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This thesis purpose was to observe motor skills as learning and teaching them in primary school. The theoretical of this thesis was motor skills in crafts. I have studied motor skills in primary school crafts from two different perspectives. The pursuit was to answer in two re-search questions: 1) What are the motor skills needed in crafts? and 2) In Which ways motor skills are learned and teached? Thesis has been made as literature review. Former studies and literature of basic motor skills, school crafts and learning and teaching of motor skills, are used as the basis. Different theories of the studied themes came up as studying the literature of school crafts and motor skills. New answers for the research questions were made based on former studies. The biggest known researcher in this theme is Pirkko Anttila. In her dissertation Anttila has written about the factor of ten skills, which shows the basic skills of crafts and also the man-ual motor skills of crafts. Beside Anttila´s researches, I have found studies about motor skills in sport science. Different studies and theories of all the used literature source are mirrored in this thesis to primary school crafts. Motor skills is the keystone of primary school crafts. The width and diversity of motor skills will be shown in this thesis. Motor skills can be studied, approached and defined in many perspectives. The strategical motor skills in crafts could be considered as the fine motor skills and the motor stability, smoothness and accuracy of the hand. The key theories in teaching and learning of motor skills is the theory of phased learning and the three-phase theory.

Mental training, or motor imagery training, refers to cognitive rehearsal of a motor task without overt physical movement. The focus of this thesis is to present an overview of motor imagery research and the neural mechanisms behind motor imagery. I also review some recent studies about motor imagery training and at the end of this thesis I shortly introduce the PETTLEP-model of motor imagery training. Imaging of performing the motor task relies widely on the same neural mechanisms than performance of the same task, and studies have shown that mental training can improve the actual performance. Motor imagery has been studied in the field of cognitive neuroscience and sport psychology, but there has been a lack of communication between these research fields. This has for example lead to the confusion of the different definitions. Current research knowledge suggests that motor imagery training can be most effective when combined with physical training.

Tavoitteet. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli koota yhteen tietoa erilaisista muistisairaiden henkilöiden ja heidän läheistensä välisen kommunikoinnin parantamiseen tähtäävistä menetelmistä. Tarkoituksena oli myös selvittää näiden menetelmien vaikutuksia erityisesti muistisairaiden henkilöiden kommunikointitaitoihin ja muistisairaiden henkilöiden tai heidän läheistensä elämänlaatuun. Aiempien tutkimusten pohjalta tiedetään, että kommunikoinnin ongelmilla on suuri vaikutus sekä muistisairaan henkilön että hänen läheistensä elämänlaatuun. Suuri osa aiemmasta tutkimuksesta on keskittynyt muistisairaiden henkilöiden ja hoitohenkilökunnan väliseen kommunikointiin. Tässä tutkimuksessa tutkimuskysymykset olivat seuraavat: Millaisia menetelmiä on olemassa muistisairaan henkilön ja hänen läheisensä välisen kommunikoinnin parantamiseen? Onko jollakin näistä menetelmistä vaikutusta nimenomaan muistisairaan henkilön kommunikointiin? Onko jollakin näistä menetelmistä vaikutusta muistisairaan henkilön tai hänen läheisensä elämänlaatuun? Menetelmät. Tämän tutkimuksen menetelmänä oli kuvaileva kirjallisuuskatsaus. Aineisto kerättiin seuraavista tietokannoista: MEDLINE (Proquest), ERIC (Proquest), Linguistics and Language Behaviour Abstracts LLBA (Proquest) ja Academic Search Complete (EBSCO). Haku tuotti 91 tulosta, joista lopulliseen aineistoon valittiin 8 artikkelia. Aineistoon ei otettu mukaan sellaisia tutkimuksia, joissa tutkitaan muistisairaiden henkilöiden ja hoitohenkilökunnan välisen kommunikoinnin parantamiseen tähtääviä menetelmiä. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Aineistossa mukana olevat menetelmät olivat sisällöiltään ja lähtökohdiltaan vaihtelevia. Yhteistä oli teoriatiedon ja käytännön harjoittelun yhdistäminen. Kahdella menetelmällä todettiin olevan positiivinen vaikutus muistisairaan henkilön elämänlaatuun, mutta läheisten tilanteessa ei minkään menetelmän osalta havaittu muutoksia. Neljässä tutkimuksessa havaittiin muutoksia muistisairaan henkilön kommunikointitaidoissa. Parhaimman menetelmän kehittämiseksi ja menetelmien vaikuttavuuden osoittamiseksi tarvitaan vielä lisää tutkimusta. Menetelmien toimivuutta tulee myös testata eri kielillä ja eri kulttuureissa.

