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The study examines women´s positive experiences of self-eating. The aim of the study was to find out the experiences of eating alone as part of the structure of eating and the food culture. Eating experiences and related factors are considered in the theoretical framework of gender, food status, and social interaction. This study is based on the theoretical approach to eating and food behavior used in research literature, derived from Nobert's Elias's Food Space theory (1978) and Claude Lévi-Strauss's Culinary Triangle Theory (1966). The survey was conducted through a questionnaire asking open questions about the positive experiences and factors associated with self-deception. In addition, respondents were asked to name the foods that are eaten alone. The study was conducted as a link to the HY e-form ques-tionnaire in the social media Facebook group Geek Women Unite! (Finland). In response to the e-form, 616 responses were received, of which 93.67% (n = 577) were identified as female identifiers. Most of the respondents (99.3%) feel self-eating at home as positive. In other environments, such as restaurants and workplaces, the experiences were described as positive. The enjoyment was related to experiences of their own peace and decision-making, that is, the definition of where and what women ate. The food and food products that were consumed alone represent-ed both meals and snacks. The conclusion of the thesis is that the significance of self-eating came out as stories of high-status foods, and the significance of the women´s own time.

The background for this thesis came from the reformed curriculum, where intermediate Swedish was moved to begin on the sixth grade in September 2016. The purpose of the reform is to improve intermediate Swedish skills by emphasizing on the significance of motivation and attitudes towards learning. This thesis investigated learning motivation and attitudes of junior high school students towards intermediate Swedish before the reform. In addition, it clarified which factors and how they affected motivation and attitudes. Clarifying students’ motivation and attitudes offers hints to Swedish teachers on how to improve the education. The secondary purpose of this thesis is to act as a comparison for my Master’s Thesis, where I intend to investigate the motivation and attitudes of students towards intermediate Swedish when following the reformed curriculum. This thesis was implemented as a literature review. The literature consisted of two reports by the National Board of Education, one extensive research and four Master’s Theses. The literature was analysed with the help of Dörnyei’s (1994) components of foreign language learning motivation, which divides factors affecting motivation to language, learner and learning situation level. Girls were more positive towards intermediate Swedish studies compared to boys. Motivation appeared to decrease when moving from the seventh grade to the eighth and ninth grades. This was explained by the challenging content of the eighth and ninth grades. The students’ instrumental orientation towards intermediate Swedish was stronger than their integrative orientation. Swedish was mostly studied for the grade and some realised its importance even in working life and further studies. Failures in Swedish studies were explained by a lack of effort, which had a favourable effect on motivation. Faith in one’s abilities was connected to positive attitudes towards intermediate Swedish. The teacher had a central role in affecting students’ motivation and attitudes. The media had a weak effect on attitudes, both positive and negative. A minority of students brought up the concept of obligatory Swedish and were either for or against it.

Aims. The aim of the present study was to find out, whether the educational choices of closest high school friends were linked. The study seeks to answer these questions: Do closest friends in lower secondary school have higher than average probability to end up in the same educational sector after lower secondary education? Do the educational choices of closest friends predict whether different educational sectors are considered after lower secondary education? Previous surveys have mapped the different reasons for educational choices using Likert-scales, which measure opinions. Qualitative research and statistics, however, have questioned the individualistic picture the results from these surveys paint. Methods. Data from VET Student Survey 2017 was used, which was collected in early 2017. Answers from only first and second year students aged 15 to 19 were analysed (n=3577). The respondents had Finnish nationality, spoke only Finnish or Swedish, and had no previous studies in addition to lower secondary education. The average proportions of vocational education and training (VET) and general upper secondary school among the respondents’ closest friends, who had continued from lower secondary education to upper secondary level, was calculated. These proportions were compared with the averages among all people who had continued from lower secondary level to upper secondary level using a binomial test. The association between the educational choices of closest friends and considering general upper secondary school instead of VET was examined with two proportion z-test and via a logistic regression model, in which the student’s grade point average and the educational level of parents were controlled for. Results and conclusions. The educational choices of closest friends were linked with the possibility of ending up in a certain educational sector after lower secondary school. The educational choices of closest friends predicted considering general upper secondary school instead of VET even when the effects of the student’s grade point average and the educational level of parents were taken into consideration.

