Browsing by Subject "laaja-alaiset taidot"

Digitalization and globalization have led to increased global competition, which has set new standards for the skills that employees ought to possess in working life. In this study, these capabilities are referred to as the 21st century working life skills, which includes both professional know-how and professional skills, life and career skills, ability to influence, thinking and learning skills, and technology skills. Absorbent workers are seen to bring competitive advantages to companies at national and international level, and now higher education institutions are expected to produce innovative experts with 21st working life skills to their service. The aim of this thesis was to examine the elements of the method of teaching the 21st century working life skills to higher education students. The research has been carried out by analyzing the reflection essays and feedback forms of the participants participating in hackathon events in 2016-2017. Hackathon events were selected for collecting data as their work habits resembled a great deal of future work-related and problem-solving-oriented working life. The material was analyzed by a material-based grounded theory method. The first research question examined whether the hackathon participants felt that they had developed professionally during the event regarding their own working life skills. Based on the research material, participating a hackathon event can support the participants’ professional development. The participants explicitly brought up the social, knowledge and skill related benefits of hackathon events. The participants reported that by participating a hackathon event they were also able to develop as individuals and felt empowerment regarding their future working life and their private lives. The main experience of the participants was that the hackathon event offered them something that their previous studies have not yet been able to offer. The second research question was used to determine what elements of the hackathon event supported the accumulation of 21st century working life skills. In other words it was studied, of what elements a teaching method that successfully transfers 21st century working life skills to higher education students is built. Participants' responses highlighted particularly event facilities, characteristics of their working groups, external supporters, positive and negative emotions as well as meaningful hackathon challenges and ways of working, and collaboration with businesses. As a conclusion it is to say that with such collaborative innovation pedagogy method, such as hackathon, the development of professional and 21st century skills of students of higher education institutions can be supported. By utilizing these kind of methods, the higher education institutions are also able to successfully answer to the new requirements set by the increased global competition.

Self-efficacy is an important performance factor. Self-efficacy is more than knowing what to do and being motivated to do it, it reflects ones' beliefs about ones' capabilities in different situations. Teacher self-efficacy has been a popular subject of research, and it is having been shown that novice teachers typically suffer from lower and weaker self-efficacy compared with more experienced teachers. It would be important that during teacher education teacher students could have possibilities to develop their self-efficacy and gain experiences that emphasize it. A forthcoming study has been found that future teachers do not express high levels of self-efficacy in entrepreneurship and working life skills as a cross-curricular competence even though entrepreneurship education has been a part of Finnish schools since the 90s. Many teachers have a narrow and insufficient understanding of the phenomenon. The present study aims to understand what affects self-efficacy in entrepreneurship education, and what kind of impact does teacher education has on it. This study has been conducted with a qualitative approach and the research materials have been acquired by interviewing 16 class teacher students. Analysis has been done using the thematic analysis method. Future teachers seem to comprehend entrepreneurship education consisting mainly of skills and knowledge and their attitudes towards it seems to be mostly positive or critical. Self-efficacy has been described mainly in a relatively positive way or as relatively weak. Former mastery experiences as a teacher had the greatest impact on self-efficacy with entrepreneurship education. Personal interest seems also to be a meaningful factor, teacher students who expressed interest in entrepreneurship education also seemed to comprehend the phenomenon more positively and they also expressed higher levels of self-efficacy compared to others. Teacher education doesn't seem to be important in future teachers’ expertise and self-efficacy with entrepreneurship education. Skills learned are described as insufficient and narrow, focusing mostly on a few ways of teaching and a few skills to be strengthened within pupils. Future teachers would like to have more experimental learning and possibilities to develop one’s skills and knowledge during teacher education.