The aim of this study was to describe the perceptions of happiness of students stu-dying in a hospital school. There has been a lot of previous research about happi-ness, especially from the point of view of positive psychology . It has been found that perceptions of happiness vary a lot. This study is interested in the way that students, who were either inpatient or outpatient, view happiness. There is no previous re-search about happiness in the context of hospital schools. The material of this study consists of essays about happiness. The essays were writ-ten both with and without guiding questions. The writers were 14 finnish students who study in a hospital school. The group consisted of girls and boys studying both in elementary and secondary school. The material was analyzed using material-based content analysis. The results showed a diverse set of individual perceptions of happiness. The percep-tions included both joys and challenges that one encounters in life. The students’ es-says were classified into categories based on their content. The most significant ca-tegory was internal dimension. It refers to individually experienced, personal things that are hard to notice from the outside. The subcategory of personal strategies was highlighted from the internal dimension. It contained the ways in which students cont-rol their happiness by acting in a certain manner. It was concluded that the students of this study had a strong belief in the possibility of a happy life. The external challenges in their lives, such as problems with health, we-re not as pronounced as the possibility to influence happiness with their own actions. Generally, the students were able to contemplate happiness analytically and pro-foundly, although they brought up superficial aspects as well. The attitudes and diver-se perceptions of these students show that it is prolific to study happiness in different contexts. Happiness is something that constantly interests people. It is important that concepts from research are brought up to discussion, since the way people perceive happiness often affects the ways in which they pursue it in their lives.

The function of this thesis is to find out which tasks and attributes synchronized skating coaches ex-perience as the most important ones in their profession. The topic of coaching is current because the coaches’ role in their team’s success is becoming more recognized. This thesis proposes a model, which helps perceiving how many different processes the profession of coaching has. Earlier studies have presented different theories about the coaching process, essential features of coaching and what is a good coach. They have concentrated on describing only specific fields of the diverse tasks of coaching. On account of this the thesis is interested in the all-encompassing nature of coaching and all the processes that belong in the entity of coaching. The thesis is produced as a qualitative research. It uses a thematic analyze as a method for collecting material. Four professional synchronized skating coaches participated in the study. All of the inter-viewee’s worked as full-time coaches. The data of the research was analyzed by using a theory-based content analysis. Supporting the improvement of athletes was experienced as the most important task of coaching. It was experienced to have a great impact on all processes and events of coaching. It was also seen as the goal of coaching. The coaches’ background in skating was experienced to give a base for the knowledge of the sport. A comprehensive background in skating was seen as a very important ele-ment in understanding what the sport requires. The coaches brought up how plentiful and diverse their tasks are. All of the tasks appointed to them were even considered as overpowering to achieve. Also the meaning of interaction was emphasized and the coaches especially believed that coaching does not happen without functional interaction. Trust was seen as the most important thing in interacting and all action must start from building trust.

In this study I examine phenomena linked in time allocation and search for the questions behind the decisions of con-cerning time allocation. The context of the study is Design entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship-like studying at schools, rising values of the craftsmanship and maker culture, and also the typical speculations concerning time management and balanced lifestyle in our society, can be seen as the specific motivation to this study. Theoretical basis of this research can be represented by five concepts, that I think are the most powerfull drivers concerning the decisions of using and controlling one’s time. The abstractions like Making, Expertise, Freedom and Responsibility of the entrepreneurship and the Values are factors that are also strongly connected to each other. The aim of this study is to find out operators or themes behind those concepts, that will finally lead to concrete choises and personal impressions of time, as well as the signifigance of time management. The empirical data is collected by two theme interviews. The main theme of the slightly structured interviews, was concerning the time in general, focusing on the questions of the entrepreneurship, working practices, values, profes-sional identity and time allocations. The Design enterpreneurs, that I interviewed are Molla Mills and Aleksi Viirilä. The analysis method is theory-drifted, and its themes were based on five theoretical categories. According to this study, there can be found countless operators inside the abstractions Making, Professional skills, Freedom, Responsibility and Values, that have an impact on decisions of time allocating issues. These operators do not need to be arranged by order nor can they be generalised. In certain connections, in different points of the making process and also along one’s own professional chapter they can have a variable importance yet they are dynamic. The values, the importance and essentialness of making and the great reverence of freedom can be seen for example as the aim of doing good things and will to do things with the authentic touch, even if it means timeconsuming process with even higher costs. The relationship with time is constructed by finding the way and purpose of own professionalism, brightening own lifevalues and being passionate for working and progressing in it. Keeping the promises and high quality standards within one’s process and the products are significant issues in time allocation targets. Responsibility for the customers and co-operators is important. Time management sometimes appears distracting, but the reliability of own skills, certain assertiveness and going with the own philosophy allow to maintain freedom and inner tranquility.

