have effected on their subsequent formation of physical habits. Third goal was to find out how the classroom teachers experiences school´s responsibility in educating and motivating students towards a physical active lifestyle. The research was conducted as a qualitative study in which the data were collected through theme interviews. Eight classroom teacher students from the University of Helsinki were interviewed during this study. The thesis was phenomenographic because the purpose was to understand the meanings behind the experiences and try to understand the phenomenon of the study as comprehensively as possible. Content analysis was used as a means of analyzing the data in this study. Theoretical framework of this thesis consisted of studies of physical activity relationships, the self-determination theory and the physical literacy theory. The study highlighted the achievement of positive exercise experiences as a significant factor to maintain physical activity throughout the lifecourse. The interviewees' experiences of physical education in primary school highlighted the effects of the teacher, subject, group and the framework provided by the school on the formation of later physical education habits. The basis for physical activity lifestyle is formed of motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding. The physical lifestyle was considered as an important goal in physical education, although its implementation was perceived as a challenging task.
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(2021)The Covid-19 pandemic forced the Ministry of Education and Culture to make a historical decision, based on which all schools and educational institutions in Finland switched to dis-tance education on March 18, 2020. If necessary, contact teaching was offered only to pupils in grades 1 – 3 or with special support. The purpose of this dissertation is to record the experience of pupils aged 7 to 12 years and their parents of the distance school routine overshadowed by exclusionary activities of soci-ety. It was mentally a very difficult period. The aim of the dissertation is to find out how dis-tance education was perceived, especially in terms of the mental well-being of pupils and what opportunities the teacher has to support in the community of pupils and other mental well-being in the situation of distance education. This qualitative research has a narrative approach. The material consists of diary-based WhatsApp messages from three students and loosely structured thematic interviews with stu-dents and their parents. The material has been compiled during exceptional circumstances, and it was possible to find out changes in school practices and pupils’ moods as the distance learning period progressed. The results show the importance of different teaching practices on mental well-being of the pupil the differences in the level of teaching practices. The data shows the spring 2020 was challenging. As expected, it highlighted loneliness caused by social isolation but also the po-tential of the school to support community. At it’s best, distance education was challenging but diverse learning environment that devel-oped future skills and self-esteem of the pupil. At worst, it turned out to be a grueling and lonely drill for the pupil when even the provision of basic learning goals was uncertain.
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(2020)Use of dogs in school environment has increased during the last years. In earlier studies it has been found that dogs can increase social well-being in classrooms, motivate pupils, help them take part in school work and calm them. Few years ago the new curriculum for basic education made emotion education part of mandatory content in elementary school. Goal for emotion education is to teach pupils to understand their emotions and express them in way that is good for them and others. In this study the goal is to find out in what whey teacher can use school dog as a part of emotion education and what kind of experiences the teacher and pupils have on this kind of classes. This study was a qualitative study. The participants were 37 elementary school pupils from grades 5.-6. and a teacher who had given those pupils emotion education. The pupils wrote shorts texts to the teacher evaluating given classes. To help write these texts they had some questions they were able to use. The teacher was interviewed using theme interview. Both the texts and the interview were analysed using content analysis. Dog’s appearance was a meaningful thing to the classes. The teacher and pupils felt that the dog made the classes more motivating and it also affected to the atmosphere positively. The teacher thinks that the dog makes it easier for the pupils to open up and they will also have stronger memory trail of these classes. The pupils found that being physically near the dog was important and the dog affected also their mood. Some pupils didn’t think that the dog affected them in any way. School dog can make emotion education easier as it makes easier to talk about difficult things and makes learning environment better. With dog emotion education can be carried out in various ways that are inspiring for pupils.