Aim: This study explores the views of secondary school students regarding food waste cam-paigns and their views of how to conduct different them as effective as possible. Previous researches suggest that campaigns can influence opinions in general and cultural level ra-ther than affecting individual behaviour. Previous research also suggests that food education should be linked better on secondary student’s personal life. This research elaborates the fol-lowing questions: 1. How do secondary school students evaluate presented campaign mate-rials? 2. What do they consider to be the best ways to conduct different campaigns in gen-eral? Methods: The material of this study consist of interviews of six secondary school students from the same school from the city of Pori. The materials was gathered by two-group-interviews in December 2016. Example materials from three food waste campaigns were used as accessories for the interviews. The participants evaluated the campaigns they were shown and expressed their thoughts about them. The participants were also asked to ex-press their views on informational campaigns in general. Interviews were conducted as semi-structured theme interviews. The study material was analysed using data-driven quali-tative analysis. Results and conclusions: The participants primarily focused on the visual aspects of the ma-terial shown rather than its actual message. This is due to the campaigns' focus demograph-ic being younger than the participants. Regarding this the students pointed out that for any campaign to succeed, the subject matter itself should be sufficiently interesting. To make a difference in personal habits, the students thought the most effective ways would be to point out negative avoidable consequences, to indent the whole classroom and to use campaigns repeatedly.

Purpose: The aim of this bachelor’s thesis was provide an overview of the scientific literature on the eating habits of today’s Finnish upper comprehensive school students and the different aspects that the impact how they choose their food according to research results of the studies published in 2010’s. Methods: To this end, I engaged in a narrative literature review of research published on the topic between the years 2010 and 2019. The final analysis based on 13 different publications. The analysis for the review has made by using the content analysis, where the content has analysed first in to themes which indicates the research questions. After the themes have been analysed, the themes were able to transfer in the final results. Results and conclusions: The Finnish upper comprehensive school students are aware of the fact what are the healthy eating habits or what they should eat in daily basics. The research have shown the problem that the adolescents do not know how to take the healthy choices to practice even if they knew what the healthy eating habits were. The studies have also noticed that eating with the regular meal rhythm is challenging for the Finnish adolescents. Special notice has been made that the adolescents do not eat breakfast or school lunch so often in their daily basics and tehy replace the missing meals with unhealthy snacks. The researchers have also noticed that there is a difference between the genders in the eating habits. It was more likely for the boys to eat against the healthy eating habits and they ate more unhealthy snacks than the girls. According to the researchers results, adolescents from the families with the lower social economical statuses ate more against the healthy eating habits. The researchers have found a connection that the adolescents have common eating habits with their friends and they have similar food choices. The studies have discovered also that the area where the adolescent live and the school is placed, affects to their eating habits and choosing the food. Also, the society have noticed to have an influence to the adolescents eating habits and how they choose their food. The literature review had shown results that research should pay more attention to Finnish adolescents eating habits. All the results from this literature review should not be used without a second and more trustworthy research.

The aim of this study was to asses the motives of the students of general and adult education. Motives are the reasons for our actions and certain motives affect the the choice for studies. Previous studies show that the main reason to choose educational studies is the persons own interest on the subject. Students` age and family background has also shown to have a connection with school choice motives. This study focused on the motives of the students of Helsinki University. The study was conducted as a quantitative study and the material was collected as a electrical questionnaire on spring 2017. Miina Hietala (2015) has made an indicator to measure the school choice motives of teacher students. On the base of this indicator a new indicator was made to measure the motives of general and education students. This indicator has 13 claims that measure five different motivational factors. The material was analyzed with the SPSS- statistical program. The material was analyzed in order to find statistical key numbers of the different motivational factors and possible connections between the students age, social background and previous studies to motivational factors affecting school choice. Correlations and Mann-Whitneys test were used to analyze the material. The motives for school choice of the students of general and adult education in Helsinki University were personal interest and the value given to the education. Social factors and the education as a back-up plan seemed to motivate the least to choose this education. These results are in line with the earlier studies. The students seemed to have almost similar school choice motives, although all the motivational factors had been the primary motive to choose to study general and adult education. More study of school choice is needed in order to find out the factors affecting school choice.

