Browsing by Subject "opettajan työ"
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(2015)Aims. The aim of my research was to study those teachers who have not undergone any teacher education and their thinking about teacher's work. This phenomenon was chosen as the research subject because it has been studied very little compared to the research on regular teachers in Finnish schools. My research task was to study the thoughts on and experiences of working as a teacher and formal qualifications of teachers without teacher education. Moreover, the aim was to outline the teaching career of these teachers as well as their thoughts on and experiences of teacher education and professional development. Methods. The research was conducted through literature and through the narratives of six people who either are working or have been working as teachers without any teacher education. Three of these people worked as teachers without any teacher education at the time of the research whereas the other three had applied and been accepted into teacher education after having already worked as teachers. One of the latter had also already graduated with a certificate of education. This was a qualitative study and the data was gathered by doing theme interviews and analysed by using inductive qualitative analysis. Results and conclusions. Many similarities were found in the narratives of the interviewees and a more detailed examination of the themes revealed some outliers. The ways the interviewees had ended up working as teachers were very similar but their plans for the future differed. The thoughts on and experiences of working as a teacher were quite similar whereas formal qualifications elicited contradictory thoughts among the interviewees. Teacher education also divided their opinions. The interviewees who had undergone teacher education evaluated the effectiveness of the education in a similar manner. Nearly all the interviewees also criticised teacher education widely. The interviewees felt they had progressed in different areas during their career, even though most of them had not actively sought personal or professional development. Overall, the research elucidated a phenomenon that had been studied very little beforehand. It also revealed some important themes in education policy, which merit further study.
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(2012)Aims. In the year 2010, the Finnish national core curriculum for basic education went through some amendments and additions when it comes to support for learning and schooling. A new three-step support model was introduced. The new support model contained general, intensified and special support. The aim of this thesis is to find out how primary school teachers execute the three-step support model at Vantaa: what support measures are most valued and who fills out the support model's pedagogical documents? The support model's aims and goals are also examined. The last aim is to compare the three-step support model to the idea of an inclusive school. Can we say that our education system is now more inclusive than what it was before? Methods. The research began with an interview with the person who is responsible for the planning of education in Vantaa. After the interview, part of the primary school teachers of Vantaa (N=61) answered to a questionnaire about the three-step support model. The research was conducted as a mixed method research because it has elements from both qualitative and quantitative research. The interview answers were analyzed by using content analysis. Quantitative methods were used while analyzing the questionnaire answers with the IBM SPSS Statistics 20-program. Results and conclusions. The study showed that the primary school teachers value differentiation, collaboration between school and home and part-time special education the most. Special education was valued as a part of the special support. Pedagogical documents were most likely filled by the class teacher or the special needs teacher although the work is assigned to class teachers . Collaboration between teachers was valued when filling the pedagogical documents. It's difficult to estimate how the goals of the three-step support model have been achieved. During the time of this research the new model had been used only for six months. The teachers admitted that more pupils are studying in mainstream education because of the new support model. Nevertheless the teachers felt that the education system needs special education schools and classes. They did not agree with the idea of shutting down all the special education schools.
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(2018)Objectives. This study aims to examine a class teacher’s work from the teacher’s point of view. The objective is to find out how a teacher’s primary task is perceived by teachers themselves. Another goal is to examine the teachers’ experience on carrying out this primary task, focusing on the factors that have an effect on this. The role of a teacher has lately been a subject of an active debate. Teachers themselves feel their workload is too big and burdensome. Re-examining the primary task can clarify a teacher’s own assessment of their professional role and thus support their everyday work. Analysing the primary task as well as its implementation also provide a better understanding in how to better organize the teaching and how to invest in the teachers’ well-being. Methods. This study was conducted using qualitative research methods. The data was collected by performing thematic interviews with five class teachers, each of whom had worked as a teacher for at least 15 years. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed, and finally the data was analysed following the principles of thematic analysis. Results and conclusions. The class teachers perceived the primary task to consist of six segments: following the law, teaching, raising the child together with parents, encouraging self-direction, caring, and developing one’s own professional skills. The class teachers felt they are still able to perform their primary task but were concerned about the future of the profession. Different factors related to the teachers themselves, as well as to interaction, job description, and boundaries of the job were considered to have an effect on the teachers’ ability to perform their primary task. The teacher’s own attitude, work experience, and possibilities to develop professionally and cooperate were seen as reassuring factors. Challenging factors included impractical cooperation with parents, classes growing in size and diversity, and an excessively expanding job description.