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(2020)Appearance pressures caused by social media, increased use of technology, low physical activity and poor physical performance in children and adolescents have led to the originate of this thesis. Previous studies show that these factors can be seen as a risk to the embodiment. The purpose of this thesis is to provide information about embodiment, body awareness and embodied learning in in the context of primary school. The study aims to to find ways in which teacher can support the development of student’s body awareness and positive body image in physical education. In addition, it is examined how teachers perceive their skills and potential to support student’s embodiment and how they see the potential of embodiment in learning. The study was conducted as a qualitative phenomenographic case study, and the research data was collected through semi-structured interviews of four dance and physical education teachers. The research was phenomenographic because of the interest in teacher’s experiences and views on bodily-related themes. The interviews were analyzed using the phenomenographic analysis. The results of the study show that embodiment and body awaraness are challenging concepts with prejudices. The concepts were thought to mean the same thing, or embodiment was considered as the upper concept of body awareness. Supporting body awareness and positive body image are connected to each other: body awareness exercises were also seen to have a positive effect on the development of body image. In the development of body awareness, it was seen as important, for example, to increase knowledge related to the anatomy of the body, and to observe postures and movements of the body. In turn, positive feedback, praise and safe learning environment were considered as important, when supporting positive body image. Creative dance, improvisation, mindfulness, braindance, touching and relaxation exercises were mentioned as exercises that support embodiment. Teachers felt that their own skills were good in supporting student’s embodiment and they emphasized the importance of their own body awareness and education. Embodiment was found to have positive effects on learning, so the research confirms the results of previous research on the bodily basis of thinking and learning
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(2021)Objectives. Although leadership practices that focus on collaborating and sharing have gained popularity in the Finnish school organizations, the principal is often seen as the school’s leader with the power and opportunity to manage and develop the school. The aim of this study was to uncover school leaders’ views on school leadership. The study focused on examining school leaders’ views of the role of a school principal and pedagogical leadership. Previous research has shown that the knowledge and status of pedagogical leadership is unclear in school organizations. Methods. The research material of this study was collected as part of the EduLeaders research project of the Leadership in Educational Contexts research group. EduLeaders develops and evaluates basic studies in education and teaching management and develops advanced studies. The research material for this study consisted of four group interviews involving a total of 14 leaders in education and teaching. The study is a qualitative case study that is analysed by a theory-driven content analysis. The subcategories were formed based on the data, while the categories were formed together with the data and theoretical background. Results and conclusions. The study revealed that managers define the role of the principal in a context-dependent manner and through the principal’s perceptions and meanings given to the role. The study found three factors that defined the role of the principal: the principal’s tasks, expectations from outside, and the principal’s perceptions of themselves and their own competence. These three factors together with the principal’s interpretation and experience, the operating environment, and the situation, form the role of the principal. Pedagogical leadership, on the other hand, was understood as a holistic part of school operations, but was described as being implemented in different ways in different schools. The study formed an understanding of pedagogical leadership, according to which pedagogical leadership is centered on the student, pedagogical leadership is built on the common values of the school organization, and pedagogical leadership manifests itself in everyday life as sharing leadership, skills and responsibilities that are supported and enabled by the principal’s work tasks.
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(2020)The aim of this study was to find out teachers’ and guardians’ perceptions of cyberbullying intervention strategies and the school’s responsibility. Besides the intent was to examine their views about the intervention programs gathered by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Previous research has shown that school officials intervene more easily in physical bullying as they do not notice the cyberbullying incidents and more guidance and intervention programs are needed. The purpose of this study was to provide information to school officials and guardians about the operative factors linked to cyberbullying interventions, to point out the intervention procedures and programs that are regarded as being practical and to determine the responsibility of school based on the views of teachers and guardians. Four guardians and three teachers participated in the study. The data was collected in two focus group discussions, one with teachers and the other one with guardians. The material was analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. The analysis was partly led by the theoretical framework and partly the themes that came up in the discussions. The results showed that teachers applied the same methods than in traditional bullying such as discussions, agreements and positive pedagogy while emphasizing also the responsibility of the guardians. However, the guardians felt that the pre-adolescents had not received enough guidance and support from the school and they were reluctant to report cyberbullying. According to the focus groups the responsibility of school to intervene in the cyberbullying occurred at school depends on the school policies, legislation, multi-professional collaboration, anonymity and the case in question. When it happens outside the school the responsibility is easier to specify – teachers are not obligated to intervene excluding the incidents that are linked to school or appear also in there. As to the intervention programs the guardians considered the peer mediation program VERSO to be the most functional while the teachers found it to be more suitable for small disputes. The teachers liked the KiVa program the most based on their good experiences and they especially high-lighted a case-by-case approach. Likewise the guardians gave good feedback on the KiVa program.