Tutkielmani käsittelee yliopistojen ja yhteiskunnan välistä vuorovaikutusta ja yliopistojen tuottaman tutkimuksen yhteiskunnallista vaikuttavuutta. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan, miten yliopiston ja yhteiskunnan suhde on muotoutunut, millaisia tehtäviä yhteiskunta yliopistolle on asettanut ja miten yliopistojen tuottaman tutkimuksen yhteiskunnallinen vaikuttavuus toteutuu. Tutkimus toteutettiin kuvailevana kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Tutkimuksen aineiston muodostivat yliopistoja koskevat lakisäädökset ja yliopistouudistus sekä tutkijoiden kokemuksia tarkastelevat tutkimukset ja julkaisut. Aineisto kerättiin Helka- ja Doria- tietokannasta, akateemisista julkaisulehdistä sekä opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön ja valtiovarainministeriön sivustoista. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että yliopistojen tehtävä on muotoutunut yhdessä yhteiskunnan tarpeiden mukaisesti. Teknologian nopea kehitys ja liike-elämän tulosohjauksen soveltaminen julkiseen hallintoon ovat asettaneet yliopistolle velvollisuuden osoittaa toimintansa yhteiskunnallisen hyödyn tiedon ja osaamisen tuottajana sekä innovaatioiden, taloudellisen ja sosiaalisen hyvinvoinnin tuottajina. Yliopistojen tehtävänä yhteiskunnallisen vuorovaikutuksen ja yliopistojen yhteiskunnallisen vaikuttavuuden edistäminen, joiden toteutuminen ilmenee yliopistojen ja opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön yhteisissä strategisissa tavoitteissa ja niiden toimeenpanemisessa. Tutkimuksen vaikuttavuutta mitataan yliopiston soveltamien mittaristojen avulla, joiden tuloksista yliopisto on velvollinen raportoimaan ministeriölle rahoitusta vastaan. Yliopistojen tuloksia arvioivat mittarit on koettu riittämättömiksi mittaamaan tutkimuksen yhteiskunnallista vaikuttavuutta ja yhtäaikaisesti huomioimaan tieteenalojen välisiä eroja. Yliopiston tutkijat kokevat yhteiskunnallisen vaikuttamisen velvollisuutenaan sekä sisäisen motivaation ylläpitäjänä yhdessä henkilökohtaisen kiinnostuksen kanssa. Kuitenkin yliopiston hallinnon harjoittama tulosohjaus, rahoituksen kilpailutus ja määrälliseen julkaisuun perustuva arviointi tuottavat ylimääräisiä paineita. Yliopistoille toivotaan hallinnollisia uudistuksia, jotka kannustaisivat luovuuteen ja sisäiseen motivaatioon.

The purpose of the thesis is to broaden the understanding of teaching practices and their formation. The definition of teaching practices has been very unclear. There is no clear defini-tion about the concept. Because the thesis is based on this concept, we must define the con-cept. After that we can start exploring the subject more closely. The purpose of the study was defining comprehensively the concept of teaching practice. When the definition is clear enough, we can move forward to clarifying the formation of teaching practices. The purpose was to describe in a versatile way the factors that influences teaching practices. This thesis was implemented as a descriptive literature review. Because of the way this the-sis was made, the research material was very versatile. The research materials consisted of many educational literatures and scientific studies. The materials dealt mainly with university teachers, university and teaching. This thesis handle teaching practices as diverse as possible. The study focuses specifically in the university teachers teaching practices. In this thesis teaching practices means teaching habits that teachers constantly using in their teaching. There are many factors that influences teaching practices. Teachers personal factors and authors of the educational event influence the formation of teaching practices. Educational factors and personal processes were also considered. In this thesis the definition of teaching practices is defined as diversely as possi-ble.