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(2017)Objectives. Flipped learning has been widely visible in newspapers and news in recent years. This ideology of learning was also presented a few years ago in a Finnish TV show called Koulukorjaamo. In flipped learning the learning starts from the learner. Teacher guides student's learning and supports his or her self-direction. The student is given responsibility and freedom and for example, the student can choose in which order they want to complete the given tasks. This thesis investigates what benefits and challenges flipped learning has brought to a class teacher's work. The class teachers in this study had used some other teaching method before flipped learning. The second research question of this thesis is how the class teachers have felt their work has changed with the flipped learning model. Methods. This thesis is a qualitative research. This thesis investigates class teachers' views and thoughts of the flipped learning model and the changes it has brought to heir work. The class teachers in this thesis had used flipped learning for one to four years. The class teachers in this study were presented an electronic questionnaire with statements. The questionnaire was done with Google Forms and there were 31 statements. The statements were based on several books which discussed flipped learning, change and how it is felt in a class teacher's work. After every statement, the teachers had to choose whether they agree, partially agree or disagree with the statement and explain their selection in their own words. The class teachers answered the questionnaire in July 2017. The answers were analysed with content analysis. The data was split into five categories: change as experienced by the teacher, teachers' teamwork, teacher's view of the change in students, working in class, assessment. SWOT analysis was utilized in content analysis i.e. the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of flipped learning were investigated. Results and conclusions. All teachers in this study except one felt positive about flipped learning and the changes it has brought. Many advantages but also some disadvantages were seen in this ideology. Flipped learning does not fit students with poor self-direction and talented students have an advantage. Positive effects of flipped learning were the increase in the teamwork of the teachers and the possibility of helping the students more individually.
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(2016)Aims. The aim of this research was to study the reasons why novice teachers decide to leave the teaching profession only a few years after graduation. Previous studies have shown the difficulties of teacher induction and the importance of support during the induction phase. Teachers' career changing has become a common issue, and has raised a conversation about the sufficiency of qualified teachers in the future. This demonstrates the importance of support during the induction phase. The purpose of this research is to increase to knowledge about the forbidding factors present in teachers' work and thus give tools to successful commitment of novice teachers. Methods. This study is a qualitative case study and phenomenological in approach. The data were collected by a semi-structured theme interview on a quitting novice teacher. The teacher's thoughts about her decision and the reasons to quit teaching were discussed during the interview. The person had worked as a teacher for a year and a half when the interview was conducted. Gathered data was analysed by using a theory-driven thematic analysis. Results and conclusions. The reasons for the teacher's quitting were influenced by the workplace, working time, amount of work and the lack of support. Due to these factors the novice teacher's image and the reality about teaching were not corresponding and giving her satisfaction from the work. The joy of teaching and the pupils were seen as a reason to not quit teaching. The teacher also had personal development targets and was too conscientious to quit teaching immediately. The call to teach and interest in education and school resisted the quitting decision. The novice teachers' decision to quit seems to have arisen from various crucial factors, both internal and external. In all, this research gave some empirical and intimate knowledge about the phenomena that have been studied very little before in Finland. The study also demonstrated current issues and important themes for further studies and development.
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(2023)Teachers' well-being at work is a common theme in public debate as well as in the research field of well-being research. Despite numerous studies and development proposals, teachers' experience of well-being at work has not increased. The development of self-leadership skills has been proposed as a new solution to teachers' weakened experience of work well-being. There is a demand for research focusing on teachers' self-leadership skills, as the topic has been studied very little both nationally and internationally. The purpose of this study is to provide new information about teachers' self-leadership skills and their importance for well-being at work. In addition, the task is to find out what challenges teachers’ self-leadership. The research material consisted of interviews with five primary school teachers. The interviews were carried out as individual interviews using a semi-structured theme interview. A phenomenographic research sample was used in the analysis of the data. According to the results of the study, teachers understand that self-leadership skills consist of organizational skills, a solution-oriented way of working and taking care of one's own self-sufficiency. The teachers considered the challenges of self-leadership to be challenges related to the job description, ignorance of self-management skills, and the effects of the rest of their lives. Self-leadership was considered important for well-being at work and was seen especially as a promoter of well-being at work. Insufficient self-leadership skills were perceived as a factor that undermines work well-being. For example, a feeling of inadequacy, was described as one the causes of weak self-leadership skills. In addition, the work community and peer support were seen important to both self-leadership and well-being at work
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(2022)Teacher well-being has been studied a lot especially from the perspective of work strain and burn out. Work strain is connected to increasing of teachers’ workload, expansion of job description and diverse conflicts that occur in teachers’ work. According to the Job Demand-Control-Support Model (Karasek & Theorell, 1990), it is possible to reduce the negative effects of stressing situations on teacher well-being. The purpose of this study is to discover the factors connected to teacher well-being and describe the meaning of social support in teacher well-being. Research material contains of the interviews of seven primary school teachers. In the interviews they narrate on their understanding and experiences on well-being at work. Five of the teachers worked as class teacher and two worked as special education teachers. The interviews were held on March 2022. The analysis of the research material is based on content analysis that includes theory-based theme design and typing. In addition, also phenomenographic analysis is used. There were three factor groups identified affiliated to teacher well-being at work: the straining, the benefitting and the factors that could be categorized as both straining and benefitting. The straining factors were connected to teachers’ work, interaction, teachers themselves and changes. The benefitting factors were connected to teachers’ work, social support, professionality, and teachers themselves. Both straining and benefitting factors were connected to the students, recess, and management. Social support in teachers’ work occurred within the work community, in close relation to the community and beyond the community. Within the work community, social support is connected to working together with colleagues, interaction within teacher’s lounge and to the actions of the principal teacher. The social support beyond the work community includes e.g. the teacher’s family and friends.
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