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(2021)Objectives. The purpose of this study is to find out what opportunities dance teachers in primary school see in dance education, as well as what goals they have had in their teaching. The purpose of the study is also to describe the experiences of dance teachers in their work. Methods. For the study, six people who taught dance in primary school were interviewed. The interview had features typical of both the thematic interview and the narrative interview. The material was spelled out and analyzed by means of content analysis. Results and conclusions. The interviewees considered the possibilities of dance diverse. Dance was thought to be a tool for developing self-awareness and self-image, as well as developing skills that support schooling, such as concentration and calming down. Dance was thought to promote movement skills, as well as develop expression skills and emotional skills. The teaching goals that emerged most clearly from the material were to develop movement skills, practice social skills and being in a group, increase body awareness, presence and self-understanding, and become acquainted with dance and increase dance knowledge. The teachers ’stories showed that they find the teaching of dance rewarding and meaningful. They also felt that the students liked the dance and the dancing had been accompanied by a sense of togetherness. According to the interviewees, being in contact with other students when dancing was nice for some students and challenging for some. Interviewees found it sometimes challenging to manage the group and involving students in dance.
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(2021)Objectives. This master’s thesis was inspired on one hand by the current climate advocacy of children, and on the other by the persuasive possibilities of written texts (Anderson, 2008, 271; Wollman-Bonilla, 2004, 520). The aim of this piece of research was to investigate climate discourses and genre conventions in persuasive letters or “climate letters” written by primary school pupils. In addition, the aim was to specify and analyse which linguistic means were utilized to produce these climate discourses. This study increases knowledge of the meanings children attribute to climate change. Methods. The data for this study was collected from five primary school classes in four different schools. The students were in grades 3 to 6. The original data consisted of 54 letters. However, five letters which made up one of the classes participating in the study had to be disqualified. The conclusive data consisted of 49 climate letters from four different classes. The letters were analysed qualitatively utilizing discourse analysis and terminology within genre studies. Linguistic analysis, in this case the study of evaluations and modality, was used to support the discourse analysis. Findings and conclusions. The pupils’ climate letters utilized similar genre conventions which are natural to persuasive letters. These genre conventions are described using the term family resemblance. The letters have a similar schematic structure consisting of a greeting, a sequence containing opinions, arguments and suggestions, and a closing. By use of discourse analysis, six climate discourses were uncovered: a discourse about people-driven climate change, a denialist discourse, a conservation discourse, an animal rights discourse, a discourse of a sense of threat and a discourse of climate action. The discourses were produced using evaluations and modality. The evaluations varied. They were used to strengthen the affective quality of the letters and they proved to be an integral means of producing meanings about climate change. Out of the types of modality, dynamic modality was the most commonly used. In addition, illustrations were used to produce meanings about climate change. This study endeavours to offer more understanding about the meanings children develop about climate change so that the efforts to mitigate global warming would be more inclusive to the voices of the generation that will likely suffer most from the climate crisis.
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(2020)The aim of the study is to examine primary school teachers’ opinions concerning a reformed model of the religious- and ethics education in the Finnish school context and how it can affect the students development of their own cultural identity and feeling of solidarity in schools. The study is based on the current discussions about the subject where globalization and diversity is seen to be demanding more of schools (Rautionmaa & Kallioniemi, 2017). Previous studies also show that the cultural segregation that is seen in the society is a result of the segregation done in schools (Korkeakoski & Ubani, 2018). A relatively new study done in Finland found out the Finnish populations view about a reformed model of these subjects and shows that the majority of the population advocate a reformation (Mattsonn, 2020). The research was conducted as a qualitative study with a phenomenographic research approach. The material consists of six semi-structured, individual interviews with teachers working in four different schools in the metropolitan area. The collected material was analyzed using content analysis. The results showed that the majority of the teachers, four out of six, found a reformed model of the subject as a positive development and that it would come to support every student. Some of the effects predicted were an increased understanding and solidarity between students with different cultural backgrounds, more equality that would lead to a more integrated society. Some of the aspects seen from the teachers who didn’t support a reformation was that education in faith is important, the possibility that one student may feel excluded and that an separate religious education would be important especially for those who belong to a minority religion.
Now showing items 21-40 of 126