The purpose of this study is to explore the challenges related to learning fractions and ways of supporting the learning of fractions with concrete models. According to the previous studies, there are a number of misunderstandings associated with learning fractions. Many of these misunderstandings are due to the fact that the pupils don’t understand the concept of a fraction. This study presents the most common misunderstandings related to fractions in primary school. In addition, this study explores, based on previous studies, how it is possible to support the learning of the concept of a fraction with the help of concrete models. The study also presents different kind of models to improve the learning of fractions. Fractions are an area of mathematics that pupils find difficult and know rather poorly., That is why it is important to reflect on methods to teach them as efficiently as possible. This study is a descriptive survey of literature on the subject. I used Google Scholar as the search engine, and Eric and Helka as data banks. The volume of studies I found was so vast I had to restrict the subject. Restricting the scope of the study influenced the selection of the material, after which that the questions asked in this study took their final shape. In this study it became clear which misunderstandings are associated with learning fractions in primary school and after that. Most of the misunderstandings were due to the lack of understanding fractions. Misunderstandings were due, in particular, to poor understanding of the size and frequency of fractions and by a bias towards whole numbers. One reason to the lack of understanding was that the symbolic presentation of fractions is used too early. According to this study, pupils need internal representations of fractions, which can be constructed by using external, concrete models. In this study, different concrete models of teaching fractions were compared. According to previous studies, concrete models should be used in as many ways as possible, because they support the learning of different things. It turned out that the most effective model of supporting the understanding of the size and equivalence of fractions was the circle model. Other models, such as the dot-paper model and number line, can be effective for strengthening the knowledge of the procedures of fractions, when the size and equivalence are already understood. According to this study, the use of concrete models is important for the understanding of fractions. Fractions should, therefore, be drilled first a lot with concrete models, and only after that should the symbolic presentation of fractions be deployed.

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract Aim The aim of this literature review was to clarify the role museums have as handicraft learning environments, especially from the perspective of teaching design. This survey’s theoretic framework focuses on essential concepts such as the learning environment, holistic craft and handicrafts using different materials. In this survey, I examined the concepts from the point of view of both preschool- and primary school curriculum and from the perspective of previous surveys. There have been many surveys conducted concerning museums as learning environments but relatively few concerning museums as environments specifically for the teaching of handicrafts. Methods The subject material was collected from the archives and data available on the finna.fi website, Google Scholar search engine and Google free word search. Addition data was also found in the bibliographic information of previous articles and works. I utilised systematic literature reviews in compiling the data for this survey. I also used data based content analysis to analyse the data. Results The results of this survey confirm the results from previous surveys, that museums are well suited as places for children to visit and learn about handicrafts. Museums completement pre- and primary school environments as alternative learning environments. However, the full potential of museums as comprehensive learning environments is not seldom fully exploited. Museum visits are loosely linked to the curriculum whit the result that they often remain “detached” from other education. In order to gain the greatest benefits from a museum field trip, would be to plan the trip thoroughly beforehand, prepare pre- and post- assignments, and together with the entire class, to process what the pupils saw and experienced.

