Browsing by Author "Isto, Kaisa"

Objective. Earlier research has shown that teacher education does not match work reality due to its overly theoretical viewpoint. Students and graduated teachers have experienced that their education does not provide them enough knowledge or practice on how to deal with students who have learning difficulties or behavior issues. Saloviita criticizes special education program since in his opinion regular class teacher education actually provides better readiness to face students who need special support. Behavior issue is one of the most common mental health issues among children and adolescents. The purpose of this study is to shed light on how ready the class teacher students and special education teacher students are in dealing with behavior issues in their early and late phase of the studies, how they observe behavior issues, how teacher education prepares them and how class teacher and special education teacher students' answers compare against each other. In other words, the purpose of the study is to show whether expertise has an effect on observing behavior issues and whether education matters. In this context, expertise stands for a teacher's skill in analyzing the situation of a student and especially skill in dealing with the different support needs of a student with behavior issues in school context. Methodology. 23 class teacher and 11 special education teacher students took part in the study. The subject group comprised of students in their early and late phase of the studies in order to study the effect of education. The data was gathered using an electronic questionnaire form. The data was analyzed by t-test and Mann-Whitney U test using SPSS program. Results and conclusions. The biggest difference between class teacher students in their early vs. late phase of the studies was found in the sum variable that measures the readiness provided by teacher education. The students in their early phase of the studies experienced that class teacher education provides readiness to deal with behavior issues whereas the students in their late phase of the studies disagreed. Among the special education teacher students both the students in their early and late phase of the studies experienced that teacher education provides readiness to deal with behavior issues. The answers of special education teacher students differed significantly regarding the sum variable measuring readiness when comparing students in their early vs. late phase of the studies. The students in their late phase of the studies experienced that they are ready to deal with behavior issues whereas the students in their early phase of the studies felt their readiness was poor. Based on the results one might conclude that special teacher education in deed provides readiness that class teacher education does not. The result is not necessarily criticism of the class teacher educations but rather to show the teacher students understanding of or necessary expertise and growth of additional training required on the subject.