Aiemmat tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet korkeakouluopiskelijoiden ajanhallinnan taitojen olevan yhteydessä opinnoissa etenemiseen ja opintomenestykseen. Samalla ajanhallinnan haasteiden on löydetty olevan yhteydessä esimerkiksi lisääntyneeseen stressiin ja viivyttelyyn, sekä heikompaan hyvinvointiin ja motivaatioon. Aiemmat tutkimukset ovat keskittyneet pitkälti ajanhallinnan yhteyksien tutkimukseen, mutta sen sijaan laadullisia tutkimuksia aiheesta on tehty huomattavasti vähemmän. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvailla yliopisto-opiskelijoiden kokemia ajanhallinnan haasteita sekä niiden syitä. Tutkimusongelmat olivat: millaisia ajanhallinnan haasteita opiskelijat kuvailevat sekä mitä syitä opiskelijat kuvaavat ajanhallinnan haasteiden taustalle. Aihe on tärkeä, jotta opiskelijoiden ajanhallinnan taitoja voitaisiin tukea paremmin. Tutkimuksen kohteena oli Helsingin yliopiston Kohti parempaa oppimista -kurssin 20 yliopisto-opiskelijaa, jotka valikoitiin tutkimukseen yksinkertaisella satunnaisotannalla tutkimusluvan antaneiden joukosta. Opiskelijoiden kokemuksia ajanhallinnan haasteista sekä haasteiden syistä analysoitiin laadullisen sisällönanalyysin avulla analysoimalla opiskelijoiden kurssilla tekemiä ajanhallintatehtäviä. Tulokset osoittivat, kuinka suurin osa opiskelijoista tunnisti ja kuvaili ajanhallinnan haasteita sekä haasteiden syitä. Opiskelijoiden yleisimmät ajanhallinnan haasteet liittyivät käytöksen säätelyyn, jossa haasteena korostuivat erityisesti aikaansaamattomuus ja keskittymisvaikeudet. Lisäksi moni opiskelija koki käytöksen säätelyn haasteeksi liiallisen ruutuajan. Merkittävä osa opiskelijoista koki haasteita myös suunnitelmallisessa käytöksessä, jossa haasteita koettiin tavoitteiden ja aikataulujen toteutuksessa sekä ajankäytön priorisoinnissa. Osa opiskelijoista koki haasteita myös ajan arviointiin liittyen. Valtaosa ajanhallinnan haasteiden syistä liittyi opiskelijoiden omaan toimintaan tai ajatuksiin. Itseen liittyvinä syytekijöinä mainittiin: käytöksen säätelyn haasteet, ajankäytön tiedostamattomuus ja virheellinen arviointi, matala vireystila ja uniongelmat sekä tavoitteiden ja aikataulujen toteutuksen haasteet. Opiskelijat kuvailivat ajanhallinnan haasteille myös ulkoisia syitä: koronan aiheuttamat muutokset ja etäopiskelu keräsivät useita mainintoja erityisesti keskittymisvaikeuksien syynä. Lisäksi osa opiskelijoista kuvaili ajanhallinnan haasteiden syynä ulkoisten ja sisäisten tekijöiden ristiriidat. Ajanhallinnan haasteet ja syyt painottuivat tutkimuksessa eniten opiskelijoihin itseensä liittyviin tekijöihin. Tuloksissa ilmeni kuitenkin myös monia muita ajanhallintaan kytkeytyviä tekijöitä, jotka osoittavat ajanhallinnan olevan kompleksi ilmiö, jossa kaikki haasteet eivät ole sidoksissa opiskelijan käytöksen säätelyn ongelmiin. Huomionarvoinen tulos on se, kuinka eri ajanhallinnan haasteiden välille kuvailtiin syy-seuraussuhteita. Tulevissa tutkimuksissa olisi hyvä tutkia lisää näitä mahdollisia yhteyksiä eri ajanhallinnan haasteiden välillä. Koronan ja etäopiskelun suurta merkitystä nyt saatuihin tuloksiin ei tule myöskään jättää huomiotta. Tulevaisuudessa opiskelijoiden ajanhallintaa tulisi tutkia lisää myös koronapandemian ulkopuolella. Näin voitaisiin vertailla haasteiden ilmenevyyttä etäopiskelun ja rajoituksien poistuttua. Tarve laajemmalle aineistolle ja pidemmän aikavälin tutkimukselle säilyy, mutta näiden tutkimustulosten avulla ajanhallinnan haasteiden ratkaisuja voidaan miettiä entistä laajemmasta näkökulmasta.

Aims. The aim of this research was to find out whether there is an association between mindset (growth or fixed) and epistemologies amongst students in Helsinki University and Aalto University. In addition, the aim was to find if there is a difference between different majors. It was hypothesized based on past research that there would be an association between mindset and epistemologies. Methodology. This research was conducted as a part of a larger RYM Oy Indoor Environment (IE) research. The data was gathered from students in Helsinki University and Aalto University via a questionnaire. This research utilized two parts of the research: Epistemic beliefs (Collaborative knowledge building, reflective learning, valuing metacognition, certain knowledge and practical value) and fixed mindset. Results and conclusions. Based on this research there was an association between reported epistemic beliefs and fixed mindset Fixed mindset was positively associated with valuing metacognition, certain knowledge and practical value. On the other hand, collaborative knowledge building, reflective learning and valuing metacognition were negatively associated with fixed mindset. On the contrary these three epistemic beliefs were associated with growth mindset. In general, students reported very low fixed mindset. This can be seen as a positive result because growth mindset has been found to associate with good academic performance.