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli tutkia luovuutta sekä improvisaatiota opetussuunnitelman perusteiden (POPS, 2014) yleisiin sekä musiikkikasvatuksen tavoitteisiin peilaten sekä löytää ehtoja musiikin improvisaatiota tukevan oppimisympäristön järjestämiselle. Idean aiheeseen sain omasta harrastustaustasta ryhmäpainotteisesta musiikin improvisoinnista. Improvisoinnin vastavuoroisen vuorovaikuttamisen myötä olen kiinnittänyt huomiota ryhmädynamiikan kehittymiseen, jonka myötä improvisointi on kehittynyt, ja ymmärrys siitä tietynlaisena itsetuntoa vahvistavana asenteena erilaisia tilanteita ja asioita sekä näiden lähestymistä kohtaan on myös vahvistunut. Aikaisemmat tutkimukset musiikin improvisaatiosta tukevat havaintoa. Musiikin luovan tuottamisen eli improvisaation opetus näyttäytyy aineiston perusteella kuitenkin vähäiseltä suhteessa musiikkikasvatuskulttuurin painottamaan toisintamista ja kulttuuriperinteen siirtämistä ilmentävän musiikkitoimintaan. Sen toteuttamiseen liittyvät haasteet sekä kielteiset asenteet eivät aineiston perusteella myöskään edistä improvisaation opetuksen toteuttamista. Tutkielma on toteutettu kuvailevana kirjallisuuskatsauksena, jota lähestyin 2000-luvun jälkeistä vertaisarvioidun aineiston yhtäläisyyksiä kooten sekä vuoropuheluttaen ja myös teoriakirjallisuuteen syntetisoiden. Suomalaisten kokoomateosten artikkeleita sekä muuta aiheeseen liittyvää kirjallisuutta olen tutkielmassani myös hyödyntänyt erityisesti teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä. Tarkastelin aineistoa omaperäisyyden luovuuskäsityksen sekä perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteissa (POPS, 2014) mainittujen musiikkikasvatuksen sekä yleisten tavoitteiden kautta. Tulokset musiikin improvisaatiota tukevasta oppimisympäristöstä osoittivat toistuvasti, että sen toteutuminen edellyttää sekä oppilaan vapautta lähestyä improvisointia omaperäisesti ja rakennetta, jossa ilmenee sekä rajat että tavoitteet luovaa ilmaisua tukevalle toiminnalle ja turvallisen ilmapiirin luomiselle. Lisäksi opetustilannetta ja opetustavoitteita mukaileva opettajan sensitiivinen pedagoginen ote osoittautui tärkeäksi oppilaiden musiikin improvisoinnin toteuttamisessa. Improvisointi ilmentää tekemisen tapana ja asenteena itseohjautuvaa aktiivista toimintaa, oppimaan oppimista suhteessa olemista toisiin, tilanteisiin ja ympäröivään maailmaan, oikean, todellisen ja kauniin etsintää, asioita, jotka ovat opetussuunnitelman perusteissa (POPS, 2014) mainittuja kasvatuksen tavoitteiden kulmakiviä.

Aims. In 2014 the principles of primary school’s curriculum were renewed. The curriculum states the aims of teaching of music to be the following: “Students’ thinking and comprehension is improved by offening regularly possibilities for acting with sound and music, composing and other creative creationing.” Creative creation of music has arisen to be a current research topic in the field of music education, because even though musical inventing has been a part of music education for a long time, the new curriculum emphasizes especially the creative creation as the aim of the education. The aim of this study is to find out what kind of challenges creative creation involves. I will define the concept of the creative creation of music in the beginning of this study and later on I will gather together challenges related to the concept from literature and previous studies. Method. I chose narrative qualitative literature review as the research method for it supported the aims of my study the most. This type of literature review aims to collect incoherent information about the studied phenomenon and form an inclusive description. The keywords I used were for instance “creative creation of music” and “creativity and music”. I analysed the collected results by first picking the challenges and then organizing them into four different categories; external factors, factors related to the teacher and the student and general music education challenges. I also created sub-categories for clarity. Results and conclusion. The research showed that the biggest challenges in the creative creation of music were related to large group sizes, lack of education and lack of time. Other challenges were lack of interest among students, financial cuts in education, and the fact that teachers did not use the ways of creative creation of music. In conclusion I can state that the concept of creative creation of music and the methods related to it are not yet known well enough. The empowerment of creative creation of music also requires resources.