Browsing by Author "Seeve, Tiia"

In this master’s thesis, a guided tour that uses a dramapedagogic approach is developed in an iterative process to be used as a part of geographical education in the setting of a museum of natural history. The guided tour is designed to be as interesting as possible. In the most recent national core curriculum for basic education, use of more participatory and active learning methods, as well as more diverse learning environments, is strongly encouraged to make learning more interesting and meaningful. The guided tours designed in this study are aimed to respond to these needs. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of the students and teachers who took part in the designed guided tours. There were two research questions in the study, first of which was aimed at the design process, and second of which was aimed at the design product, so the guided tours: Q1. How can the interest expressed towards geography be increased with the means of a dramapedagogical guided tour in a museum of natural history, according to literature? and Q2. How did the students and teachers experience the guided tours, from the viewpoint of interest? From its methodological orientation the study was qualitative. The methodology used was design research, which has been thought to be especially suitable for the purposes of educational research because of its ability to combine practice with theory. The method for data collection was semi-structured interview. Collected data was analysed through the means of qualitative content analysis. The participants were two 6th grade classes from a school in Helsinki (n=39) and their teachers (n=2). The answer to Q1 was found from earlier studies that were used to construct an understanding about the factors leading to the formation of an interest experience, and the pedagogical methods that can be used to encourage them. It was observed that different interest factors can be divided into four categories: experiences of autonomy, competence, personal meaningfulness, and social connection. These experiences can be encouraged with pedagogical methods, that were considered when designing and actualizing the guided tours. The answer to Q2 was found through analysing the empirical data. It was observed that the experiences of both students and teachers on the guided tours were positive and included many factors indicating interest in the said four categories. It seems, then, that the guided tours reached their aim of being perceived as interesting, although more research is needed to find out more specifically, for example, which were the main topics of interest, or how long the interest experience will last. The goal of design research is to produce a design product that will have practical applications also outside of the conducted research project. In this study, the teachers involved expressed interest in using parts of the design product in their own teaching practice, and the design product was utilised by the museum of natural museum of Helsinki on the autumn of 2018.